Dam proposed for Wailua River

Associated Press

LIHU'E, Kaua'i — An Idaho company wants to look into the possibility of building a dam on Kaua'i's Wailua River.

Symbiotics LLC, a consortium that specializes in running hydroelectric power plants, has applied for a federal permit for a feasibility study.

The proposal calls for a 28-foot-high dam, creating a 37-acre reservoir above the twin falls. Two power plants below the falls would produce a total of 6.5 kilowatts of electricity.

Kaua'i is the only Hawai'i island with navigable waterways, and Wailua is its largest river.

Kaua'i has only two small hydroelectric plants, both built in the 1920s. Every new plant proposed since then has been killed somewhere in the permitting process.

The last attempt to build a hydroelectric plant on the Wailua River was in the late 1980s by a Utah-based company called Island Power Inc. Environmentalists concerned about the effect on the river protested during the lengthy permitting process.

The proposal eventually was killed by the Kaua'i Planning Commission, although not because of environmental issues.

"It was a very shoddy proposal," said Barbara Robeson, a member of the commission at the time.

Robeson said many people on Kaua'i favor hydroelectric power in theory, but when it comes to diverting the flow in any particular river, they are opposed.