Water projects awarded grants
By Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser Windward O'ahu Writer
KAILUA — The Kailua Bay Advisory Council has awarded $120,000 in contracts to four community groups to improve water quality in Kailua, Waimanalo and Kane'ohe.
The groups are Ke Kula 'o Samuel M. Kamakau charter school, Hui Malama o Ke Kai, Healthy Hawai'i Coalition and 'Ahahui Malama i ka Lokahi. The Center for Conservation Research and Training has also received approval, but no money yet.
The money is the first major distribution by the advisory council to implement water improvement projects since it was created in 1995 by a consent decree with the city to settle a lawsuit for the city's violations of the Clean Water Act at wastewater treatment plants in Kailua and Kane'ohe. The council received $3.1 million for programs to benefit Ko'olau-poko watersheds.
Since its creation, the council has also supported volunteer water quality monitoring, distributed some $22,000 for minigrants, prepared a report to identify water quality problems and solutions, written a master plan and is close to completing a geographic information system for the Ko'olaupoko watersheds.
Each contract fulfills the mission of the council to enact measures that improve water quality in Ko'olaupoko by empowering the community, said Maile Bay, executive director for the council.
The goal is to uphold standards found in the federal Clean Water Act, which says "that water eventually should be swimmable and fishable," Bay said. "If you don't want to eat the fish and you don't want to swim in it, it's a problem."
Bay didn't want to reveal the amount of the contracts but said education grants couldn't exceed $25,000 and restoration grants are limited to $125,000.
In the Kamakau project, students are learning integrated approaches to land use and water resource management while addressing erosion control, native plant revegetation and wildlife habitat issues that can improve water quality, Bay said. They have chosen three areas to improve: at Alala Point, Hamakua Marsh and along a roadside in Kailua.
The Healthy Hawai'i Coalition is developing teaching materials for elementary schools aimed at reducing pollution and protecting watersheds.
Hui Malama o Ke Kai, a Waimanalo after-school program, is conducting four workshops to teach fifth- and sixth-graders about nonpoint source pollution, said Kimberly Clark, who is conducting the workshops. Project organizers are also building an organic garden at the University of Hawai'i's Waimanalo Experiment Station.
Clark, who owns Just Add Water, an organic farm, said the children are also learning about pollution, alternatives to pesticides and fertilizers and how to grow their own food in ways that protect the environment.
"We have everything here to have all the food and clean environment that we'd ever want," she said. "We just need to grow people that know how to do that."
'Ahahui Malama o ka Lokahi is restoring wetland bird habitat and conducting studies at Kawai Nui Marsh under its grant. The studies include testing water, examining sedimentation layers, determining what's living in the water and learning more about the insect life to gain insight into the food chain, said Chuck Burrows, with 'Ahahui and the Kawai Nui Heritage Foundation.
The restoration and studies will help determine the future of the marsh and how government and community groups can enhance the wetland to benefit the ecosystem, Burrows said.
"The study is important to Kailua Bay Advisory Council because marine water quality enhancement efforts on Windward O'ahu will ultimately come down to our ability as a community to create and restore the coastal wetlands that once protected marine resources of old Hawai'i from man's activities on the watershed," Burrows said.
The council has additional money for other projects and will be soliciting more proposals soon. For information about the organization, visit the Kailua Bay Advisory Council Web site.
Reach Eloise Aguiar at 234-5266 or eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com.
