Issues remain as dredging of Ala Wai nears

By James Gonser
Advertiser Urban Honolulu Writer

For the first time in nearly a quarter-century, the debris-clogged Ala Wai Canal is about to be dredged. But weeks before the work begins, questions remain about whether the contractor should be allowed to work around the clock, how the canal's polluted materials should be treated and where the staging area for dredging equipment will be.

The dredging is set to begin Aug. 6. The contractor and state officials will detail plans for the work at a public meeting tonight.

"The dredging is five to 10 years overdue," said Michael Tongg, the liaison between the state and Ala Wai paddling groups who use the canal. "It is not only a safety and health concern, but once it's done, the Ala Wai and the whole area will be refreshed. Then we may even be willing to swim across it."

The contractor is required to allow paddlers a narrow water route past the dredging and under bridges, said Gilbert Coloma-Agaran, chairman of the Department of Land and Natural Resources.

The contract was awarded last year to American Marine Corp., which submitted a low bid of $7.4 million to remove 170,000 cubic yards of sediment and dredge the canal to a depth of 6 to 12 feet.

American Marine will begin moving equipment into place by the end of the month and plans to create a staging area at Magic Island.

The Magic Island site still needs city approval, Coloma-Agaran said, and a backup area being considered is in the canal, near Ala Wai Community Park. But that location would block access by canoe clubs.

The Magic Island site would also block off a portion of the city parking lot for exclusive use by the contractor. The site would also place off limits an area of the Ala Wai harbor entrance channel.

"The way they designed the project, there will always be an open pass around the dredging operations."

The sediment will be removed using a barge-mounted crane with a hydraulic clam bucket that will scoop materials and dump them into a scow.

A pushboat, specially designed to fit under the Ala Wai bridges, will move the dump scow to and from the Magic Island site. The filled scows can hold 300 cubic yards of material each and will be towed to an Environmental Protection Agency approved dumping site 3.8 miles off the airport.

Work will be done in four stages, beginning in the area between the Ala Moana Boulevard and McCully Street bridges. The canal will be dredged to a depth of 12 feet and work will be kept away from canal walls to prevent any damage.

A second area stretches from the McCully bridge to beyond the Manoa-Palolo drainage canal. A third area is from the Ala Wai up the drainage canal to Date Street.

The area at the Kapahulu Avenue end of the canal will be dredged last. Another public meeting will be held later to discuss this portion of the project.

The estimated 1,825 cubic yards of sediment from this area is expected to contain pollutants, including chlordane, and will be taken to a disposal site at Sand Island for treatment.

Chlordane was Hawai'i's termite ground treatment chemical of choice until it was banned for commercial use in 1988.

Sen. Suzanne Chun Oakland, D-14th (Palama, 'Alewa Heights), will speak at the meeting tonight about her concerns about polluted materials and dumping the majority of the sediment into the open ocean.

Chun Oakland said the polluted materials need to be treated property, not used to make concrete for the reef runway, as currently planned by the state, and tons of sediment should not be dumped in the open ocean because it will eventually reach the shore at beaches used by her constituents.

"We all want it cleaned up. It is very contaminated," Chun Oakland said. "The Kalihi community is supportive of cleaning the canal, but our preference would be not dumping it in the ocean. If there is another alternative we would like that used. We don't want any pollutants in the ocean or the soil."

The state Department of Health will accept comments tonight on a noise variance permit application that could allow dredging 24 hours a day in certain areas.

The contractor's permit allows work to proceed only from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays, but more time may be needed in some areas to complete the project on time, Coloma-Agaran said.

American Marine would like to work weekdays from 6:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. and, in some cases, longer if the project encounters delays.

State Deputy Health Director Gary Gill said the dredging equipment would likely have the same noise level as a city bus.

"You've got people living in the high rises all along the Ala Wai," Gill said. "There are usually certain restrictions put on (work) such as the kind of equipment being used. Just because they have a permit to go 24 hours doesn't mean they are generating noise 24 hours."

The Ala Wai Canal was first conceived in 1906 but never finished. It was designed to extend across Kapahulu Avenue and mauka of Kapi'olani Park, exiting near what is now the Waikiki War Memorial Natatorium, which would have allowed water from the ocean to circulate from one end to the other. Its primary purpose was to drain the area and to control mosquitoes. Money ran out in the late 1920s, and the canal stopped short of Kapahulu Avenue.

Since 1925, the canal has been dredged twice, in the early 1950s and in 1978. Coloma-Agaran said there is no way to predict when work would need to be done again.

"We are hoping that along with other projects coming on line, there will be less need for dredging in the future," he said. "This is a retention basin for flood-control purposes. The Army Corps of Engineers is doing a flood study for the Ala Wai, and if they have recommendations that would alleviate the threat of floods, we may not have do a dredge and pursue other projects."

Reach James Gonser at jgonser@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2431.