Bad smell in Kahalu'u becomes talk of town

By Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser Windward O'ahu Writer

KAHALU'U — Something is rotten in this rural Windward community, or at least it smells that way.

"(Thursday) was nasty," said Shaun Dunn, an educational assistant at Kahalu'u Elementary School. "It had the definite aroma of manure and something else. But it didn't smell like sewage. It smelled like pigs."

Everyone in the school commented, Dunn said, adding that the odor was gone by Friday.

The odor here has been noticeable off and on for about a month, and its possible source has been a popular topic of conversation.

Some say it started with a heavy rain that saturated the ground, leaving standing water in a newly trimmed wetland along Kamehameha Highway makai of the school.

"The smell was more like stagnant water," said Terri Hughey, who recently started work at Sunshine Arts Hawai'i, a gallery, music and framing shop that is downwind from the wetland and Kahalu'u Elementary. "Our framer said she thought it smelled like rotting wood."

City spokeswoman Carol Costa said a city crew inspected the site Friday and determined that the smell was from stagnant water in the wetland north of the Hygienic Store and next to the Keahiakahoe canoe halau.

The city recently cleared the property, part of Kahalu'u Regional Park, of overgrown mangrove and hau tree that blocked the view to the bay.

A master plan will determine what will be done at the wetland, Costa said.

John Reppun said people from the school have complained of a nauseating smell, but he didn't get a whiff of it at KEY Project, where his office is, just below the school. Reppun said the odor is natural and what you would expect from decaying material.

Once the 10-acre wetland is designed and landscaped the odor problems may improve, he said, adding that park planners will have to deal with drainage issues there and decide the nature of the park.

But longtime Kahalu'u resident Snookie Mello said she's not sure what can be done to eliminate the wetland odor, which has always been there but previously was masked by the hau and mangrove that grew there.

"I don't know what you can do about it except drain the swamp, which you can't really do because it's a wetland," said Mello, who works for an environmental consultant.

The answer to eliminating the smell may be more complicated and could result in the destruction of the farm and country lifestyle of Kahalu'u, said Charles Tanouye Jr., a resident there for 50 years.

Tanouye said the smell is periodic and from several sources that are all close to one other, including the wetland, pigs and cows, and a huge pile of dirt at the regional park that was dug up for testing.

Plus, recent rains have swelled underground springs that feed the wetland, Tanouye said.

"The spring-water pressure built up and pumped everything out and you get a nice aroma," he said, adding that the closeness of these sources has created a stench newcomers are not accustomed to because it occurs infrequently.

"What you have is multiple aromas combined together," he said. "To me it's the natural way of life."

Reach Eloise Aguiar at eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com or 234-5266.