Heavy rain washes tons of debris into Ala Wai Canal
By James Gonser
Advertiser Urban Honolulu Writer
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
Winter arrived early on the Ala Wai Canal this year.
Harbor master boats used a floating boom to collect debris at the Ala Wai Yacht Harbor and pull it to a debris trap. Workers with Kaikor were contracted to clear the debris from the Ala Wai Canal at the Ala Moana bridge, scooping it out with a backhoe and into dump trucks.
At midweek, heavy rains typically not seen till the end of the year washed a summer's worth of debris and garbage from the streams and drains in Makiki, Manoa and Palolo down to the canal below.
It happens every year, but it's always a jarring sight — and smell.
Linda LeGrande, a physical education instructor at Punahou School, was coming back from surfing in Waikiki on Thursday morning when she saw the mess.
"I was coming home, and right at the McCully bridge it looked like a city block of sludge and debris in the canal," LeGrande said. "It was sick."
Parts of O'ahu received nearly 14 inches of rain during the 24-hour period that ended at 8 a.m. Thursday.
Ever since, state crews have been working to remove the tons of foul-smelling trash. Typically, they end up collecting 300 to 500 cubic yards of rubbish from the canal, said Deborah Ward, information specialist with the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.
The influx may be greater this year because the summer was dry, limiting what rains sent downstream until now, Ward said.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
A year's worth of dredging has made the Ala Wai deeper, but that work was never intended to deal with the trash problem.
George Woods of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources fishes debris from the Ala Wai Yacht Harbor that washed into the canal during heavy rains a few days ago.
The solution lies far above the canal, in the valleys and neighborhoods where the trash collects.
A group of Manoa residents has formed the Kuleana Project to get to the root of the problem, and limit what goes into the drains heading to the Ala Wai.
The project, based on the Hawaiian concept of ahupua'a, aims to restore a sense of respect and responsibility for the Ala Wai watershed.
The Kuleana Project has a $76,850 grant from the Board of Water Supply, and a grassroots volunteer network from Malama O Manoa is providing organizational structure.
Volunteer project coordinator Helen Nakano said hundreds of students from 12 schools are stenciling more than 1,000 storm drains in the valley with a "No dumping, leads to ocean" message.
For more information on The Kuleana Project, contact Helen Nakano at nakano@aloha.net or 988-5671.
Student and adult volunteers distributed 5,500 informational packets to Manoa households this month in a door-to-door campaign to help raise community awareness about the project.
How to help
It also gave out 1,000 surveys of common household activities that affect the amount of pollutants entering storm drains and streams. The survey will be distributed again in a few months to judge any change in habits.
"It's not the dredging that is the problem," Nakano said. "You can have all the dredging you want and it won't solve the problem. The whole idea of the ahupua'a is the people in the upper region of the system have to be conscious of what is happening in the lower regions. We are the ones who trash the Ala Wai."
Reach James Gonser at jgonser@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2431.
