Erosion, landowners claiming state's beaches
By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Science Writer
Statewide, a number of shoreline property owners are using irrigation and judicious planting to move the coastal vegetation line seaward, reducing the width of public beaches.
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser
Several bills in the Legislature seek to address the issue, one of which is scheduled for a hearing tomorrow.
Vegetation grows near Kailua Beach. In 2001, Kailua residents complained that neighbors were irrigating the shoreline, prompting the growth of plants, and then trying to claim the vegetated land as their own.
"They're stealing the beach from the people. That's my take on it," said artist Evelyn DeBuhr, a resident of Kilauea, Kaua'i. "I can remember being able to sit on the sand at Ha'ena. Now it's a dense thicket of spider lilies and naupaka strung with black irrigation pipe."
It's not a new issue, but it's a persistent one as erosion claims more of Hawai'i's beaches. In 2001, Kailua residents on O'ahu complained that neighbors were irrigating the shoreline, promoting the growth of morning glory vines and other plants, and then trying to claim the vegetated land as their own.
On Maui, retired Kihei resident David Mackwell said that not long after a surveyor established the certified shoreline in the sand on a beach near Makena, waves washed dozens of feet inland of that line, right across a property owner's proposed house site.
"People use these certifications to build as far out toward the sea as they can, and when the beach erodes, they build a seawall and then there is no beach," Mackwell said.
But that might not be the whole picture, said Dean Uchida, executive director of Honolulu's Land Use Research Foundation, a nonprofit organization that represents the interests of landowners.
"I think in some cases, people have lost land to erosion and what you might be seeing is people trying to protect what remains. It's a very natural means to protect the shoreline rather than hardening it," Uchida said, adding that if they're using plants rather than concrete, it's a good thing.
Bills in the Legislature would amend the way the location of the shoreline is established in Hawai'i. This is important because the certified shoreline sets the makai end of the coastal building setback, and although it doesn't by itself move the property line, a certified shoreline a few dozen feet seaward can allow a home to be built that much closer to the water.
Conservative assessments
Jan TenBruggencate • The Honolulu Advertiser
State land surveyor Randy Hashimoto, who works in the Department of Accounting and General Services, concedes that the precise location of the high-water line "is somewhat a judgment call." But he insists he is conservative in his assessments and tries to ensure the public's interest is protected.
Kaua'i resident Caren Diamond, standing by a shoreline survey marker, points out an apparent debris line 30 feet inland of the marker. She said shoreline surveys that are placed too far seaward reduce the size of public beach and allow residents to build homes dangerously close to the ocean.
Shorefront landowners normally seek a shoreline certification when they want to build on their land or sell it, since there are building setbacks from the shore. A survey or engineering firm finds the shoreline, and an application for certification is filed with the state Department of Land and Natural Resources. The application with maps is reviewed by the state surveyor, who may require a site visit. A notice of the survey is published in the bulletin of the Office of Environmental Quality Control, after which there is a 20-day appeal period.
"(The system) has some flaws. I can't monitor the shoreline 24 hours a day on every island. I rely on the expertise of the (private) surveyors," Hashimoto said. When he does inspect a surveyed shoreline, he said he is aware that some property owners may try to artificially move the vegetation line seaward.
"Some of them may slip through, but I don't like to be wrong," Hashimoto said. "Ninety-nine percent of the time we catch it, and if during the 12 months after the survey I find willful intent (to defraud the process), I have the right to pull that application."
Caren Diamond, a north shore resident of Kaua'i, said that Hashimoto has occasionally intervened and forced surveyors to move overly aggressive surveys. But she said that too often, surveys mark the edge of vegetation as the shoreline when there are obvious high-water debris lines well inland.
"What happens is that at peak water, we have no beach to walk on," Diamond said.
She walked along Ha'ena last week in an area with several recent shoreline certifications. On each property, there was evidence of wave debris inland from the shoreline certification markers. In many cases, the vegetation had been planted and watered, creating an artificial vegetation line. In at least two cases, the debris line indicating the high wash of the waves was 30 or 40 feet inland from the marked vegetation line.
Jerry Rothstein, a Big Island shoreline property activist, said he is friendly with Hashimoto, but believes there's a fundamental flaw in Hashimoto's approach.
Ha'ena surveys in summer
State administrative rules say the shoreline is marked by determining "the upper reaches of the wash of the waves, other than storm or seismic waves, at high tide during the season of the year in which the highest wash of the waves occurs, usually evidenced by the upper edge of vegetation growth, or where there is no vegetation in the immediate vicinity, the upper limit of debris left by the wash of the waves."
Diamond said surveys are often done at Ha'ena in summer, when the beach is wider and waves tend to be much lower. Rothstein said surveyors readily defer to the vegetation line as an indicator of the shoreline, even when debris lines are obviously farther inland.
And that line is not a good guide since many coastal plants can easily survive an occasional dousing with sea water, said Charles "Chip" Fletcher, University of Hawai'i professor and coastal geologist.
"There are species of seashore vegetation that you can water with salt water. These do not indicate the high wash of the waves. You have people pushing their setbacks as far seaward as possible and getting their houses as seaward as possible. Homeowners generally do not understand the hazards of building too close to the beach," Fletcher said.
One hazard that Fletcher and Hashimoto agree on is coastal erosion. Many beaches are steadily eroding at a rate that can range from several inches to several feet a year. Fletcher said a quarter of O'ahu's beaches and a third of Maui's have disappeared during the past 80 years because of erosion. Hashimoto said his experience tells him most of Hawai'i beaches are eroding, which is why a shoreline certification is good for only one year.
"It's unfortunate that we didn't have the insight 100 years ago that we were going to have this erosion," Hashimoto said. He said he would have recommended massive coastal building setbacks, perhaps hundreds of feet in areas prone to erosion.
Even without a lot of erosion, homes placed too close to the shore can have waves washing against their foundations every high-water season, Diamond said. It happens every winter at Ha'ena, she said.
The state Office of Hawaiian Affairs will argue before the Legislature to tighten up shoreline certification procedures, in part because shorelines are generally ceded lands in which Native Hawaiians have a legal interest. OHA's position also benefits the public and the landowner, said Heidi Guth, OHA native rights policy analyst.
"By making sure people don't build too close to the shore, you're protecting their interest as well, protecting them from themselves," Guth said.
Bill again in Senate
In the Legislature, the state House of Representatives last year passed HB 1275, which would require that any vegetation used for shoreline certification "is not influenced or modified by human intervention." The Senate failed to approve the bill, and is back up for Senate consideration this year.
Sen. Lorraine Inouye, D-1st (Hamakua, S. Hilo), chairwoman of the Senate Water, Land and Agriculture Committee, said she is more likely to work with SB 1556. The bill would create a state "shoreline locator" position in the Department of Land and Natural Resources, would remove vegetation from the definition of shoreline, and invite the neighboring public to comment whenever a shoreline is to be certified.
"I have some problems with that bill," Inouye said. She doesn't like the idea of creating a new government position and said she thinks the present definition of shoreline is adequate, but she said she is aware there are problems.
"I think it's being misused. We all know that. I don't condone a private property owner increasing their property," Inouye said. On the other hand, moving the line too far inland "is really a taking" of property, she said.
A public hearing on SB 1556 is scheduled before her committee at 2 p.m. tomorrow in the State Capitol's Conference Room 224.
Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 245-3074.
