Posted on: Tuesday, June 1, 2004

Kapa'a cleanups make progress

By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer

KAILUA — Volunteers who showed up yesterday to clean Kapa'a Quarry Road of trash and debris were greeted by a blunt example of the frustrations they face.

A week ago their dirt staging area was clear. Yesterday morning, the clean-up crews arrived to find a mangled and smashed red car dumped in the center of their operations.

It was a reminder that some people don't always appreciate the year-long efforts of volunteers to clean up one of O'ahu's worst areas for illegal dumping.

But yesterday, the nearly 70 volunteers felt that they were winning.

Organizers had their biggest turnout. And despite the 30,000 to 40,000 pounds of debris they removed, most of the volunteers believe that the road that rings Kawai Nui Marsh has gotten much cleaner over the past several months.

Pat Altenhof looked at the crushed car beside her and said, "It is very discouraging. But this area is much better now. It used to be so scary driving along this road. Now it's pretty."

If Kapa'a Quarry Road looks cleaner, Annette Kaohelaulii believes more people will be willing to donate their time to keep it that way.

"People can see progress," Kaohelaulii said, "and that's good."

After a year-long community effort, organizers of the Windward Ahupua'a Alliance still want to remove another 50 tons of discarded and rusted vehicles, abandoned appliances and other trash from the three miles of road that runs along Kawai Nui Marsh, home to four species of endangered birds.

Shannon Wood, the interim president of the Windward Ahupua'a Alliance, has organized businesses and landowners to support the clean-up. Yesterday, she even got a front-end loader and driver from Goodfellow Bros. Inc., which is working on the state project to reduce the danger of rock slides at nearby Castle Junction.

The alliance also has the support of city officials, who are waiving the normal fees to accept the trash at the nearby transfer station.

Yesterday, as former City Councilman Steve Holmes got ready to fire up a chain saw to clear foliage, volunteers hung a banner for their Bust-A-Dumper campaign (www.Bust-A-Dumper.com).

Ron Walker volunteers for three separate clearing and restoration projects around the marsh as a member of the nonprofit 'Ahahui Malama I Ka Lokahi. A former chief of wildlife for the state Department of Land and Natural Resources and later retired from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Walker worries about the effects that rubbish will have on the marsh.

"A lot of this garbage and 'opala (rubbish), of course, can be dangerous to the birds — car batteries, oil products, fossil-fuel products," Walker said.

He believes that the volunteers can never win only by cleaning up the area on weekends. Hawai'i's young people, Walker said, must be taught about the damage that dumping causes.

"The key is education," Walker said. "We have to make the kids understand how this affects their future."

Children will then educate and pressure their parents not to dump at places such as Kapa'a Quarry Road, he said.

"You have to change the mind-set of these illegal dumpers," Walker said.

Susan Tanigawa drove her 13-year-old son, Daniel, from their home in Waipi'o Gentry on a misty Kailua morning "just to help out the community," Tanigawa said.

Daniel, a seventh-grader at Highlands Intermediate School in Pearl City, initially wanted to stay home like his 16-year-old sister. Instead, Daniel decided to spend his Memorial Day picking up trash in somebody's else's neighborhood.

"This is one of the first times I've done something like this," Daniel said before grabbing a handful of plastic garbage bags and joining his "light litter" team.

Another teenage volunteer yesterday discovered an inaccessible area across from Le Jardin Windward Academy that was filled with garbage bags full of tires, desks, bicycles, motorcycle parts and appliances. Cleaning up that area will have to wait until later in June.

Otherwise, the work ended with high spirits and a catered lunch from Buzz's Steak & Lobster restaurant.

Charles Burrows, president of the 'Ahahui Malama I Ka Lokahi, had set the tone for the day with a chant.

"We have come with the right intentions," Burrows said, "to do good for this land."

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8085.