The legacy of the March 2006 Kaloko Dam breach on Kaua'i that killed seven people is a better understanding of the deadly force behind Hawai'i's rural, mostly earthen dams.

"Since Kaloko, all of us in the business of providing for public safety are certainly more acutely aware," said Maj. Gen. Robert Lee, the state's adjutant general and head of Hawai'i's Civil Defense program.

Since the Kaloko tragedy, the state government has spent more than $7 million inspecting and reinspecting its 136 largest dams for signs of similar trouble.

The federal government spent another $2 million. And the job isn't done yet.

"From where I sit, if there's any silver lining from that disaster, it's that every single reservoir in the state has been inspected," said Mark Marshall, Kaua'i Civil Defense director.

Both rounds of dam inspections done in 2006 — immediately after the Kaloko disaster and the October earthquakes on the Big Island — were a "visual inspection," looking for the blatant problems, such as Kaloko's missing spillway, or urgently overdue maintenance.

A more in-depth "Phase I" inspection was done on Kaua'i, O'ahu and the Big Island last year and this year and is being done in Maui County, said Laura H. Thielen, who as director of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources oversees the state Dam Safety Program.

Hawai'i may now have some of the most looked-at dams in the country.

"This is unprecedented work," Thielen said.

"We certainly have an awareness that we didn't have before, that these structures need to be maintained," said Kilauea resident Maka'ala Ka'aumoana, who was among the North Shore residents cut off from the rest of the island after the Kaloko failure damaged Kuhio Highway.

"I didn't know to not feel safe before."

MAINTENANCE MATTERS

Strengthened rules in Hawai'i have prodded dam owners to complete overdue maintenance and to have working disaster plans, something many owners had been lax about before Kaloko.

"We have been working with landowners over the past two years, based on the visual inspections, to clear shrubbery" from dams, a significant maintenance issue, Thielen said.

"People have been cooperating with us."

The state put money and personnel into the Dam Safety Program that had been understaffed and hadn't inspected a dam in more than a year when the Kaloko Dam broke.

Some dam owners have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars just on testing, emergency plans and maintenance, said Walter Kortschak, manager of Jurassic Kahili Ranch, which owns a portion of Pu'u Ka Ele Reservoir on Kaua'i's north shore.

Those that have made major repairs have spent even more. A major spillway repair for Alexander Dam completed recently cost $4 million, according to the state.

LIABILITY ISSUES

Given the cost of compliance with state rules, the civil lawsuits related to the Kaloko disaster and the possibility of criminal charges in that case, some dam owners are saying they want to tear down their dams to erase the liability.

But to do that, they face opposition from some farmers who depend on reservoir water for their crops. There are also questions about what effect removing dams may have on natural resources — including some endangered species like the nene goose.

One attempt to address the owners' concerns is a bill making its way through the Legislature (HB2823, HD2), which seeks to exempt dam owners from liability in the event of a disaster. Lee and Thielen strenuously oppose it.

"It's a little perplexing why the Legislature would do this, two years after strengthening the dam safety program," Thielen said. "We're not aware of anywhere else in the nation that provides this type of freedom from liability for landowners."

QUESTIONS ARISE

What to do about unwanted dams dovetails with another question that has been asked ever since sugar companies began to go out of business in the 1970s: Who's going to take care of their network of reservoirs, ditches and tunnels?

Farmers want the water for use on crops, but are having difficulty with the costs of the upkeep.

"A lot of landowners have gotten very skittish about reservoirs," said Marshall, the Kaua'i Civil Defense director.

"An alarming number are talking about decommissioning reservoirs."

DLNR Dam Safety Director Edwin Matsuda said only one dam owner has sought a permit to remove a dam. But many have inquired and some owners have drained their reservoirs, though the dams remain intact.

LOOKING DOWNSTREAM

If there is one lesson learned from the Kaloko disaster, it is to look at what's downstream from dams. Some of the state's largest dams are uphill from large numbers of people: A major break at the Wahiawa Dam on Lake Wilson could put much of Hale'iwa under water. A break in the dam on Nu'uanu Stream could wreak havoc for Nu'uanu Valley and Downtown.

Waita Dam on Kaua'i could flood the fast-growing town of Koloa.

But the larger dams, with thousands of people in potential harm's way, have traditionally gotten a good look by civil defense folks.

The odd thing about Kaloko that became apparent soon after its dam broke was that it didn't appear to have a spillway — the safety overflow system that takes away excess water in case of overfilling, and keeps the dam from breaking.

Just days after the Kaloko break, Lee announced that every other dam inspected did have a spillway.

Some spillways were damaged by the heavy March 2006 rains and have since been fixed.

The Kaloko breach sent 300 million gallons of water from the reservoir to the sea, washing over dirt, trees, buildings and equipment. It snapped 150-foot trees like matchsticks and rolled a car into a ball of metal.

It killed Daniel Arroyo, Christina McNees, Alan Dingwall, Aurora Fehring, Rowan Fehring-Dingwall, Wayne Rotstein and Timothy Noonan.

John Hawthorne, who was alone at his home along Wailapa Stream when the Kaloko breach happened wouldn't wish the experience on anyone.

"It was like a 747 crashed here and King Kong and Godzilla were fighting over it for breakfast," he said of the noise. "Unbelievable."

Reach Diana Leone at dleone@honoluluadvertiser.com.