Sewerline is needed
to save Kahalu‘u Bay
Kahalu‘u Bay is a public health crisis. This world-class snorkel site is polluted by 69 cesspools at high tide daily.
Marine life is suffering. Swimmers and surfers are getting sick with staph and MRSA. While swimming at Kahalu‘u three times a week, I got a staph infection that went to the bone in my arm (almost sepsis) and was hospitalized twice.
Our group has been working to get a sewerline built for 23-plus years — during three terms of Harry Kim and one term of Mitch Roth. The Alameda administration is the most helpful. Maybe we can move to the design phase and to bid!
The missing sewer will go from Kahalu‘u Beach Park north on Ali‘i Drive to Queen Kalama Avenue. From researching the state Health Department’s permit records and county TMK records, I found there are 69 cesspools, 14 septics and eight aerobic systems in this 1-mile stretch.
This small project could be a pilot project to demonstrate how different funding mechanisms can be cobbled together. The county Wastewater Division has hired Bowers and Kabota Engineering and worked with Kamehameha Investments to create this public private partnership.
On NPR, I heard Mayor Kimo Alameda say we have to find the money to build it.
Potential funding: (1) 91直播 County community facilities district, (2) USDA rural infrastructure and development loan and grant program, and (3) Senate Majority Leader Dru Kanuha said there is state money.
Please talk to your elected officials to get this accomplished.
Contact the County Council, Alameda and other elected officials at counciltestimony@hawaiicounty.gov, Kimo.Alameda@hawaiicounty.gov, Rebecca.villegas@hawaiicounty.gov, senkanuha@capitol.hawaii.gov, RepLowen@capitol.hawaii.gov.
Kahalu‘u Bay is a public health emergency. This world-class snorkel site is where swimmers, surfers and visitors get sick with staph and MRSA.
Citizens’ health is the responsibility of our government!
Debbie Hecht
Kailua-Kona
What if the bridge to
Mokuola was removed?
During pre-contact times in 91直播, Mokuola was the pu‘uhonua for the district of Hilo.
Similarly, Pu‘uhonua o Honaunau served the same purpose in Kona.
Makaoku, an ‘ili of Waiakea is adjacent, on the main land. As surveyed in 1875 by F.S. Lyman, Registered Map 0010 depicts the 3.8 acres of Mokuola and the 18.85 acres of Makaoku.
What if we returned Mokuola to a similar purpose and function, an isle of life and of healing? What if?
Remove the bridge, perhaps replace shelters with thatched structures. Remove the lawn and alien plants. Replant endemic, native and Polynesian-introduced plants. Remove the stone 1920s tower and rebuild it elsewhere. Isles? Keaukaha? Near Puhi Bay?
Rethink notions of recreation. These days, it seems that people desperately require quiet contemplative time. Mokuola can certainly be a place for that.
Ferry people over in outrigger wa‘a. Or they can swim the channel.
Opportunities to rethink and reimagine don’t come often. It is our kuleana to seize the moment and wonder, “What if?”
Bobby Camara
Keaau
