LIHU‘E — Emergency repair work on the Hanalei River started Friday morning, said Mary Daubert, the county’s public information officer.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued an emergency permit to the Kaua‘i Taro Growers Association for the emergency repair of a breach in the Hanalei River bank upstream of the China Ditch intake that resulted from last weekend’s flooding, states a release from Joseph Bonfiglio, Chief of Public Affairs of the Corps of Engineers.

Daubert said the lead agencies doing the work include the Kaua‘i Taro Growers Association and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Bonfiglio said the Corps itself is not doing any work on the river.

The county has a person assisting the work with a load, Daubert said.

The breach caused the diversion of the river and resulted in a lack of available irrigation water for the Kaua‘i Taro Growers Association, which has approximately 190 acres of taro lo‘i in the affected area.

The same irrigation water supplies endangered water bird habitat in the Hanalei National Wildlife Refuge.