When Kapa’a resident Melvin Kneip recently drove to the Ahukini shoreline by the north end of the Lihue Airport runway to meditate, he came across a sight that shocked him: a slope of buried machinery, tires and trash that threatens
When Kapa’a resident Melvin Kneip recently drove to the Ahukini shoreline by the north end of the Lihue Airport runway to meditate, he came across a sight that shocked him: a slope of buried machinery, tires and trash that threatens to fall into the ocean.
Ocean waters would be polluted and marine life could be damaged if pollutants from the debris drains into the sea. The area is a favorite local shoreline fishing ground.
“Any water that comes out through that stuff has got to be bad,” Kniep said.
Debris that has fallen onto to the shoreline also could be “sucked out” during high tide, said Louie Rego, a friend of Kniep’s who went to the site to verify the find.
The debris includes truck and car tires, rusted machinery, car frames, engine blocks, jagged metal pieces that jut out of the ground, remnants of bags that looked to have contained household, roofing and building materials and broken bottles.
Broken glass also covers the slope, which measures about a third of mile long and is located on the makai side of one of the airport runways.
A spot check of the Ahukini shoreline yielded no other evidence of buried trash.
Because of its remoteness, areas mauka of the slope have become a dumping ground for water tanks, tires, engine and household trash, but this type of debris is located away from the slope with the buried debris.
Rego said he believes the buried debris was once part of a landfill operated by the County of Kaua’i.
Officials with the county Public Works Department, which manages the Kekaha landfill and county trash transfer stations, were not immediately available for comment.
Rego said government should take action “to correct the problem as soon as possible if they want to protect the aina.”
“It looks like old landfill that existed 30 years ago, maybe even longer,” said Rego, the son of the late Louis Rego Sr., the owner of Rego Trucking Company, the largest trucking company on Kaua’i in the 1980s. The company also made building materials.
Kniep said he is concerned that shoreline fishermen will get hurt by the debris or catch fish that could be contaminated by the debris.
“I have lived here the years, and I have never seen anything like this,” he said.
Staff Writer Lester Change can be reached at mailto:lchang@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 225).
