LIHU‘E — The heavy December rains that pounded Kaua‘i and O‘ahu, drawing disaster declarations from Gov. Linda Lingle and then-President George W. Bush, could have a long-term effect on the way the county responds to flooding at the Po‘ipu Beach
LIHU‘E — The heavy December rains that pounded Kaua‘i and O‘ahu, drawing disaster declarations from Gov. Linda Lingle and then-President George W. Bush, could have a long-term effect on the way the county responds to flooding at the Po‘ipu Beach parking lot.
At the Feb. 11 Kaua‘i County Council meeting, Parks and Recreation Deputy Director Kylan Dela Cruz said the ongoing problem has occurred whenever the South Shore has been hit by heavy rain since the parking lot’s construction in the 1980s.
Dela Cruz said Aqua Engineers used pump trucks to remove flood water from the area in the final days of 2008, more than a week after the rain and wind of mid-December. There were at times three trucks at the scene, and 88 hours of contracted work cost taxpayers $12,833.25.
“It’s an ongoing problem here and we are well aware of the situation, it’s just about how we’re going to address the situation,” Dela Cruz said.
Proposed short-term courses of action include improving the adjacent pond that floods into the parking lot during heavy rains, establish an additional parking lot and forming contracts with companies like Aqua Engineers or others to provide the pumping service whenever the parking lot floods in an effort to cut down on the response time.
Another suggestion involved the county instead purchasing its own pumps rather than paying a private company to do the work.
Dela Cruz said the county is authorized, in the event of a National Weather Service flood warning, to pump rain water into the ocean at the high water mark.
Councilman Derek Kawakami said he had reservations about that plan because keiki often play in that area, adding he hoped for a better long-term solution.
Dela Cruz said discussions about long-term plans are ongoing.
Councilman Jay Furfaro suggested the county could build an elevated parking lot three to four feet off the ground, turning the existing lot into a “retention basin.”
Councilman Tim Bynum mentioned the idea of “permeable paving” — creating a surface that would allow water to seep into the ground at a faster rate.
Westside advocate Bruce Pleas said in public testimony that the parking lot should have never been built.
Kalaheo resident Tessie Kinnaman testified subdivisions in the area occasionally create water drainage plans on the assumption that the parking lot empties naturally into the ocean when, in actuality, it does not.
Bynum addressed the urgency for a solution, saying “Clearly, if there’s three or four feet of standing water in a place that’s for public use, something is not right.”
See a future edition of The Garden Island for more coverage of the county’s short- and long-term plans to address the issue.
