KOKE‘E — The wafting aroma of decaying animal carcasses is not something visitors should have to endure while enjoying Waimea Canyon’s beautiful vista, said Arthur Keale. “It’s so embarrassing,” the Waimea resident said last week after reaching his “breaking point.”
KOKE‘E — The wafting aroma of decaying animal carcasses is not something visitors should have to endure while enjoying Waimea Canyon’s beautiful vista, said Arthur Keale.
“It’s so embarrassing,” the Waimea resident said last week after reaching his “breaking point.”
Illegal dumping off Highway 550 on the “old army road” located at a hunter check-in station, about one mile up Waimea Canyon off the highway, has been an ongoing problem for some 30 years and is gradually getting worse, Keale said last week. The state says it will respond to the report but a multi-pronged solution is ultimately needed.
“We look at it and get angry,” he said.
An avid hiker, Keale said he likes to enjoy the area and take pictures, but “sometimes it smells so bad.”
People are “ruining” the pristine landscape, he said.
A former hunter, Keale said he can’t understand why other hunters are not showing respect by taking care of animal remains in a proper manner.
“They make us look bad,” he said. “It would be so easy to bury” the remains.
But it isn’t only hunters trashing the area, others are also using the place as a dumping ground, Keale said.
“It’s our island and we’re trashing it,” he said.
Waimea Canyon and Koke‘e State Park and Highway 550 are “generally clean and well maintained,” according to the Department of Land and Natural Resource’s Division of Forestry and Wildlife and Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement.
There is a Department of Transportation Adopt-a-Highway group who does a good job to pick up trash near the road, DLNR officials said in an e-mail.
Discussions among DOFAW staff will be taking place to “determine where improvements can be made,” such as posting “no littering” signs, DLNR spokesperson Deborah Ward said in an e-mail.
In addition, an officer from DOCARE was assigned to “investigate this incident,” she said.
However, Ward said the “old army road” is not techinically located “in the Waimea Canyon of Koke‘e State Parks.”
The road is near an irrigation ditch where a “wide pull-off” spot is “sometimes used for illegal littering and dumping,” she said.
DOFAW staff is responsible for cleaning the area once per month, she added.
The DOT has not received complaints about the area, said spokesperson Tammy Mori.
“We’ve just been made aware of this,” she said regarding inquiries made by TGI.
The situation is “something that is a concern,” but “the DOT alone won’t be able to solve,” she said.
A solution will include “close coordinating between state agencies,” as well as getting neighborhoods and community members “involved in reporting” any incidents.
The DOT plans on sending a crew out there this week, Mori said.
Trash receptacles are located at every facility in Koke‘e, including scenic overlooks, picnic areas and shelters, Ward said.
“We again remind the public that it is against the law to litter, and to use normal trash disposal receptacles instead,” she said. “Anyone seeing illegal dumping is asked to notify enforcement authorities and provide any description or license number.”
• Coco Zickos, business and environmental writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 251) or czickos@kauaipubco.com.
