LIHU‘E — County officials Tuesday will provide an update at the Kilauea Neighborhood Center on the county’s efforts regarding the Kilauea Stream clean-up, a county press release states. The 7 p.m. event is the monthly meeting of the Kilauea Neighborhood
LIHU‘E — County officials Tuesday will provide an update at the Kilauea Neighborhood Center on the county’s efforts regarding the Kilauea Stream clean-up, a county press release states.
The 7 p.m. event is the monthly meeting of the Kilauea Neighborhood Association, and is open to the public.
Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr., County Engineer Donald Fujimoto and other members of the county Department of Public Works team will do a presentation on the work the county has done on the project thus far, and discuss future plans.
The debris-management project began several months after the Ka Loko Dam breach in March 2006, which left an enormous amount of debris along the banks of the Wailapa and Kilauea streams and posed health and safety threats to area residents, the release states.
Initially, the lead agency on the Kilauea project was the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.
In April of this year, state officials contacted the county and requested that the county assume sponsorship of the project since they did not believe that the state could expend the federal funds before the Sept. 30, 2010 expiration date.
Carvalho sought and received a one-year extension and, with concurrence of the County Council, agreed to assume sponsorship of the project in June.
“The restoration of this watershed is very important to the well-being of our community, and we couldn’t allow the funds to lapse without pushing for the extension,” said the mayor, crediting U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawai‘i, and DLNR staff for assisting in the successful transition of the project and retention of the funding.
In 2007, the county completed an initial cleanup of debris in Wailapa Stream utilizing $1.2 million in state and Federal Emergency Management Agency funding.
Around $4 million in funds from the National Resources Conservation Service will be used for removal of debris and sediment from Kilauea Stream. Matching funds of roughly $630,000 will be provided by the state through in-kind and design services, and a cash match from the county is around $400,000, states the release.
