LIHU‘E — The Kaua‘i County Council wanted to get clarification Wednesday on the impacts of the erosion at Wailua Beach to the county multi-use path that is about to be laid there. But what it got was more questions than
LIHU‘E — The Kaua‘i County Council wanted to get clarification Wednesday on the impacts of the erosion at Wailua Beach to the county multi-use path that is about to be laid there. But what it got was more questions than answers — and an earful from more than dozen community members determined to not allow one grain of sand to be covered by a concrete path.
Native Hawaiians cited kupuna burials while county officials said they only found trash. An expert says a study shows the heavily eroded beach is growing but also that she can’t read the future. She suggests a raised wooden boardwalk rather than a permanent path but the county is going with “removable” concrete slabs — each weighing as much as an African elephant.
The council’s agenda Wednesday included a request to county Planning Director Michael Dahilig and a representative of the University of Hawai‘i Sea Grant Program to brief the council on the recent erosion at Wailua Beach — which caused much of the sand to vanish since the summer — and how it would affect that section of the Ke Ala Hele Makalae, or “the path that goes along the coast.”
The UH representative wasn’t present. However, Dahilig brought with him a UH memorandum from coastal land use extension agent Ruby Pap. County Department of Parks and Recreation Director Lenny Rapozo and county Public Works Chief of Building Division Dough Haigh added to the explanation of the project to the council.
Pap’s memorandum, dated Oct. 18, indicates that shoreline erosion studies conducted by UH and adopted by the county of Kaua‘i show that Wailua Beach has actually grown 0.6 feet per year since 1927. While roughly seven inches of annual growth may not seem much, 85 years of steady growth equals to nearly 50 feet of additional beach.
But where is this 50-foot extra strip of sand?
Pap says historical data from Wailua indicates the biggest erosion hazard is seasonal or episodic rather than a chronic long-term trend. The study indicates that in 1975, erosion at Wailua Beach brought the shoreline close to the highway.
“The beach eventually recovered (as shown by the shoreline position in 1987) but it is not clear exactly how long this recovery process took, nor how often these erosion episodes occur,” she says in the report.
The erosion that caused a similar beach loss this past summer may be explained by a period of stronger and more persistent trade winds than typical, according to Pap.
While the beach has clearly began to recover, Pap never says it will go back to what it used to be. She rather says it is unknown “if and when” the beach will regain its former width.
In a different memorandum dated Nov. 2, this time addressing erosion at Kapa‘a and Kekaha, Pap cautions against making any “gross generalizations” regarding beach erosion, as that is a very site specific study.
“Data tells us what happened in the past, but it cannot predict what will happen in the future,” Pap says.
Back to the memorandum addressing erosion at Wailua Beach,
Despite avoiding predicting the future in Nov. 2 memorandum, Pap does give her two cents in her latest memorandum on what could happen in Wailua. She says the recent and previous erosion episodes at Wailua are temporary, but similar events are “highly likely” to cause management problems to infrastructure sited close to the beach.
African elephant
Rapozo unveiled to the county the new path design for Wailua Beach. It is supposed to be 10-feet long by 8-feet wide, and mostly 1-feet deep, with some parts 1.5-feet deep
Pap says the county proposal to install removable concrete slabs is preferable to other “hard” structures such as seawalls and revetments, which are known to increase beach erosion.
Rough calculations show these “removable” concrete slabs would weigh about 15,000 pounds. An adult male African elephant weighs about the same.
Despite citing advantages of a removable path design, Pap suggests that the county look into a “resilient raised wooden boardwalk” design.
“This option may be less costly and easier to maintain than a concrete path over the long term, given the probability of removal that may be needed,” she says. “The height of a wooden boardwalk is flexible and need not be extensive and I believe could be compatible with a highway barrier wall.”
The benefits of a wooden boardwalk would include an accommodation strategy, which allows for waves and erosion to pass under the structure without causing damage or affecting the its use.
“Raise boardwalks are commonly constructed in beach settings around the world and serve to provide reliable access to and along the beach with minimal, negligible even, impact to the beach processes and a fraction of the cost of reinforced concrete pathways that may require repair,” Pap says.
Public testimony
The briefing drew approximately 40 community members to the council chambers, and about a dozen people provided testimony.
Much of the public testimony concentrated on criticism of a concrete path over the beach and in close proximity of weather events; and some of the testimony criticized the cost of the path and its potential location on top of ancient Hawaiian burials.
Overall, those opposing to the path wanted it pushed completely on top of the asphalt covering the state-owned Kuhio Highway, with none of the path on top of the sand at Wailua Beach.
Haigh said the state Department of Transportation wants to work with the county, but drew the line on top of the white striping makai of Kuhio Highway.
“The DOT gave us a line as far as mauka as we can go,” he said.
Basically, the county has approximately three-to-five feet of asphalt to lay a 12-inch thick protection wall and an 8-foot-wide removable concrete slab. The rest of the slab would go on the beach.
The 10-foot-long concrete slabs would be removable. They would be held in place by gravity, and would be locked together by six-inch connectors, according to Haigh.
In case of extreme beach erosion threatening to take the highway, the path would be removed and the state DOT would do whatever is necessary to protect the highway, Haigh said.
“Most of the country is understanding that you should not be putting public infrastructure in harm’s way,” North Shore resident Caren Diamond said.
Tommy Noyes, a board member of the nonprofit Kaua‘i Path and one the path’s main advocates, was the only public speaker supporting the path on its current proposed location. If some of the suggestions from the public were to be applied, the path would lose federal funding, he said.
If the path is narrower than 8-feet, it would not no longer be a multi-use path, according to Noyes. And if it’s built as a wood structure, it would not comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, as only concrete and asphalt surfaces are ADA compliant, he said.
Hawaiian burials
Wailua resident James Alalem — who got a misdemeanor conviction earlier this year for blocking a backhoe dig while trying to protect a Hawaiian burial by Wailua River in 2011 — had a somewhat somber message to the county.
“Stop building upon our fallen ones, because terrible things are going to happen,” he said. “You are all told; if you continue with this, darkness will fall upon you.”
Sherry Cummings said her family lineage goes back to the caretakers of the Wailua Beach. She said the remnants of an ancient heiau are right there in the middle of the beach. She also talked about ancient burials.
Rapozo, however, said an archaeological assessment conducted by Cultural Surveys Hawai‘i from January 2010 to August 2011, found only modern trash: Plastic bags and cups, aluminum cans, glass containers and other household items. Asphalt, concrete cobblers and large basalt boulders were also found.
To reach this conclusion, Cultural Surveys dug 17 “test trenches” along the beach, with the aid of a backhoe. No traditional Hawaiian or historic artifacts, cultural deposits or resources were found in that area, according to Rapozo.
But Rapozo didn’t say there were never such cultural deposits at Wailua Beach. Instead, he said the presence of modern debris within the majority of subsurface deposits suggests that any historic or pre-historic debris that may have been in that area were likely to have been removed or impacted during modern construction.
The option of realigning the path behind Coco Palms would for sure go over Hawaiian artifacts and possibly burials. Haigh said past surveys have detected ancient Hawaiian artifacts in the area where an alternative route has been suggested.
The council received the item, with Council Chair Jay Furfaro saying he would post a few agenda items in the future with new narratives to continue discussion.
• Léo Azambuja, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) or lazambuja@ thegardenisland.com.
