Since before the time of human contact and for centuries thereafter, the coastal plain between Kekaha and Mana on Kaua`i’s western shore has been a wetland.
But as state agencies and private parties discuss what to do in the wake of Kekaha Sugar’s closing, restoration of the wetland drained a century ago seems the furthest thing from planner’s minds.
“We don’t want a wetland buffer because we don’t want the Sierra Club to find anything that might rule us,” says Gay & Robinson’s Alan Kenneth of the possibility of the state returning a portion of the area to a wetland.
The concern Kenneth expresses is what many farmers call “habitat sprawl.” Here and on the mainland, farmers complain that the appetite of conservationists is insatiable and that the growth of natural reserves is a bigger threat to farming than urban sprawl is.
Kenneth’s sugar company, Gay & Robinson, is one of five farms that received permits to occupy state lands being freed up with the exit of long-time tenant Kekaha Sugar. He and other members of the farmers’ cooperative moving onto Kekaha lands are eager to see the vast infrastructure needed to keep the plain arable repaired and in ongoing operation.
Still, there are voices who argue that the departure of Kekaha Sugar is an opportunity to restore the Kekaha-Mana plain to a semblance of its former self. If the fields were returned to the wetlands they once were, and if diverted irrigation water was returned to streams, they say, much of Kaua`i’s endangered native waterfowl might once again thrive there. Farming could still exist, but not in the way it’s been carried out in the past.
One of the advocates for restoration is Don Heacock, a farmer and a biologist with the state Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Division of Aquatic Resources in Kaua`i. He is hopeful that the area will one day support a more holistic, sustainable form of agriculture.
Instead of perpetuating monocrop agriculture in Kekaha, “We should be growing mullet, `awa, moi, and marine shrimp,” Heacock says.
“I support aquaculture, but not monoculture,” he continues. Referring to the operation of an existing shrimp farm in the area, he notes that “the shrimp feces are put into a dispersion well,” even though they are “resources that could produce hundreds of tons of edible seaweed. We have the opportunity not only to restore wetlands, but to have integrated agriculture and aquaculture, restore habitat of fishes, spawning grounds. People are trying to portray the nostalgia of sugar. Don’t be fooled. It was never sustainable.”
Heacock sees Kekaha Sugar’s departure as an opportunity to fulfill the Article 11 of the state Constitution. This provision calls for the state to work toward self-sufficiency.
“We had more people on Kaua`i when Captain Cook was here. Now we import,” Heacock says. “We shouldn’t be importing. A few weeks ago, Governor Cayetano was quoted as saying he was concerned with flooding once Amfac pulls out, but he was anxious to see aquaculture and other agricultural crops there. This was one of the largest wetlands at the turn of the century. I don’t know what flooding he’s referring to. It’s natural for wetlands to be floodedÉ. The state has a responsibility to follow through with Article 11. It’s not a guideline. That’s state policy at the highest level.”
Heacock also pointed out that the state Water Code calls for restoration of streams.
“Most of Waimea River was dewatered for Kekaha irrigation,” he says. “In 1848, Native Hawaiian water rights stated that no more than 50 percent of the base flow could be diverted from streams. In 1849, sugar plantations changed the law so that flow of water to the sea was considered waste, and allowed for 100 percent diversion. Migratory fishes have got to have water.”
Under the Water Code, Heacock says, “That wetland falls under the jurisdiction of the Commission of Water Resource Management.”
On a small scale, however, the state has been carving out wetland habitat in the Mana area for the last decade. Instead of allowing the water table below the plain to return to pre-drainage levels, which would restore the wetlands naturally, the state plan involves the removal of hundreds of thousands of cubic yards of sand. The holes left by the excavation, undertaken by trucking companies and the County of Kaua`i (which used the sand for cover at its Kekaha landfill), then fill with water up to the level of the current water table (a level that is made artificially lower by ongoing pumping).
In 1991, the Board of Land and Natural Resources forwarded to then-Governor John Waihe`e a document requesting his approval of the plan, which Waihe`e signed on November 1 of that year. According to that document, “the plan, developed by the Division of Forestry and wildlife, is to designate the sanctuary site as a commercial sand mining location. Licensees would excavate sand to a prescribed depth below the mean water table. The exposed water area would be finished by the licensee following specifications provided by the Division of Forestry and Wildlife [DOFAW], to create an endangered waterbird nesting habitat, including nesting islets, shallow water feeding areas, and predator resistant moats. The completed sanctuary will include an observation kiosk, foot path, parking, a service area, and perimeter fencing.”
A decade later, how is the sanctuary working out?
“It’s alive and doing very well, thank you,” says state Land Agent Sam Lee. “The first increment of about 17 acres has been in operation for five or more years. There’s current excavation work going on as we speak to add a second increment of like size toward eventual completion of a 30-plus acre wetland.”
Have the birds returned? “Absolutely,” says Lee.
Lee praises the method used to develop the wetland. “I thought it was innovative and very constructive. We sold a number of land licenses to contractors who were willing to purchase sand from the state. However, the manner in which the site was excavated was carefully managed by DOFAW, so that we ended up with a hole in the ground that met the wetland environment specifications. They created islands in the water for birds to nest on. We came out with a properly constructed refuge without any cost to the state. And actually the state came out ahead because the contractors excavated the thing, paid for the sand, and left us with the product that we wanted without charge.”
“We are duplicating that effort this time, using the same format on the second increment, which adjoins the first. At the end of the process, we’ll have one continuous, 30-acre wetland.”
A more somber assessment was provided by DOFAW’s Tom Telfer.
“Initially, we were extremely elated with the results,” Telfer said. “We had about 100 coots there, plus stilts and occasionally koloa,” the Hawaiian duck.
“It was designed for stilts, with natural aquatic weeds and insects. The water was just crystal clear. Then probably some people dropped tilapia in there and it changed the whole structure of the area.”
Telfer said that his agency considered trying to kill the fish, “but I’ve talked to aquatic specialists and they say it’s almost impossible to eradicate tilapia – and in any case, it would be fairly expensive.”
The second increment of the sanctuary will probably have the same problems with tilapia. Telfer explained that the excavation already done in the area of expansion has made the wetland so low that, at the first flood, water will probably spill over from the first area and carry tilapia into the second increment.
What is now in place, Telfer says, “is very distressing from what we originally had.”
If any other areas are to be developed as waterbird habitat, Telfer says, the approach will probably be quite different. “In the future, we would probably make several small ‘potholes’ so we could eradicate fish more effectively.”
And what chance is there that the state will develop new waterbird habitat in Kekaha?
“There’s potential for another area with Kekaha Sugar going out of business,” Telfer answers. “There used to be a huge natural swamp from Kekaha to Mana. I imagine the powers that be will eventually come up with a system to maintain the pumps. If not, and we get heavy winter rains, that wetland is going to flood.”
For now, though, the former wetlands are dry, and the waterbirds are hurting. Telfer, who had just completed a waterbird census on the south side of Kaua`i, reports that numbers of waterbirds “are unusually low for the winter.” Plantation reservoirs are nearly empty, and lakes in Ni`ihau, where many waterbirds breed, have not had their usual seasonal floods.
“They’re still around,” Telfer says of the birds, “but they haven’t been breeding as usual.”
— Teresa Dawson and Patricia Tummons
Volume 11, Number 8 February 2001
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