{"id":10341,"date":"2018-05-01T17:49:08","date_gmt":"2018-05-01T17:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.environment-hawaii.org\/?p=10341"},"modified":"2019-05-08T19:49:28","modified_gmt":"2019-05-08T19:49:28","slug":"city-agencies-face-phantasmagoria-of-climate-change-induced-obstacles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/?p=10341","title":{"rendered":"City Agencies Face Phantasmagoria Of Climate Change-Induced Obstacles"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In its first few meetings, Honolulu\u2019s new Climate Change Commission has heard from a slew of city agency heads about the status of their respective agencies\u2019 efforts to plan for climate change effects. Some agencies have gone further than others. At the commission\u2019s meeting last month, the Honolulu Board of Water Supply proved that it\u2019s gone the furthest, by far.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s only going to get worse,\u201d said Board of Water Supply program administrator Barry Usagawa of street flooding in various parts of O\u2018ahu during high tide (especially Waikiki and Mapunapuna), which modeling predicts will get deeper and spread further with climate change-induced sea level rise. Already, he told the commission, his agency has had to wait until low tide to pump floodwaters exacerbated by three recent water-main breaks in urban Honolulu. Until the tide receded, there was nowhere to pump the water, he said.<\/p>\n

In addition to more flooding, the BWS also expects sea level rise to threaten its transmission infrastructure. The increased groundwater and salinity levels near the coast will likely worsen corrosion of the BWS\u2019s pipelines, the agency\u2019s newly adopted long-range financial plan states.<\/p>\n

Usagawa noted that the BWS\u2019s network of 2,100 miles of pipelines supplies 145 million gallons of water a day to about a million people on the island. A lot of those pipes are metallic and will corrode in salt water, he said, adding that even the plastic pipes are connected with metallic fittings, which are also vulnerable to corrosion.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, the transmission system includes about two dozen low-elevation coastal pipe bridge crossings that may be subject to coastal erosion effects, he said.<\/p>\n

Perhaps most concerning are the potential effects on water supplies. Currently, two types of modeling \u2013 statistical and dynamical \u2013 have been done to predict how climate change will affect weather and precipitation in Hawai\u2018i with one painting a much rosier picture than the other. In the worst-case scenario, Usagawa said, the sustainable yield (SY) of groundwater aquifers on the island could decrease by 34 percent, from a historical average of 407 mgd to 267 mgd.<\/p>\n

\u201cAltogether, assets that could be impacted from climate change include some water resources, some pump stations, and coastal pipes. All this might drive the need for mandatory conservation,\u201d the financial plan states. It\u2019s also likely to require the BWS, which is self-supported, to raise its rates to increase revenue. \u201c[I]n the near term, no appreciable difference in revenue requirements is seen. However, over the long term, revenue requirements would begin to increase as assets had to be replaced sooner than originally planned, possibly by six percent over the base case by the 30th year,\u201d the plan states.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In addition to including a climate change scenario in its financial plan, the BWS is in the midst of preparing an adaptation plan with the help of the Water Research Foundation and the engineering firm of Brown and Caldwell. Brown and Caldwell has an $838,771 contract to further evaluate climate change effects on the BWS and its assets and to develop the agency\u2019s response plan, a preliminary draft of which has already been prepared.<\/p>\n

\u201cClimate change adaptation involves erring on the side of caution and planning well in advance,\u201d Usagawa said. Right now, however, his agency still has a lot of questions that will hopefully be answered in the final plan. \u201cWhere do we start? … Lewers (in Waikiki)? Mapunapuna? What are the triggers for CIP [capital improvement projects]? Nuisance flooding?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

The agency is already looking into increasing the use of recycled water from the Honouliuli, Mililani, Wahiawa, and Schofield wastewater treatment plants. Desalinization is also, and has long been, another consideration.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThis is a huge impact,\u201d Usagawa said of the projected loss in sustainable yield. He said the BWS would continue to monitor water levels and try to detect any downward trends as soon as they start, since \u201cit takes ten years to get these [mitigation projects] moving.\u201d<\/p>\n

Development Plans<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

At the commission\u2019s first meeting, Department of Planning and Permitting (DPP) acting administrator Kathy Sokugawa noted that the proposed revision of the O\u2018ahu General Plan, approved by the Planning Commission earlier this year, incorporates climate change and sea level rise considerations.<\/p>\n

\u201c[A]ll public and private organizations [are called on] to prepare for the future problems caused by rises in sea level, rises in groundwater levels, and more frequent and severe storms, shifts in local rainfall patterns, and higher urban temperatures,\u201d the proposed revision states.<\/p>\n

In contrast, the city\u2019s regional community development plans have not taken those concerns into account and at the rate they\u2019re being updated, they won\u2019t anytime soon. At the commission\u2019s meeting, however, Brad Romine, who works both with the University of Hawai\u2018i Sea Grant program and the state Department of Land and Natural Resources\u2019 Office of Conservation and Coastal Lands (OCCL), announced that he is preparing a white paper for the DPP on how to incorporate sea level rise predictions into the Primary Urban Center Community Development Plan, which has not been updated since 2004. The plan covers the region extending from Pearl City to Kahala and across the south shore, where most of the island\u2019s population resides.<\/p>\n

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Romine, who is working on the white paper with Tetra Tech, Inc., said it would take both the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration\u2019s recent guidance on climate change resilience and downscaled sea level rise predictions for the area into account.<\/p>\n

Wastewater Treatment<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cState and county agencies should consider potential long-term cost savings from implementing sea level rise adaption measures as early as possible (e.g., relocating infrastructure sooner than later) compared to the cost of maintaining and repairing chronically threatened public infrastructure in place over the next 30 to 70 years,\u201d states the December 2017 Sea Level Rise Vulnerability and Adaptation Report (SLR report) prepared by Tetra Tech and the OCCL.<\/p>\n

According to Department of Environmental Services director Laurie Kahikina, whose agency manages the island\u2019s wastewater treatment system, hundreds of agency projects are already in the planning, design, and construction phases, so her agency just \u201ccan\u2019t go back\u201d and reconfigure them to address climate change concerns.<\/p>\n

The SLR report identified those areas throughout the state (SLR-XA) that are vulnerable to sea level rise effects under various scenarios. \u201cWhile no wastewater treatment facilities on O\u2018ahu are located within the SLR-XA with 3.2 feet of sea level rise, sea level rise may impact wastewater stabilization ponds immediately surrounding the Sand Island and Kahuku Wastewater Treatment Plants. Flooding of these ponds would have the potential of releasing wastewater into nearshore waters,\u201d it states.<\/p>\n

At the same time the city is undertaking an $800 million upgrade to the Sand Island plant as a result of a consent decree over water pollution, the facility\u2019s pipes are vulnerable to sea water infiltration, said deputy director Timothy Houghton. He added that the wastewater system also includes 70 pump stations, a large number of which are located close to shore.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe can\u2019t just pick them up and move them,\u201d he said, adding later, \u201cIf we get an opportunity to re-route lines … how do we do that? Pieces are tied together. Once you start moving, you\u2019ve got to move lots.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the department is not yet prepared to relocate its entire wastewater system to avoid the effects of sea level rise, Houghton said it instructs its contractors whenever it can to consider sea level rise in ongoing projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do lots of borrowing and bond raters have asked us, \u2018How are you looking at climate change?\u2019 It\u2019s important to the bond raters. They\u2019re happy we\u2019re looking at it and talking about it. If we didn\u2019t, we would take a hit,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Stormwater Management<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Ross Sasamura, head of the city\u2019s Department of Facility Maintenance, told the commission that his agency may have the same problem the BWS has had with pumping areas flooded by water main breaks that are already flooded by high tides. As rising seas infiltrate more and more of the city\u2019s stormwater management system, runoff could have nowhere but the streets to go at some point.<\/p>\n

\u201cPumps and pump systems can be problematic,\u201d Sasamura said. As an alternative to simply pumping floodwaters, he suggested what he admitted might be viewed as a hare-brained idea: capping outfalls, connecting regional systems using old abandoned pipes, and potentially using that trapped water as a non-potable resource, if necessary.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t ever see us reconfiguring the storm drain systems, which are mostly developer-constructed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Teresa Dawson<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In its first few meetings, Honolulu’s new Climate Change Commission has heard from a slew of city agency heads about the status of their respective agencies’ efforts to plan for climate change effects. Some agencies have gone further than others. … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9877,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,436],"tags":[3],"class_list":["post-10341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate-change","category-may-2018","tag-teresa-dawson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}