“We\u2019re trying to do big things,\u201d state Agribusiness Development Corporation project manager Ken Nakamoto said recently, well aware of the detractors waiting in the wings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last month, a consultant for the agency, Brown & Caldwell, unveiled details of a proposed $178 million irrigation system project that would facilitate the agricultural use of recycled effluent, as well as water from the Wahiawa Reservoir, on ADC lands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Phase 3 of that project would connect the Wahiawa reservoir to a 14-million-gallon reservoir to be constructed on former Galbraith Estate lands in North-Central O\u02bbahu, providing ADC tenants with more than 5 million gallons of water a day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Threatening the success of that big thing is not just the estimated cost of Phases 1, 2, and 3, but the instability of the Wahiawa Reservoir itself, as well as the owner\u2019s stated inability to make repairs required by the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An apparent solution came earlier this year with the passage of Act 218. The act directs the governor\u2019s office to negotiate the purchase of the Wahiawa Irrigation System, which includes the reservoir. It also provides $5 million toward that purchase and $21 million for repairs and expansion of the reservoir\u2019s under-sized spillway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The reservoir is owned by Sustainable Hawaii, Inc., and Dole Food Company Hawai\u02bbi. It is considered a high hazard dam by the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to Carty Chang, chief of the DLNR\u2019s Engineering Division, the reservoir is in poor condition, with signs of an unstable embankment. The reservoir can retain up to 3 billion gallons of water. And if the dam were to give way, about 2,500 people living downhill of the reservoir could be affected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the October 13 meeting of the Board of Land and Natural Resources, Chang said that a 1978 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers report found that the spillway was undersized. \u201cForty-five years later, nothing has been done to fix that spillway,\u201d he said. In the meantime, there have been close calls, with evacuation orders being issued by the City & County of Honolulu, he said, adding, \u201cWith climate change, it\u2019s not a matter of if, but when. We don\u2019t want another Kaloko [dam breach on Kaua\u02bbi]. Seven lives were lost.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe [Wahiawa] dam is anticipated to overtop during storm events approaching the Probable Maximum Flood. The aging concrete spillway structure and main embankment integrity are uncertain and may potentially be compromised during a significant flood event,\u201d Chang\u2019s report to the board states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In April 2021, the Land Board fined Dole $25,000 for failing to make improvements ordered by the division and set a schedule for repairs to occur. In May 2022, Dole asked for an extension of its performance deadlines, which the board granted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Land Board required Dole to meet nine milestones between 2022 and 2025. Fines would be levied for each missed milestone. According to Chang\u2019s report, \u201cDole successfully met milestones 1, 3, and 4, but was fined $5,000 for missing milestone 2 in January 2023. Milestone 5 on the current remediation timeline is due on November 1, 2023 and requires Dole to submit a dam safety permit application.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With the passage of Act 218, however, Dole decided that it should no longer have to comply with that schedule. In an August 8 letter to DLNR director and Land Board chair Dawn Chang, Dole general manager Dan Nellis wrote, \u201cNow that Act 218 is law, it is no longer appropriate for Dole to do that which is required of the state, and the current state-mandated timelines should therefore be passed. \u2026 [T]he WIS [Wahiawa Irrigation System] is \u2018critical\u2019 infrastructure that the state should (and will soon) own to ensure its continued viability. It would also frustrate the entire purpose of Act 218 as leaving the timelines in place would cause the decommissioning of this system and would be catastrophic to agriculture and food production in Central O\u02bbahu.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Engineering Branch\u2019s Chang recommended that the Land Board deny Nellis\u2019s request. He said that Act 218 does not commit the state to acquire the irrigation system or require the Land Board to take any action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What\u2019s more, Dole\u2019s performance deadlines cover work to be done on two reservoirs, Helemano 6 and Kemoo 5, that Chang said are not included in Act 218 \u201cand should not be considered for regulatory relief,\u201d he stated in his report to the board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Relieving Dole from any of its dam safety obligations would set a bad precedent, he said. He did offer to allow Dole to pay break up its payments toward the dam safety permit application fee. He also encouraged Dole to release to the state the rights to its studies, planning and design documents for the Wahiawa Dam improvements. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Dole Food Company Hawai\u02bbi and their consultant Gannett Flemming have made significant progress on their improvement plans for the Wahiawa Dam. The release of rights to the documents prepared by their consultants (i.e., geotechnical analysis, reports, studies, conceptual and detailed design drawings etc.) would assist the State of Hawaii in their due diligence efforts and potentially reduce the time and cost required for this process. Releasing this information would not incur additional cost and would be a good faith gesture,\u201d he wrote in his recommendations to the board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To Dole\u2019s statement that the state will soon be acquiring the Wahiawa irrigation system, Chang explained that was simply not the case because the state still needs to complete its due diligence process. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe just had a meeting yesterday with the ADC. The Phase 1 environmental assessment is not going to be done until June of next year. \u2026 Phase 2 would take even longer. We\u2019re not even close to making a decision whether the state is going to acquire [the system],\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He continued that Dole claims it spent $1.1 million for its consultant\u2019s plans to upgrade the dam. \u201cThey said that they didn\u2019t want to share those plans unless the state commits to acquiring the property,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe appropriate thing for Dole to do is take accountability as a dam owner,\u201d he said. His report also noted, \u201cUntil the WIS is transferred to the state, Dole is still the owner and is responsible and liable for their actions or inactions associated with the Wahiawa Dam. \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf for any reason the deed of the parcels identified in Act 218 are not filed or recorded with the Bureau of Conveyances by June 30, 2026, Act 218 shall be repealed in its entirety. If Act 218 is repealed, Dole will retain ownership of the WIS. If Dole\u2019s remediation timelines are suspended, it is likely that no progress will be made toward bringing the Wahiawa Dam into compliance. This would result in a significant delay to remediate the dam and continue to put the downstream community at risk in the event of a dam safety incident.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Board member Aimee Barnes expressed her disappointment with Dole. “I know that in prior meetings that we discussed this dam, I have asked questions \u2026 to Dole on whether they were planning to kick the can and defer maintenance until such time as the state took over. \u2026 It seems that\u2019s exactly what they\u2019re trying to do,\u201d she said, adding that she was concerned that the board had been too lenient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dole\u2019s consultant Trisha Kehaulani Watson testified that despite its disagreement with some of the DLNR\u2019s positions, the company would not oppose the Engineering Branch\u2019s recommendation to maintain the performance deadlines and fines. However, she asked that the board consider amending the Engineering Division\u2019s recommendations to allow for the reimbursement of the costs Dole incurred on its plans to upgrade the dam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nellis added, \u201cDole will go out of business if they have to come up with $25 million [to fix the dam], which is why we went to the Legislature.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Board chair Chang reiterated that the state needs to do its own due diligence and that the Department of Agriculture\u2019s Phase 1 environmental site assessment, which is just a literature review, won\u2019t be completed unit June 2024. The DLNR\u2019s Phase 1 assessment won\u2019t be done until May, Carty Chang later added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat\u2019s kind of the reality. DLNR is in no way saying they\u2019re opposing this transfer. \u2026 We need to make an informed decision on what are we actually accepting,\u201d Chang told Nellis and Watson, adding that the Engineering Division has already determined that the dam is not safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Addressing Dole\u2019s request for reimbursement, Chang noted that the money was just not available for that, since her department had received only $1 million from the Legislature for its due diligence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The board then went into executive session to discuss legal matters with the state deputy attorney general. When the meeting resumed, Watson reported that Dole was withdrawing its request for reimbursement and supported the Engineering Division\u2019s recommendations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019re here to help,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the time of the board meeting, Dole had completed its preliminary designs to upgrade the spillway and was expected to submit its dam safety permit application soon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2014 Teresa Dawson<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “We’re trying to do big things,” state Agribusiness Development Corporation project manager Ken Nakamoto said recently, well aware of the detractors waiting in the wings. Last month, a consultant for the agency, Brown & Caldwell, unveiled details of a proposed … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13786,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,517,28],"tags":[3],"class_list":["post-15445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-agriculture","category-november-2023","category-water","tag-teresa-dawson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15445","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=15445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}