Army Corps Still Won’t Restore Forests As Part Of Ala Wai Flood Control Project

Photo: Heavy rains flow from the Koolau mountains down through the Ala Wai watershed, spilling into Waikiki. The U.S. Army Corps has rebooted its flood control efforts for the area but has already ruled out a nature-based approach despite community calls for the agency to consider it. (Marcel Honore/Civil Beat/2019)

Residents want more details on why the agency keeps rejecting that approach. The public has until Monday to comment.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is moving ahead with its reboot of the Ala Wai flood control project, an effort to help shield urban Honolulu from strong and fast-moving storm waters, after scrapping the previous attempt amid rising costs and controversy.

But the federal agency’s latest effort is already facing community pushback similar to the prior proposal, which abruptly ended in 2021. 

That’s largely because the corp has rejected using ecosystem restoration as part of its new plan, even though residents in Manoa, Palolo, Makiki and other parts of the vital watershed have been asking for years for the agency to seriously consider a nature-based approach to the area’s flood control.

Instead, the corps is pursuing a plan that’s centered on erecting 6-foot-high flood walls around the Ala Wai Canal and using the Ala Wai Golf Course as a flood detention basin.

“I’m just so pissed about that,” said David Kimo Frankel, an attorney who represented Protect Our Ala Wai Watershed during the group’s attempt to alter the corps’ first flood-control plan before it was halted. 

“They say they’re coming in with an open mind but then swiftly exclude nature-based (approaches) because it’s not going to be effective enough. Tell us what the criteria is – the data and the assumptions in their model,” Frankel said last week.

On Wednesday, corps project leaders said […]

Full article: www.civilbeat.org