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Small Business News May 2004 | Online Edition
More Than Just Raw Sewage in Oahu’s Ocean Stinks
By Malia Zimmerman, HawaiiReporter
Here is the official notice issued in mid March:
WINDWARD BEACHES RECEIVE ALL CLEAR: — The Hawaii State Department of Health today announced that advisories have been lifted for: Kawa Stream and Kaneohe Bay; Enchanted Lakes, Kaelepulu Stream and Kailua Bay (all beaches); and Puhi Bay, Island of Hawaii. Advisories were lifted yesterday (Monday) for Waimanalo and Bellows beaches, so all Windward beaches are now open. The beaches were posted with warnings last week, due to sewage spills caused by heavy rains. Water sampling in the impacted areas showed elevated levels of bacteria. These bacteria can cause illness if they are ingested or come in contact with open wounds. Warning signs are still posted as a precaution around Sand Island Park and Honolulu Harbor because of a sewage spill Thursday, caused by a broken pipe. The public is being asked to respect the warnings and stay out of the water. Sampling is ongoing and signs will be taken down when bacteria levels return to normal.
The spills have an impact on more than just the environment — visitors read the bold headlines in the daily newspapers about the sewage, returning home without a swim, surf lesson, or kayak adventure and smelly tales about Hawaii’s environment. Owners of ocean-related businesses, such as commercial fishing or kayak and windsurfing rentals, have suffered tremendous losses of revenue from the business driven away by the spills and their employees have been out of work. Most of all, Hawaii’s families, many who spend every day at the beach for work and play, are kept from enjoying one of their most precious, cherished and sacred resources — the ocean.
Though the sewage will eventually dissipate, the problem remains. Oahu’s infrastructure is crumbling and dilapidated and the city administration is not addressing this problem fast enough or directing the resources to fix the estimated $1 billion problem.
In fact, the opposite is happening under the administration of Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris — the sewage fund has been drained from $100,000 million to $0, but not for the sewer system repairs. Instead of saving money to fix the city’s sewage system, which needs $1 billion in upgrades and repairs, Harris raided the sewer fund for two consecutive years to balance the city’s $1 billion operating budget.
The budget could not be balanced without raiding the sewer fund because the mayor spent so much money on construction projects and politically popular, visible projects, while ignoring unglamorous needs of the city’s underbelly.
Currently, Harris is embarking on yet another controversial construction project on Oahu’s roadways — a $19 million road project on Kuhio Avenue that he is classifying as “beautification” of Waikiki. Construction began Monday. He also is pushing through the city’s proposed $1 billion Bus Rapid Transit System at a cost of $31 million for phase 1 and $1 billion for construction in total — a project in the same area that will only worsen traffic because it takes away lanes in Honolulu’s major thoroughfares. Yet just a few feet below these projects and under many surface construction projects he has charged taxpayers with the challenge of funding, the city’s dilapidated infrastructure is crumbling.
These two projects cannot bear the brunt of the blame for drained resources. Numerous other construction projects have taken away from direly needed infrastructure repairs and upgrades.
Roadways all around the state are being torn up by city crews, who take out lanes on busy roads, worsening traffic and forcing emergency vehicles to reroute themselves, all because the mayor wants more trees on the streets. Hawaii Kai’s Lunalilo Road is a recent victim of this compulsion. While residents pleaded last Fall with the mayor to stop tearing up their roadway, he crammed a $2 million project down their street, taking out two of four lanes for more trees. Many of those trees broke in the recent storms.
An education and retail center were raised at Hanauma Bay for $13 million. The community protested this building, the costs that followed, the lack of information about the costs of building and maintaining the project. They also were outraged to learn the facilities are not safe for children and emergency vehicles can no longer drive down the steep hill to the beach — a problem for anyone injured or dying on the beach below.
Harris also approved the construction of welcome signs in many communities around the island — signs that cost as much as $800,000 were built without the approval of the neighborhood boards and majority of community members. In Hawaii Kai, he raised a canoe halau that initially did not fit canoes.
Waikiki beach was torn up and fake waterfalls were installed all along the beach. In fact, fashioning fake fixtures is a tradition — in an area in Hawaii Kai surrounded by boulders that are crashing into people’s homes, the mayor paid to have faux boulders made. Surely the residents would have given their boulders up, should someone from the city just hauled them away.
The billions of dollars being spent on construction projects, which serve as monuments to the city administrators, have not funded what cannot be bought — city leaders with common sense. Leaders who do what is best for the city, whether or not it shows, and whether or not it requires a Maile lei be untied at an opening ceremony with media and political supporters present.
As a result, residents and visitors alike are quickly realizing it is more than raw sewage in Oahu’s ocean that stinks.
©2004Hawaii Reporter, Inc.
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