SUBHEAD: Meeting on on Maalo Road landfill siting this Tuesday 6:00pm at King K Elementary.
By Nina Monasevitch on 4 February 2013 in Island Breath.
(http://islandbreath.blogspot.com/2013/02/hanamaulu-landfill-siting.html)
Image above: Aerial view of Wailua Falls at the end of Maalo Road. From (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ironrodart/3617887042/).
WHAT:
Public county meeting on Hanamaulu landfill siting on Maalo Road in Hanamaulu
WHEN:
Tuesday, February 5th at 6:00pm
WHERE:
King Kaumuali'i Elementary School
Hanamaulu, Kauai (off Kuhio Highway)
The county has chosen Ma'alo for the new landfill and Resource Recovery Park (RRP) http://www.kauai.gov/newlandfillsite/
We all need to show up at meeting this Tuesday, February 5th, 6:00pm at King Kaumuali'i Elementary School and say NO to this site!
Is the Ma’alo site for the next landfill a bad choice?
The Hawaiian word for water is wai. The Hawaiian word for wealth is waiwai. Unless we are mistaken, this roughly translates to mean that fresh water is the most precious resource. It is written that the people of old had Kapu, sacred with the implication of forbidden, on certain activities upstream. In this way, clean wai was available for farming, making medicines and drinking.
How could a rational person, with a Hawaiian heart and a scientific mind think of locating a landfill upstream in the vicinity of surface drinking water? Where is the wisdom in that?
What are the implications that the state is holding the land that was ceded by Queen Kamalu?
What will be the cost to future county engineers to bring fresh water to the people of Hanama’ulu, Kapaia, Lihu’e and lower Wailua?
How many years and how many big rains until the surface water is polluted? How many generations until the ground water is poisoned?
What will be the agricultural costs? It is said that the area proposed is arguably the best farmland in the ahupua’a, land division. How much food, for how many generations could be grown on that 160 acres? How many jobs and for how many generations could work that land? If there is a landfill, how soon will the land and the water be poisoned?
Strangely, in studying the location site map that the county prepared in the power point presentation, available online, the reservoirs are not shown.
Does this implicate the county engineers in condoning a site they know will pollute the surface water supply in the short term, and the ground water in the long term?
Does this put the county and the future taxpayer at risk of a major class action lawsuit for polluting the fresh water of future generations? Will the environmental assessment (EA) answer any of these questions? Will any journalists?
Primary concerns:
[IB Editor's note: Maalo Road is the only way to get to one of the premier visitor destinations on Lauai -Wailua Falls. These dramatic 80-foot waterfalls can be seen from the end Maalo Road and were used in the opening of the television series Fantasy Island. The cliff over the pool once served as a diving platform for the ali`i. After the landfill is sited on Maalo Road all tourists and Kauaians will have to vie with refuge trucks, broken open garbage bags and blowing paper debris to get to the falls.]
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By Nina Monasevitch on 4 February 2013 in Island Breath.
(http://islandbreath.blogspot.com/2013/02/hanamaulu-landfill-siting.html)
Image above: Aerial view of Wailua Falls at the end of Maalo Road. From (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ironrodart/3617887042/).
WHAT:
Public county meeting on Hanamaulu landfill siting on Maalo Road in Hanamaulu
WHEN:
Tuesday, February 5th at 6:00pm
WHERE:
King Kaumuali'i Elementary School
Hanamaulu, Kauai (off Kuhio Highway)
The county has chosen Ma'alo for the new landfill and Resource Recovery Park (RRP) http://www.kauai.gov/newlandfillsite/
The Hawaiian word for water is wai. The Hawaiian word for wealth is waiwai. Unless we are mistaken, this roughly translates to mean that fresh water is the most precious resource. It is written that the people of old had Kapu, sacred with the implication of forbidden, on certain activities upstream. In this way, clean wai was available for farming, making medicines and drinking.
How could a rational person, with a Hawaiian heart and a scientific mind think of locating a landfill upstream in the vicinity of surface drinking water? Where is the wisdom in that?
What are the implications that the state is holding the land that was ceded by Queen Kamalu?
What will be the cost to future county engineers to bring fresh water to the people of Hanama’ulu, Kapaia, Lihu’e and lower Wailua?
How many years and how many big rains until the surface water is polluted? How many generations until the ground water is poisoned?
What will be the agricultural costs? It is said that the area proposed is arguably the best farmland in the ahupua’a, land division. How much food, for how many generations could be grown on that 160 acres? How many jobs and for how many generations could work that land? If there is a landfill, how soon will the land and the water be poisoned?
Strangely, in studying the location site map that the county prepared in the power point presentation, available online, the reservoirs are not shown.
Does this implicate the county engineers in condoning a site they know will pollute the surface water supply in the short term, and the ground water in the long term?
Does this put the county and the future taxpayer at risk of a major class action lawsuit for polluting the fresh water of future generations? Will the environmental assessment (EA) answer any of these questions? Will any journalists?
Primary concerns:
- Contamination of fresh water supply.
- Streamflow needs to be increased already for watershed restoration.
- Ruin of the Hanamaulu Watershed. Total watershed Rating was 4 in 2008 Not good but potentially salvageable.
- What will it be with land fill and horizontal well?
- Loss of viable, rich agricultural land.
Secondary Concerns:
There are 8 other proposed sites. The County needs to pursue the others.- Traffic flow, sole artery Maalo Road.
- Environmental Justice issue, mitigation due to minority and income make up of Hanamaulu area.
- Kapaia Valley residents are not presently included in the mitigation conversation even though Hanamaulu River runs through front yard.
[IB Editor's note: Maalo Road is the only way to get to one of the premier visitor destinations on Lauai -Wailua Falls. These dramatic 80-foot waterfalls can be seen from the end Maalo Road and were used in the opening of the television series Fantasy Island. The cliff over the pool once served as a diving platform for the ali`i. After the landfill is sited on Maalo Road all tourists and Kauaians will have to vie with refuge trucks, broken open garbage bags and blowing paper debris to get to the falls.]
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