Hawaiian wetlands for Navy dump

SUBHEAD: This military chemical dump proposal threatens Oahu's Ewa leeward shores.

By Kane Hili on 29 June 2017 for Kanehili News -
(http://kanehili.blogspot.com/2017/06/wetlands-navy-chemical-dump.html)


Image above: Site used by migratory and endangered Hawaiian birds has been gradually bulldozed over for Navy use as chemical dump. From original article.

In order to provide members of the community with another opportunity to learn about this site, the Navy will be holding an Open House at Ewa Beach Public and School Library at 7pm on Thursday, June 29, 2017. In addition, the Navy has extended the 30-day public comment period until July 21.

SEND COMMENTS TO:

Denise Emsley
Public Affairs Officer
Naval Facilities Engineering Command Hawaii
400 Marshall Road
JBPHH HI 96860-3139
denise.emsley@navy.mil
808-221-6387 - cel

Ancient Hawaiian Wetlands - Navy Chemical Dump - Threatens Ewa Leeward Shores.

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Feedback sought for Navy’s landfill cleanup

By William Cole on 27 June 2017 for the Honolulu Star-Advertiser
http://www.staradvertiser.com/2017/06/27/hawaii-news/more-feedback-sought-for-navys-landfill-cleanup-proposal/

The Navy is extending the public comment period on a proposal to spend $1.2 million to reduce potential exposure to chemicals at a Barbers Point landfill where asbestos and burned waste were dumped between 1942 and 1997. The surface soil contains antimony, lead and hydrocarbons that exceed state Department of Health standards, the Navy said. The Navy is proposing to add cover material, put in place erosion control measures and add perimeter warning signs at the site.

Under The Radar: Ancient Ewa Freshwater Karst Pond Wetlands- Navy PCB Toxic Waste Dump

Hiding all this from the public for at least 14 years (and more likely nearly three decades) with an under the radar "public notice" for comment, the Ewa-Kapolei community was shocked and surprised - no neighborhood board notice, no political reps apparently notified - HCDA apparently not notified.

PHOTOS Below show the chemical dump site's natural, cultural history and ecology more complicated than just simple localized chemical dump.

Here's what you likely don't know:
Thermal Desorption Treatment site of PCB-Contaminated Soil, PCB, DDT, Asbestos, Sludge and other hazardous materials brought in to be burned for nearly two decades, maybe more.

Now, the Navy is leaving and wants it off their books and off their inventory. Is what they plan to do sufficient considering future use, site natural, cultural, ecological geography and history?

 

Stockpiling of Asbestos, PCB and other toxic chemicals for 14 years (or more) without any analysis of heavy rains washing the materials down subsurface karst ancient coral reef waterway channels into the Leeward beach shorelines used for camping, fishing, parties, endangered seals, turtles, limu, etc.

Recent studies found that high levels of lead and other heavy metals on the surface were exposed by recent rains. They very likely have been washing into the shoreline beaches and fisheries for 10-15 years at minimum.

This site is directly adjacent to a Fish & Wildlife endangered species preserve where school children are regularly taken to observe and care take the rare native plants and Opae Ula native shrimp which live in the same underground coral reef brackish water that comes directly wind borne and via subsurface water from this toxic dump.

Karst ponds and underground channels act as storm drains during heavy rains.

The Navy wants to treat the site by covering it up with more soil, but environmental watchdogs say that's not enough.

A Kapolei landfill is more hazardous than initially thought as clean up options, costs vary

http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/35678630/exclusive-navy-kapolei-landfill-plans-debated

"If they were going to do anything, they should seal it up and treat it like a Brownfield site," Carroll Cox of Envirowatch Inc. said. (Ric Daysog, HNN Story)

 

This site is an identifiable ancient natural karst pond and wetlands and ancient Hawaiian habitation area. It was identified as wetlands and ancient Hawaiian sites in the major 1999 Tuggles research down for the closing of the Naval Air Station Barbers point.

https://triadcentral.clu-in.org/user/doc/TPP-BarbersPt-Thermal_Trmt.pdf

Thermal Desorption Treatment of PCB-Contaminated Soil.
Former Naval Air Station Barbers Point. Oahu, Hawaii.
Department of the Navy.

An estimated 26,306 cubic yards of PCB-contaminated soil from 100 sites
at various Navy installations on Oahu were sent to the site for treatment.
Soil from 21 sites totaling more than 5,600 cubic yards had been excavated and
processed through the NAVFAC Kalaeloa site (2003- to ?)

PCB Contaminated soils from military bases all over Oahu, including possibly Kaneohe MCBH where there have been lawsuits filed.

Site Used By Migratory and Endangered Hawaiian Birds

It still has visits by migratory birds, ducks. They have been gradually bulldozing over it but water keeps appearing. It's an ancient karst water pond but they always deny it.

What Chemicals Have Been Stockpiled There?

PCB- Short for polychlorinated biphenyl. A family of industrial compounds used as lubricants, heat-transfer fluids, and plasticizers. The manufacture and use of PCBs has been restricted since the 1970s because they are very harmful to the environment, being especially deadly to fish and invertebrates, and stay in the food chain for many years. Most of the toxic materials came from WW-II and 50's-60's era Oahu military bases.

PCB's are found in old electric power transformers as dielectric and coolant fluids. PCBs as definite carcinogens in humans. The maximum allowable contaminant level in drinking water in the United States is set at zero.

The North American producer, Monsanto Company, marketed PCBs under the trade name Aroclor from 1930 to 1977. The commercial production of PCBs started in 1929 but their use has been banned or severely restricted in many countries since the 1970s and 80s.

Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), DDT and other pesticides had been shown to cause cancer and that their agricultural use was a threat to wildlife, particularly birds. DDE is dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene-breakdown product of DDT.

DDD (DDT) is dichlorodiphenyldichloroethane

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a class of chemicals that occur naturally in coal, crude oil, and gasoline. They also are produced when coal, oil, gas, wood, garbage, and tobacco are burned. Cancer is a primary human health risk of exposure to PAHs.[43] Exposure to PAHs has also been linked with cardiovascular disease and poor fetal development.

Total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) is a term used to describe a large family of several hundred chemical compounds that originally come from crude oil.

Also: residual sewage sludge (and what ELSE? we don't know?

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Navy admits lapses in Red Hill flow studies

By William Cole on 24 June 2017 in the Honolulu Start Advertiser
http://www.staradvertiser.com/2017/06/24/hawaii-news/navy-admits-lapses-in-red-hill-flow-studies/?HSA=304b9c8e9f0c5c558bbad055d7d009ce4a60bb8f

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and state Department of Health sent a June 7 letter criticizing the Navy for providing too little information on water flow modeling to determine where previously spilled fuel might end up, even though the Navy has spent almost two years on the environmental investigation.

A better understanding of groundwater flow patterns is a critical step in the investigation of contamination at Red Hill, the EPA said on its website.

“While most parties agree that groundwater generally flows from the mountains to the ocean, there are specific geologic characteristics in the area around Red Hill that may cause some groundwater to flow in directions other than directly towards the ocean,” the EPA said.

Location of the site in Google Maps

https://goo.gl/maps/9CqZgQkBeYp

Running out the comment clock: Started May 23 - public was not aware.
Navy says they ran notice in daily newspaper which makes it "ok"
Claim they wanted "public comment" but seem to hope they get ZERO as this was
all Under The Radar.

Is there a plan to make this a new City trash dump that has been a hot
potato for many years? Politicians want all trash and toxic substances
dumped in West Oahu and "Wild West" back roads Kalaleoa are ideal. Is this next?

Only now is there admission of a remediation plan, however these toxic
substances were trucked in from all over Oahu since 2003 and stockpiled
for disposal. How much has all the waste leaked into the porous karst
caves and channels down into the shoreline food chain of limu, reef fish,
turtles, seals etc. ? It has all been kept a secret for at least 14 years.

Only discovered two weeks ago, information about the "public notice" and
"public meeting" was already well underway- started May 22 .

https://triadcentral.clu-in.org/user/doc/TPP-BarbersPt-Thermal_Trmt.pdf

Thermal Desorption Treatment of PCB-Contaminated Soil.
Former Naval Air Station Barbers Point. Oahu, Hawaii.
Department of the Navy.

An estimated 26,306 cubic yards of PCB-contaminated soil from 100 sites at various Navy installations on Oahu were sent to the site for treatment. Soil from 21 sites totaling more than 5,600 cubic yards had been excavated and processed through the NAVFAC Kalaeloa site (2003- to ?)

PCB Contaminated soils from military bases all over Oahu, including Kaneohe MCBH where there have been lawsuits filed.

Site At Kalaeloa Was Freshwater Pond Before WW-II, 2003 Navy Turned It Into Turned Into PCB Toxic Dump

Still visited by migratory birds, ducks. They have been gradually bulldozing over it but water keeps appearing. It's an ancient karst water pond wetlands but the Navy denies it. 1928 air photos show it was there before WW-II Navy airfield, then after base closure was turned into toxic waster disposal site because it was so far away and out of sight. Nobody ever asked any questions.

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Feedback sought for Navy’s cleanup

By William Cole on 27 June 32017 for the Honolulu Star Advertiser -
http://www.staradvertiser.com/2017/06/27/hawaii-news/more-feedback-sought-for-navys-landfill-cleanup-proposal/

The Navy is extending the public comment period on a proposal to spend $1.2 million to reduce potential exposure to chemicals at a Barbers Point landfill where asbestos and burned waste were dumped between 1942 and 1997. The surface soil contains antimony, lead and hydrocarbons that exceed state Department of Health standards, the Navy said. The Navy is proposing to add cover material, put in place erosion control measures and add perimeter warning signs at the site.

Not one person in the entire community was informed about this Project Plan, including either of the two local neighborhood boards which is where nearly all community projects are presented and questions answered. No one with the Hawaii Community Development Authority were this Navy parcel is located was aware of this plan or the claimed public meeting. A call to all of the local offices of elected officials in the area revealed not one of them or their staff knew about any public meeting.

NOT AWARE OF NAVY REQUEST FOR PUBLIC COMMENT:

Elected leaders of the Neighborhood Board # 34
Hawaii Community Development Authority (Governor Appointed leaders)
State Senator(s) of the district and surrounding areas
State Representative(s) of the district and surrounding areas
City Council Members of the district and surrounding areas
Adjacent Neighborhood Boards (downstream of potential PCB run-off)
Hawaiian Cultural leaders in the area
Residents of the Kalaeloa community

Click on an image to enlarge. 

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Suits over toxic soil at Marine Base
SUBHEAD: Residents began to report problems with asthma, cancer and birth defects.

By Chad Blair on 14 December 2014 for Civil Beat -
http://www.civilbeat.org/2016/12/more-suits-filed-over-fears-of-toxic-soil-at-marine-corps-base-hawaii/

Sixty-four military families have now filed suit over fears of pesticide contamination near their homes at Marine Corps Base Hawaii in Kaneohe.


Five separate lawsuits were filed earlier this year by 44 families who said they were not told about the contamination near their homes. On Dec. 8, two more lawsuits were filed on behalf of 20 additional families.

The lawsuits name as defendants Forest City Residential Management and its former subsidiary, Ohana Military Communities, which is owned by military housing developer Hunt Companies.

All of the families leased residential housing at the base sometime from 2006 to 2014. The lawsuits are seeking damages from the defendants that own and manage privatized housing at the base. Ten other unidentified defendants are also named in the suits.

“Since at least 2006, defendants have systematically failed to warn military families of pesticide contamination at MCBH and knowingly and intentionally exposed military families at MCBH to unsafe conditions including higher rates of cancer and other adverse health outcomes without disclosing these risks to military families or taking sufficient steps to protect military families from such risks,” the new claims allege.

The plaintiffs’ attorneys, Kyle Smith and Terrance Revere, declined to comment, and a spokesperson for Ohio-based Forest City said the company does not comment on pending litigation.

The new cases were filed in 1st Circuit Court in Honolulu.

The concerns about potential soil contamination date to 2006, when Ohana Military Communities (then a subsidiary of Forest City) was demolishing homes and buildings. The developer discovered high levels of organochlorine pesticides left over from termite treatments.

Forest City completed a state Department of Health-approved pesticide management plan, which allowed for higher levels of carcinogenic pesticides than the Environmental Protection Agency generally recommends to remain in the surface soil. It was assumed that military families would not live on the base longer than six years, given the frequency or relocations.

But residents also began to report problems with asthma, cancer and birth defects.

Barber, the wife of a Marine Corps veteran who lived on the base for several years, was the lead plaintiff in the initial lawsuit against Forest City in 2014. Barber’s case was later settled out of court.

Meanwhile, Forest City and Hunt Companies have been seeking to prevent Barber’s attorneys — Smith and Revere — from representing some of the other current and former residents of military housing who have submitted mediation demands.

Goodsill Anderson Quinn and Stifel and another law firm, Cox Fricke, argue that Smith and Revere should be disqualified because they violated conflict of interest and professional conduct rules by allegedly soliciting clients in the contaminated soil case.

Another complication: The earlier lawsuits have been shifted from 1st Circuit Court to the U.S. District Court in Hawaii, a matter that is under dispute.

It’s possible that additional cases might be filed. In the meantime, the jurisdiction debate could be settled by February, at which time discovery in the court cases could commence.

It’s unclear how much the plaintiffs are seeking, as there are no dollar amounts indicated in the court filings.Damages for emotional distress are also sought.

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Navy Seeks comment on waste plan

By William Cole on 16 June 2017 for Honolulu Star-Advertiser

The Navy is seeking public comment on a proposal to spend $1.2 million to reduce potential exposure to chemicals at a Barbers Point landfill where asbestos and burned municipal waste were in trash dumped between 1942 and 1997. Surface soil contains antimony, lead and hydrocarbons that exceed state Department of Health action levels, the Navy said. 

The Navy is proposing to add cover material, put in place erosion control measures, add perimeter warning signs and conduct a review every five years at the industrial site in an old coral pit south of Runway 11 at Kalaeloa Airport.

The Barbers Point Sanitary Landfill is adjacent to the site of a 2003-04 operation to cleanse more than 44,500 cubic yards of soil contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) that were collected from 14 military installations around Oahu. A thermal treatment plant was brought in to bake the soil at 900 degrees to remove PCBs as sludge.

A coral pit used to generate fill and road-base material in the early 1940s was subsequently used for the landfill, the Navy said. “Bagged asbestos was reportedly disposed of at the site between 1976 and 1991,” the Navy said in a synopsis of the mitigation plan. “According to historic reports, municipal waste was burned and placed in the landfill, then covered with coralline soil from a nearby coral pit. A landfill cover of compacted gravel and sand was placed over the site prior to closure in 1997 as a final waste containment measure.”

A Navy review between 1994 and 1998 indicated that chemicals of potential concern were not present in concentrations that could pose a risk, but the report was reviewed in 2011 and found to have “data gaps” over the characterization of the surface soil, the Navy said.

Under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, also known as Superfund, the Navy is responsible for the investigation and cleanup of contamination resulting from its past operations.

The landfill, consisting of about 4.8 acres, no longer is in operation, but is part of the Navy’s Solid Waste Management Facility, which takes in green waste and sewage sludge.

The landfill cover was maintained as a vegetated surface until 2009, when heavy rain caused flooding and erosion of the cover, the Navy said. Compost material was spread across the surface, but charred wood and plastic started to become visible.

The $1.2 million mitigation plan is the Navy’s “preferred” alternative among several being considered. The most expensive would be the $42 million removal and disposal of soil and debris down to 10 feet.

Ewa Beach historian John Bond said he has concerns over the contamination remaining in the ground. Army Air Corps photos from 1928 show a karst sinkhole pond mauka of the landfill site, and “anything you put in the ground there is going to leach right down into the water table and into the ocean,” he said.

Bond said the Navy mitigation plan is new to him and other community members and that further review of the alternatives is needed. The state Department of Health in December said it concurred with the Navy’s preferred plan.

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Need for GMO effluent monitoring

SOURCE: Kenneth Schwartz (k-vision@earthlink.net)
SUBHEAD: GMO companies seek to avoid reports on dumping of GMO effluent into Pacific Ocean.

By Juan Wilson on 16 August 2015 in Island Breath -
(http://islandbreath.blogspot.com/2015/11/need-for-gmo-effluent-monitoring.html)


Image above: USGS Mana Quadrangle Map from 1910 showing the healthy wetlands now occupied by the GMO chemical companies along with the military and defense contractors. From (http://islandbreath.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-golden-plain.html).

This morning I received an email from Kenneth Schwartz concerning GMO companies (Dow, Syngenta, BASF, DuPont) trying to avoid the reporting on their field effluents going into into the Pacific Ocean.

It should be remembered that after 911 the US Navy Pacific Missile Range Facility reduced public access and expanded its leased area and responsibilities on the Mana Plain. That included taking over the the control of the pumps that control the ditches taking water off the Mana Plain fields.

Ken includes a recent letter (PDF) from Gary Hooser objecting to the ADC getting any exemption to the EPA-required permit requirements of environmental reports. Ken's email text follows:

Aloha Juan,

I’m sure you may know of this since you have your finger constantly on the pulse of Kauai. But I thought I’d forward anyway.

It appears our eco friendly (Ha!) The ADC, the land manager for State agricultural lands, is seeking to be "exempt" from the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit requirements.

Their primary tenants on the land are the four large agrochemical companies. They are seeking to be exempt from reporting outfalls on the Mana Plain from the Kawai'eli and Nohili pump stations which deposit directly into the Pacific at above Majors Bay and at Polihale. Councilman Hooser has responded but still needs our help. Read on...

(https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B43mvAFMJQpca09oaU8yWmtKX1k/vie 

By the way - oddly enough, it appears there was no outfalls reported between Aug. 2014 and July 2015. Hardly seems believable.

Ken

September 9, 2015 Virginia Pressler, M.D., Director of Health Office of the Director of Health 1250 Punchbowl Street Honolulu, Hawai`i 96813 and via E-mail: (virginia.pressler@doh.hawaii.gov) Dear Director Pressler: This is to strongly object to the Agribusiness Development Corporation (ADC) being exempt from the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System ( NPDES) permit requirements on Kaua`i, and to request in writing the procedure upon which I may initiate a contested case hearing or other manner of formally objecting to this exemption. Given that: 1. The ADC has been operating under a former Kekaha Sugar Company NPDES permit for many years. 2. The ADC manages lands that contain several " ditches" that are effectively pipes that drain water off ofADC lands and into nearshore ocean waters. 3. The water contained within the ditch system is fed by water from numerous sources including the runoff and discharge into the ditches from various nonagricultural industrial operations and from several large agrochemical companies that are conducting research and operations involving intensive application of large amounts of both General Use and Restricted Use Pesticides. 4. The quality of the water in the ditches and the types of pollutants it contains have never been thoroughly evaluated and tested. 5. Many of the pesticides and other chemicals used by the tenants of the ADC are proven to harm aquatic life. 6. The tenants of the ADC use large quantities of water during their pre-pesticide mixing and post-application clean-up process, and the disposal via ground seepage and/or long-term storage of the resulting contaminated water has not been evaluated. 7. The ADC's own memorandum dated July 22, 2015 ( See Attached) states their internal concerns about the quality of their discharge by stating about the NPDES requirements: "these new water quality standards would likely be extremely difficult to meet, particularly at approval[.]" The same memorandum further states the new standards include more stringent requirements re: " discharge limits for priority pollutants such as pesticides and herbicides, and the fact that the receiving waters would be various ditches (and not the ocean as under the existing permit)[.]" For these reasons and many others, I hereby formally object to the ADC being ranted any exemption to the EPA-required NPDES permit requirements and by copy of this letter notify all parties of my intent to file for a contested case hearing or other judicial review as may be appropriate and required. The courtesy of a reply no later than close of business September 19, 2015 providing me with information as to the appropriate process by which to further file and pursue my objections would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your careful consideration of this matter in the interest of public trust. Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact me or the Office of the County Clerk, Council Services Division at (808)- 241- 4188. GARY L. HOOSER Councilmember, Kauai County Council Attachment: cc: Darryl Lum, Engineering Section Supervisor, State of Hawai`i Department of Health Andrew Sawyers, Director, U.S. EPA, Office of Wastewater Management Benita Best-Wong, Director, U.S. EPA, Office of Wetlands, Oceans and Watersheds Jared Blumenfeld, Regional Administrator, U.S. EPA, Pacific Southwest, Region 9

For PDF file of Gary's letter see (http://www.islandbreath.org/2015Year/11/151116hooser.pdf).

Also as a reference, below are the two Discharge Monitoring Reports (DRMs) from late 2014 and early 2015. See (DMR2nd2014) and (DMR1st2015).

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Argentina's plan to restore wetlands

SUBHEAD: The country is implementing an ambitious program to restore wildlife in its wetlands.

By Marina Aizen on 11 November 2015 for Huffington Post -
(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/argentina-wetlands-wildlife_564219dde4b0307f2caf041c)


Image above: The Natural Ibera Reserve, home of a significant variety of fauna, is a natural paradise unique in its type. From original article.

[IB Publisher's note: We published this to call attention to what could happen in Hawaii. The two greatest wetlands in Hawaii, Ewa on Oahu and Mana on Kauai, were both obliterated by American interests in the last century in a half. The Ewa plain was dug out for Pearl Harbor and the remaining Ewa plain has been burdened by military and industrial interests (now it is being scarred by the HART rail system construction). On Kauai the marshes of Mana were filled in for sugar cane and now are dominated by the military-industrial complex of the Pacific Missile Range Facility and the Chemical/Pesticide corporation's experimental GMO fields. For the long term health of the Hawaiian Islands we should restore the flora and fauna of these to sources of Pacific bird, insect, fish wildlife.]

The Ibera wetlands are witnessing South America’s largest experiment to reintroduce lost species, which will change the estuary’s appearance and dynamize its economy.

Tucked away in the shelter provided by the meadow, Jurumina is fast asleep, coiled like a fireman’s hose. Even her long anteater snout seems made for putting out fires. But nothing seems to disturb her in the Ibera, a landscape shaped by estuaries that this creature blends so well into.

Her natural connection to these bird-thronged surroundings is a picture postcard that, until recently, belonged to the realm of memory. For Jurumina’s species had been wiped out in this flood-prone land where camalotes bloom with purple flowers.

If Jurumina can now curl up to sleep and then get up to feed off termites scurrying nearby, it is because she is part of an ambitious experiment, the first of its kind in the Americas, organized by a team of Argentine and international scientists. They plan to bring together all the pieces of the jigsaw that the life of this vast wetland represents: it has been left damaged, fragmented and, in many cases, deliberately destroyed.

Only South Africa has carried out large scale reintroductions of animals. What is happening in the Ibera wetlands is setting a precedent in Argentina and many other countries. The technical term is ‘rewilding’.

Practically speaking, it means giving the environment back its original functions. In his San Alonso ranch, the biologist Ignacio Jiménez explains that you cannot divorce the landscape from its living inhabitants. And he claims that under the same bio-physical conditions – that is, the availability of water and the climate – an environment transforms according to the inhabitants that it supports.

In simple terms, the geography of a place will change according to whether or not it contains giraffes. And the landscape of the Ibera has been visibly impoverished by the absence of its charismatic critters.

Their return will generate more woodland and better meadows. Both have a key role because they sequester carbon from the atmosphere (the principal cause of climate change): one absorbs it, while the other fixes it in the soil and converts it into peat.

“Achieving a fully functional ecosystem means re-introducing large carnivores and herbivores. Rewilding says ‘let’s bring them back’,” Jiménez tells us. He works for the NGO Conservation Land Trust, established by US philanthropist Douglas Tompkins.

The project has a motto, “Corrientes vuelve a ser Corrientes” or, loosely translated, “Corrientes province is going back to how it was.” The province has been covered with posters featuring this slogan, because it is definitely society as a whole that will benefit from the restoration of its wildlife. The Ibera wetlands are today a mecca for eco-tourism because of its fabulous birds, capybaras, alligators and Cayará monkeys, among other animals.

“If we succeed here, in 30 years’ time this whole area will be full of life,” Jiménez says excitedly. “The Ibera will be home to woodland creatures that can serve as a tourist attraction. It is an historic opportunity to lessen a very real crisis. We have a trickle of species losses that we cannot make up for. Rewilding will generate better numbers.”

The sun has barely emerged from the horizon when a group of peasants comes into view, driving a JCB with an air of triumph. Their work is to continue the construction of gigantic pens that will shelter a new generation of jaguars until they can be released.

The pens of San Alonso, the most isolated point of the Ibera wetlands, have the look of a chemical molecule when seen from the air, with their four interconnected cages, each 120 square meters large. Inside live two females (the first to arrive is called Tobuna; she is magnificent) and two males.

Once the females are pregnant, they will be moved to bigger pens – around 1.5 hectares – where their young will be out of sight of humans. They will be left live prey so that they learn how to hunt.

Once they have reached maturity, they will be separated from their mothers and will go on to an even bigger pen, 30 hectares large. Everything works well in theory. “We still have to see if the reality corresponds to our ideas,” Jiménez admits.

One of the first species to return to the Ibera wetlands were the anteaters. They come from different areas, where many local people bring them up alongside their dogs. Girls find the baby anteaters affectionate and loving, but the critters stand no chance of surviving in a household environment.

“For this reason it is very important to work together with local communities,” says the biologist Alicia Delgado, head of the Rescue Centre in the Riachuelo area, where they undergo an obligatory quarantine before their relocation.

“The anteater is neither herbivore nor carnivore. It is an insectivore. It fulfills a specific role in the food chain, as insect eater and as prey to larger animals,” the scientist says.

The animal became extinct in the Ibera in the 1980s. Competition with dogs, hunting and habitat loss were the factors the sealed its fate.

See also:
Ea O Ka Aina: The Golden Plain  8/27/2013
Ea O Ka Aina: The Mana Mirage 4/17/1847
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Secret Navy land deal in Ewa

SUBHEAD: Navy refuses native Hawaiian practitioner rights in secret Ewa, Oahu, land transfer. Complaint filed with state and federal agencies.

By Michael Lee on 6 September 2015 in Kanahili Blogspot -
(http://kanehili.blogspot.com/2015/09/navy-refuses-native-hawaiian-rights.html)


Image above: Area of the Ewa karst west of Pearl Harbor. Note multiple military and industrial installations already impacting this sensitive unique environment. Click to embiggen. From original article..

With regards to the secretive Navy land transfer of many parcels of lands which exist on the plain of Kaupe’a and Kanehili, Honouliuli ahupua’a moku of Ewa, identified previously as the former Navy Barbers Point Air Base and today is called Kalaeloa.

As a recognized Native Hawaiian cultural practitioner in Honouliuli, Ewa, by the Board of Land and Natural Resources, the 1st Circuit Court, Intermediate Court of Appeals, as a HART Programmatic Agreement Consulting Party, as a Navy KREP PV Farm Consulting Party, as well as a recognized cultural descendant on April 14, 2010 by the O’ahu Island Burial Council to ancestral native Hawaiian remains within and surrounding the Navy lands of Barbers Point, Iroquois Point and West Loch, I provide the following statement:

I must rely upon vigilant protection of my religious, traditional and customary Native Hawaiian practices, cultural and natural resources or I and the Hawaiian people will lose them forever.

As the kahu, or keeper, of the iwi kupuna in this area, as recognized by the Oahu Island Burial Council and State of Hawaii Historic Preservation Division, it is my responsibility to ensure the protection and safety of all the ancestral bones and funerary objects within in this area of my responsibility. I can and have filed lawsuits and won when my cultural rights have been damaged and violated.

I have to ask: Why was I not consulted in this land transfer which directly concerns my cultural practice and the tens of thousands of iwi kapuna in the Leina a ka uhane that I have responsibility to protect?

I am also an Hawaiian astronomer or star priest called Papakilohoku recognized by the Honolulu City Council with an Honorary Certificate and also very recently consulted by astronomy organizations on the Big Island regarding native Hawaiian astronomy.

All this background gives me standing concerning the Federally recognized Hawaiian Traditional Cultural Property (TCP) in Honouliuli called the Leina a ka Uhane, a very sacred spiritual leaping place for souls of the deceased returning to their ancient homeland.

This major wahi pana (sacred place) was Federally recognized by the HART Rail Project in a 2012 published series of documents as a Section 106 requirement to identify Ewa Plain Honouliuli TCP’s.

The Leina a ka Uhane TCP is clearly within the same ancient area known as the Plain of Kanehili and Plain of Kaupe’a, connected by the important ancient Hawaiian trail system within Honouliuli-Ewa identified by the 1825 Malden Trails map. All of this was also well identified in numerous Navy base closure documents and maps produced in 1979 through 2001.

Leina a ka Uhane in Kanehili is a sacred burial area for iwi kupuna in the tens of thousands. There is no excuse for the Navy land transfer to completely ignore all of this Federally produced Leina a ka Uhane TCP documentation and not consult with the most qualified and widely recognized resident Kahu in Honouliuli, Ewa.

The Navy lands being transferred are only minutes away from where I live and I have walked through it many times. The presence of burial sites, ancient habitation sites and the spirits of my ancestors is very real there and these spirits of the iwi kupuna call to me for their protection to prevent their desecration.

Burials in the Plains of Kanehili and Kaupe’a areas using the native Hawaiian Trails drawn by Malden in 1825 and subsequently documented by archeologists for the Navy in detailed archeological reports as on the Barbers Point Navy Base and Ewa Marine Air Base cannot be denied. These are facts but the Navy is intentionally ignoring them in the land transfer.


Image above: Wetlands on the Ewa Karst are delicate and of sacred importance to Hawaiian culture. From original article.

The ancient Hawaiian trails running from Honouliuli to Ewa, Palehua, Kualaka’i and One’ula are very key components for understanding the cultural history of the Honouliuli ahupua’a. Portions of these trails still exist through the Plains of Kaupe’a and Kanehili, in the foothills by Makakilo which was a major Papakilohoku star priest observation place, and in the documented archeological trails and iwi kupuna Karst burial areas which exist in the Barbers Point Navy lands being transferred.

This Navy land transfer is an attempt to evade native Hawaiian cultural rights as specified in numerous State and federal laws protecting native Hawaiian culture.

The US Navy is intentionally allowing, by their secrecy and lack of consultation with the most qualified local native Hawaiian residents, this most significant sacred cultural landscape in the Hawaiian Islands. This lack of cultural respect has and will cause great emotional and spiritual harm to not only myself, but to thousands of the cultural descendants of the iwi kupuna buried in there. This harm extends to the spiritual well-being of the entire Native Hawaiian lahui as well.

As a long time kahunalapa’auokekaiolimu, or Native Hawaiian practitioner of limu medicine, I have standing under Hawaii law protecting Native Hawaiian cultural practitioners and I am recognized in the Hawaii First Circuit Court in cases for the Honouliuli area and in Federal Court as the Hawaiian Cultural Practitioner of sea medicine on the Big Island in Kohala in the Kona Blue v. Kahea Kohala fishery's case in 2011.

The entire Plain of Kaupe’a and Kanehili are entirely ancient coral limestone reef with thousands of caves and sinkholes. This is a well documented fact by the Navy’s own base closure archeologists.

Fresh water flows through an extensive network of underground interconnected Karst caverns and channels from the mountains to the sea in the Plain of Kaupe’a and Kanehili which contains the nutrients that feed our eco-system food chain.

The Honolulu City Council passed unanimously in 2012 the Ewa Plain Trails resolution giving my cultural practice further standing in Honouliuli by advocating the protection of the 1825 Malden Trails (ancient Hawaiian trails) and Ewa Karst water system which is an ancient limestone reef wetlands water system.

I believe it is my duty as a native Hawaiian cultural practitioner to state that we cannot afford any more of these losses and developments must adhere to state and federal laws. This is also a Hawaii Public Trust Interest as stated in the Hawaii State Constitution. The State of Hawaii is mandated to protect this resource- caves, karst, underground streams and rivers under Statute 6D 1-10, Article 11, Section 7 State Constitution.


Image above: Author Michael Lee at shoreline of Ewa Karst holding native seaweed. From original article.

Native Hawaiian TCP’s do not follow any exact linear, circular or simple place box format like a TMK. They can cover a large area, vary in depth and width and are often linked together by trails, caves, ponds and canoe landings. The land and the people are one.

Access to and protection of native cultural sites and ecosystems is a cornerstone of recognized cultural practice in Hawai‘i. When a sacred place, native species or critical ecosystem is lost, a wahi pani or wahi kapu is erased from the landscape, the words and traditions associated with them are also lost.

Native Hawaiian rights: Article XII Section 7 of the Hawaii Constitution states, "The State reaffirms and shall protect all rights, customarily and traditionally exercised for subsistence cultural and religious purposes and possessed by ahupua'a tenants who are descendants of native Hawaiians prior to 1778."


CONTACT:
Michael Lee
91-1200 Keauniu Drive, Unit 614,
Ewa Beach, Hawaii 96706
kanehilivideos@gmail.com


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HART rail is eco-disaster for Oahu

SUBHEAD: HART Rail hitting karst water, sea caves polluting critical wetlands and damaging cultural sites.

By John Bond on 11 January 2015 for Kanehili Cultural Hui -
(http://honouliuli.blogspot.com/2015/01/Hart-rail-disaster-hitting-Oahu.html)


Image above: Above, "Pearl Harbor" as it was painted in 1898. Pearl Harbor is a vast estuary of ancient coral reef coastal habitats which native Hawaiians made extensive use of. From original article.

[IB Publisher's note: The article below is only a brief summary of the likely impact of currently planned mass transit development on the Ewa Plain near Pearl Harbor. For a more detailed and comprehensive article please see the original article. It is our position that the Ewa Plain (and Pearl Harbor), along with the Mana Plain on Kauai, are historically the two most critical wetlands in the Hawaiian chain. Both environments have been greatly compromised by Big Ag and the military and will be further damaged with current plans.]

West Oahu's greatest natural apocalypse is unfolding, with hundreds of 8 foot in diameter, 200 foot deep drill bores, the ancient karst water, sea caves and wetlands are being fractured and polluted, then to be followed by a major new asphalt and concrete city based around three huge HART (Honolulu Authority Rapid Transit) Rail Transit developments.

The already fragile Ewa Plain ecosystem based on natural clean water will be destroyed.


Image above: Laulaunui Island in the rich wetlands of Puuloa area and nearby Ewa Plain. From original article.

Pearl Harbor was originally an extensive shallow ancient coral reef embayment called Wai Momi meaning “Waters of Pearl” or Puuloa meaning “long hill” by Hawaiians. The large uplands of inland Oahu fed massive amounts of surface and subsurface fresh nutrient rich water into the Pearl River which spawned great quantities of pearl laden oysters and teeming sea life.

Fresh spring water is especially important in the propagation of plant and sea life and the food chains they create- from limu on up to large pelagic fish.

Surface and ground waters are very susceptible to contamination from pollutants.

Contaminants can reach ground water quickly through fractured rock formations or sinkholes in karst areas, such as that found in Ewa. Ground water is more sensitive to contamination in these areas because runoff may pass directly into the subsurface with little if any infiltration through the soil, a process that typically filters at least some pollutants.

The Ewa Karst is the largest of several karsts on Oahu, but possibly the least studied (in the Hawaiian Islands and especially the United States.) Many State and even some Federal agencies refused to recognize that Ewa has a karst subsurface water system. Most people in Hawaii have never heard of karst or that a large number of the population live on an ancient coral reef.



Image above: Piledriving operations for HART project on Ewa Plain threatens karst formations critical to environment and wetlands integrity. From original article.

The HART Rail pylons to support the system will be 8 foot in diameter and go down as far as 150-200 feet deep. The hundreds these pylons required are going destroy ancient lava tubes, karst waterways and the sacred wahi pana cave sites of native Hawaiians.

Drilling hundreds of 8 foot diameter deep bores below the surface of Pearl Harbor waters will greatly endangering an entire ecosystem. It contaminate subsurface waters and exposed them to modern street and machinery pollutants.

The eight foot in diameter Waipahu deep boring rail column sites have been a consistent problem for the Kiewit construction company because they are hitting large amounts of underground water channels.

The entire ancient history (and plantation era history) is loaded with springs popping out of the ground everywhere. For agriculture and fish ponds these were ideal conditions. Today everything is being covered in concrete and asphalt.

An entire bountiful ecosystem and cultural heritage being destroyed by land developers.

Off the Ewa shore are the numerous huge circular holes in the still living reef where vast amounts of upland fresh water has run through the ancient Karst reef and out into the sea through underground caves.

These huge fresh water outlets create excellent fishing grounds and feed nutrients into the sea that create ideal spawning conditions.

These once fantastic ecosystems fed native Hawaiians for a thousand years however the waters are increasingly being diverted, cut off and polluted by up stream development on the Ewa Plain.

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The Golden Plain

SUBHEAD: Mana was once a vital wetlands supporting the lives of fish bird and plants - It can be again.

By Juan Wilson on 27 August 2013 for Island Breath -
(http://islandbreath.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-golden-plain.html)


Image above: Vernal ponds on the westside. In this case Puolo Point, near Hanapepe. Photo by Juan Wilson.

An imaginary true story
Imagine you are in Kekaha, Kauai, during a full moon near the Winter Solstice early in the 20th century; or more precisely at sunset on December 19th in 1907. As the sun is setting you are at the western end of Kekaha in a grove of palm trees at the sandy southern edge of a wetland. It is a place the Hawaiians call Pokii.

The bright day is cooling as above you the glow of as the sky turns from orange to a deep purple.  You look down again you see a small outrigger canoe slipping across the shallow water. It will soon take you north.

Your guide uses his paddle to pole you into the marshy water as the canoe rocks. It has rained a lot above the Mana plain in the last week and the water has made its way to down to the marsh. After a short while you are gliding through the water in an area fringed with sedge grasses. On either side, beyond the marsh, flooded fields of rice reflect what is left of the twilight.

To your left a thick forest of kiawe borders the marshland. You can barely hear the winter swell crashing on the shore break beyond the trees. A Pueo owl hovers over a clearing in the trees as it hunts for dinner.

On the right are the quarter-mile high cliffs of Mana and above them the grassland on the mantle above. The grassy mantle is divided by forested narrow valleys that cut the land into what look like loaves of bread set side by side. You can see farther when open water widens into the lower part of the 500 or so acres of Kawaiele Pond.

From the valleys along the base of the cliffs a forest of lehua and ohia trees spills. The valleys carry the fast moving rainwater from far above down to the Mana Plain. There along the base of the cliffs the marsh edge is fringed in pili and makaloa grasses.

As the dusk becomes darkness your guide points ahead. The moon is shining brightly on the smooth water. Suddenly there is a flash as a school of young fish leaps through the water and into the air chased by something unseen.

There is a great variety of fish, birds and plants that depend on this expansive wetland for their birth and sustenance. How many we will never know.

The rice paddies are behind you now. You are lucky to have this guide through Kawaiele Pond as it has branches that sprawl in different directions. One way leads to an outlet to the ocean and the village of Waiele in Kaawaloa ahupuaa.  There are stone walls lining fishponds near the shore of the village. Here fish enter to spawn in the Mana wetlands. The keike thrive in the warm brackish waters until it's their time.

In the distance there is a flatboat with two of men in it. One holds an oil lamp over the water while another gathers something from the water with a net. Shorebirds used these marshes to breed and hunt the fish too.

You pass through another branch of the pond leading to Limaloa Pond and Hohili beyond. You turn to look behind at the moon. The sky is cloudless. The moon is so bright that at first you do not see the rainbow surrounding it. As your eyes adjust the colors around the moon seem to pulse.

The guide has reached the northern end of Limaloa Pond and he nudges the bow of the canoe into a reedy area that seems solid enough. Above and ahead of you a line of clouds moves slowly with the trades strung down Mana Ridge from the swamp and forests of Kokee. It streches across the channel to Niihau bringing fresh water with it. After a short portage over a sandy area the two of you slip the canoe into the marsh of Nohili Pond in Nonomahiki ahupuaa. The guide navigates the canoe through the grassy area and into open water.

This is not as big as Kawaiele or Limaloa Pond but it has an impressive feature ahead to your left - it glows white in the moonlight with a scattering of dark tree stands on its back - its known to many as Barking Sands. At the peak the sand dunes of Nohili Point are about 100 feat high - the tallest in Hawaii. The beach they sit on is the longest in Hawaii as well, stretching over ten miles uninterrupted from Kekaha to Polihale.

You are tempted to end your trip at south end of Barking Sands. It is certainly about the most spectacular place to survey Mana and the ocean, but you have another goal farther ahead. The northern marshes of Nohili Pond are just ahead. As you drift onto shore you hear the scrape of sand on the canoe's hull. 

Once you land you could stay with your guide and go over the next portage and soon reach Kolo Pond close to the cliffs. It is a special place, but your plan is to head toward the old road that skirts the back of the dunes and reach Queen's Pond that lies along the shore of Kolo Ahupuaa. It is not a long walk.

You walk along the old dirt road and in s short while you cross into Kahelunui ahupuaa. The giant sand dunes north of Barking Sands continue there march up the beach with you. Kahelunui is narrow so its not long before you enter into Kolo ahupuaa; not where the pond is back at the cliff, but near the ocean dunes.

The old road passes through a group of giant monkeypod trees  Their ancient boughs make semicircular arcs from the massive trunks almost reaching the ground. The trees are the marker to head towards the ocean and Queen's Pond. You hike up the sandy path through kiawe trees that provide the only shade available in the day.  The moon is casting its shadows of the treetops in the white sand. You are careful to avoid the thorns of their fallen branches.

The dunes here are high and block the sound of the ocean. However you do hear laughter from the top of the 50 foot dune. The path ramps up to a clearing and you see sparks fly into the sky. You have found your friend's campfire in the dunes protected from the ocean wind. After a brief greeting you're off down the face of the dune heading toward to the ocean and the pond.

Queen's Pond is fully formed next to the ocean, and glistening in the moonlight. Tonight the pond is fat. It lies parallel to the ocean over 700 long by 150 wide. It is probably over your head in the middle.

Being a tidal ocean pond it forms in the sand only under the right conditions. It can disappear in a matter of hours or stay on for weeks. You never quite know if it will be there the next time you come. No one is out here but you and your friends.

You strip off your dusty clothes and touch a toe in the pond. The pond has been in place for couple of sunny weeks so it is warm. You wade in on the sandy bottom. There is a greenish blue flash beneath you. Your feet must have disturbed some bioluminescent algae growing in the pond.

Surprised, you laugh. A friend dives in head first and waves of aqua color light radiate out in front of her. You can see tiny fish dart away as you decide to dive in too - eyes open you see more rainbows.


Image above: Looking north towards Queens Pond and Polihale in distance, from the border of Kolo Ahupuaa, Photo by Juan Wilson.

The reality of it all
In 2010 I was asked to map the traditional land areas of the islands of Hawaii. They consist of the moku (roughly bioregions) and ahupuaa (roughly watersheds) of each island.

The indigenous Hawaiians developed a land management system utilizing the moku and ahupuaa to achieve long lasting agricultural and aquaculture practices. Although it was not perfect, it supported people's needs while protecting the environment for a longer time than modern practice has proven to do.

The Hawaiian success, as with most cultures, resulted in higher populations. Pigs escaped domestication and tore up the mountains. Birds became extinct because of the color of their feathers. Limits of acreage in the valleys meant greater difficulty expanding food production. These factors and more meant leaning too hard on the resources of the land.

As Hawaiian population reached into the hundreds of thousands, stricter regulation and control (kapu or taboo) of people increased. These disciplines were needed to maintain a precarious equilibrium with the environment. Even with these difficulties the pre-contact Hawaiians did better protecting the land than those from afar who settled here. By the time of Captain Cook's landing on Kauai, in 1779, growing population was something that Hawaiians already were dealing with. But not for long.

After taking just about every whale in the Atlantic the whalers moved to the Pacific with the attendant missionaries. They brought new diseases that decimated the Hawaiian people. As much damage as they did to Hawaii was only topped by plantations and the military.

Plantations:
The industrialized agriculture (primarily sugarcane and pineapple) that began in the 19th century that was practiced by Americans and Europeans required terraforming the islands to divert water our of the valleys and swamps and to where large fields could be assembled for irrigation of monocultures. The Hawaiians who depended on the natural flow of water in their valley watersheds were not consulted. The practice of Hawaiian culture shriveled. many of those Hawaiians who survived intermarried with imported plantation laborers and they and their progeny ended up in work camps no longer managing their own valleys.

Military:
The US Navy realized quickly that basing a fleet in the Pacific Ocean was a strategic necessity. By 1887 the Navy had exclusive rights on Oahu to repair and fuel ships in the shallow bay that was part of the largest wetland in Hawaii (now Pearl Harbor). Just a few years later a conspiracy between the plantation owners and US military overthrew Hawaiian sovereignty. Pearl Harbor was needed to take down Spanish Imperialism in the Pacific and replace it with an American brand. Pearl Harbor was dredged out and bulkheaded. Docks were built and bilge was jettisoned. What had been a shallow wetlands and marsh rich in plant and wildlife became a machine for the US Navy... which is the single most destructive organization on the planet.

Here on the outer island of Kauai we certainly were not immune to the effects of plantations. In fact, it was the observations by missionaries of the rich and productive Koloa Field System of the Hawaiians that inspired the first sugarcane plantation.

The Hawaiians had diverted the fast flowing Waikomo stream and other southside fresh water systems into a sophisticated irrigation system of ditches, loi and fishponds that produced vast amounts of food to support a large population. The Koloa Field system was so productive that it exported yams and sweet potatoes from Koloa Landing to California, to field hungry Forty-Niners during the California Gold Rush. The Hawaiians also had been growing sugarcane for their own use.

By 1835 Ladd & Company had started the first commercially successful industrial sugarcane plantation. Others soon followed. Ditches were dug, reservoirs were built, fields were irrigated.

On the west side of Kauai was the largest level area of land in Hawaii and the second largest wetland after Pearl Harbor. Chris Cook, former editor of the Garden Island News wrote in an article in 11/27/2000:

...the land (of Mana) was populated by Native Hawaiians who landed canoes at Pokii near Kekaha, which was then but a village marked by a stand of palm trees. Other villages dotted the base of the cliffs that reach sea level at the base of the once marshy Mana Plain, and Lehua forests grew down to the bottom of the cliffs.

The plain would flood following heavy rains, allowing outrigger canoe paddlers to travel freely from Mana to Waimea. Some taro planters there grew their crop atop unique wooden rafts that could rise and drop with the floodwaters...

Vladamar Knudsen began operating the Kekaha Sugar Company mill and plantation in 1856. Knudsen drained about 50 acres of the marsh along the Mana Plain and planted the first crop of commercially grown sugarcane there in 1878.

By the beginning of the 20th century Knudsen and family with the help of Hans Faye had plans for the Kekaha Ditch and the Kokee Ditch, which together diverted the water of the Waimea River and the Alakai Swamp into ditches feeding the upper reaches of Mana Moku near Puu Opae, and the lower flatland of the Mana Plain. Together these fields were the highest and lowest altitude sugarcane fields in operation.

Mana in 1907
In November 1907 a map of the Mana Plain was drawn up using the framework of the US Geological Surveys we still see today. The map appears to be a preliminary map prepared to be part of the Hawaii Territorial Survey under the authority of Walter E. Wall, Surveyor. The map was created by W. L. Heilbron.



Image above: A preliminary plan of Palt #2422 of Mana was done in November 1907 for Walter E. Wall, surveyor. Click to enlarge. Note we have highlighted swamp in green and Knudsen Estates in yellow.

This preliminary map shows two roads from Kekaha out towards Polihale. One was Government Road along the base of the Mana Cliffs and the other was a road behind the dunes and kiawe forests. Heilbron noted the area with the simple word "Swamp" and noted "4.0' elevation throughout Swamp" above sea level. Only to the southeast extreme, in front of the estates of Augustus and Eric Knudsen, was "Cane" identified.


Image above: Hawaiian Territorial Survey Plat #2422 of Mana in December 1907 for Walter E. Wall, surveyor. Click to enlarge.

Only a month later, in December 1907, another map drawn by Heilbron. It the official HTS Plat Registered Map 2422. It shows much greater detail than the November map, including the layout of the town of Mana and the land use on the Mana Plain.

This included much more area planted in rice around specific large ponds and marshes. The largest pond is in Kawaiele Ahupuaa and it and its surrounding marsh were over a thousand acres in area. Another area pond and marsh mauka of Nohili Point was over 400 acres.

This map also shows the expansion of sugarcane planted along the base of the Mana cliffs from Kekaha past Nohili Point. Paralleling mauka of the government road, a rail line extends across the Mana plain to haul cane.


Image above: USGS Mana Quadrangle Map from 1910. Provided by former DLNR Chair Peter Young by way of Hope Kallai. Note village of Waiele (identified as Waieli) a the exit of Kawaiele Pond into the ocean. On later maps Wailele is not shown, but property entitled to "E. Knudsen" takes its place. This was important in that this outlet to the ocean was used to drain the waters of the Mana Plane by Knudsen and his cronies. Click to enlarge.

Peter Young, former chair of the Department of Land & natural Resources for Hawaii wrote on FaceBook 8/26/13:

Mana is a coastal plain with an ancient sea cliff at its inner edge, which extends from Waimea in the south to Barking Sands in the north on the western shores of Kauai. This region has been identified as a leina-a-ka-uhane (paths-for-leaping-by-the-spirit). These were almost always on bluffs looking westward over the ocean, from which the spirits of the dead were believed to plunge in order to enter the spiritual realm.

Throughout prehistory [pre-contact more exactly], large areas of the Mana Plain were covered by the great Mana swamp, allowing the ancients to canoe as far south as Waimea. Up until the mid-1880s, the great Mana swamp, east of the plain, covered large areas of the lowlands.

Approximately 1,700-acres of permanent, semi-permanent and seasonal wetlands were present on the Mana Plain. It is believed that these wet conditions encouraged the independent invention of aquaculture on Kauai and the construction of stone and earthen ponds for growing staples such as taro, yam and sweet potatoes.

Historically, native Hawaiians constructed four different types of fishponds - freshwater taro ponds, other freshwater ponds, brackish water ponds and seawater ponds. Aquaculture was employed to supplement their other fishing activities, and permanent fishponds guaranteed a stable food supply for populations in lean times.  

Tended ponds provided fish without requiring fishing expertise, and harvesting the pond, unlike fishing at sea, was not weather dependent. Evidence suggests that Hawaiian fishponds were constructed as early as AD 1000, if not earlier, and continued to be built until the 1820's.

Mana in 1920-22
In May 1920 another HTS Plat Map was done (#3026) for Walter E. Wall drawn by T. J. K. Evans. It is obviously based on the 1907 map and following 1910 USGS map. It labels the wetlands as the Kawaiele Pond Game Reserve (leaving off Limaloa Pond), and shows Hohili Pond Game Reserve.

Another two maps were created in 1921 by T. J. K. Evans for Walter Wall Surveyor. They were Plat 3026-A and  Plat 3026-B.

Plat 3026-A shows the area north from Hohili that includes Poli Hale. On that map, north of Nohili Point, an additional marshland area lies mauka of Queen's Pond Beach in the Kolo Ahupuaa. It is labeled Kolo Pond Game Reserve (as does the USGS 1910 map).

These identifications of wetland as a specific pond and game reserve indicate to me some level of regulation of the resources by the Hawaii Territorial Government.  Surrounding the Kolo Pond area is shown sugarcane. The land makai of Nohili Pond to the back of the ocean sand dunes is labeled Pastoral Land.

Plat 3026-B shows a more southerly view of Mana Plat 3026. It extends from the northwest near the Knudsens' estates to the southeast and the edge of Waimea Canyon. This is the first Hawaiian Territory Survey that show the route of Kekaha Ditch created by Hans Faye. The Kekaha Ditch diverts the Waimea River water to the Mana Moku for growing sugarcane.
 
Bad things were in store for the Hawaiians living in Mana the next year. The early surveys of Mana by Walter Wall appear to have been the groundwork for the USGS map of 1910. Unfortunately, they may also have been the base maps for the destruction of the Mana wetlands and replacement by plantation sugarcane. In 1922 Faye began filling in the Mana wetlands.

Wikipedia says about Faye's work:

With the draining of the Nohili and Kawaiele Marshes in 1922 and the continued expansion of sugar cane area, another period of well development took place in the 1920s and 1930s.

Initially, this consisted of batteries of closely spaced drilled wells, but Maui-type shafts (tunnels that skim fresh water off the top of the basal aquifer) located along the foot of the bluffs subsequently replaced these.

It was Faye's vision that created the systems and the intricate drainage canals that drained the large swamps of Mana.

In 1926, the Kokee Ditch was completed diverting water from Mohihi Stream and the headwater of the Waimea River in the Alakai Swamp at an altitude of about 3400 feet.

About one-fourth of the Kokee Ditch supply has irrigated the highland cane fields below Puu Opae reservoir on Niu Ridge, and the balance has irrigated the highland fields east of Kokee Road.

The village of Waiele with its few houses at the mouth of Kawaiele Pond never appeared on a map again. It's foundations are under the end of the southern 10,000 runway operated by the PMRF. 

The town of Mana lingered on for a while as the Kawaiele, Nohili and Kolo ponds and their surrounding wetlands were filled in to make room for more sugar. I have a 1963 USGS map that I have shows about 50 buildings out in Mana town. The town was just a bit southeast (to the right) of the intersection where you turn onto the dirt road to Polihale.  In my 1983 USGS map there were less than twenty buildings shown.

Today there are no buildings there. You cannot get there either. There is a gate that is always locked and controlled by Syngenta that keeps prying eyes out of what was once Mana. But long before the people and the places of Mana were disappeared, the Moku name itself was buried. On all maps afterwards, the Kekaha and Kokee ditches were operational the Mana Plain was designated as part of Kona - no longer Mana. That's because it was in Kona where the power was - where the Waimea and Kekaha mills stood.

The town was dismantled after Mana lost its designation as a bioregion in Hawaiian culture. I think that needs correcting. I think for the sake of life itself that Mana's wetlands and ponds should be restored.

Perhaps because Mana as a place no longer has any status it is the place on the island where bad things go to hide. This includes the landfill, the shooting range, the US Navy Pacific Missile Range Facility, the activities of Sandia Labs, DARPA, Raytheon and ITT corporations, as well as the activities of GMO companies like Syngenta. Evil abides there.  We call it "Mordor".

The Golden Plain Tomorrow
To heal the island and the ocean, we need to make Mana whole. One meaning of the Hawaiian word mana is "dry land". Certainly much of Mana fits that description much of the year. But the times when parts are wet with rain and connected to the ocean were important - even vital.


Image above: Aha Kiole Advisory Committee Mana Map with historic wetlands from 1907-1910 overlaid. Click to enlarge.

Another meaning for the Hawaiian word mana is "supernatural, miraculous or divine power". The place has some of that too. Spirits move through and beyond the place and will help us heal.

Hawaiian tradition held that the souls of the people, uhane, when separated from their bodies traveled along the cliffs of the northwestern edges of their island and dove from cliffs into the sea to reach the realm of the dead, Po, that was below the sea and beyond the setting sun.

As I understand it, souls migrated up the archipelago from island to island. They finally reached Kauai from Kaena Point on Oahu. Their final journey was to Mana and on to cliffs of Haelele over Polihale, the House of the Spirits. There they dived into the sea to find peace for eternity. 

The US military, its corporate weapons building partners (e.g. Sandia Labs, Ratheon, ITT, Lockheed Martin, DARPA), as well as the GMO Chemical companies (like Syngenta DuPont and DOW) and even entities like the Kauai County Landfill and Kauai Shrimp Farm are all occupying and damaging the westside of Kauai and particularly the Mana Moku.

 
Image above: Near Mount Doom sits Mordor with its flaming eye searching the world for anything it can destroy. Composite illustration using New Age Cinema image of Mordor from the Lord of the Rings film trilogy with a GoogleEarth image looking over Makaha Ridge at the Mana Plain by Juan Wilson. Click to enlarge. From IB post Ea O Ka AIna: Navy plans for Mordor.

It seems an abomination that these things have come to dominate such a supernatural place - this place of Hawaiian spirit. 

I am beginning a project to add to the moku and ahupuaa maps. It focuses on Mana Moku. I believe if we can heal Mana we can heal Kauai and ultimately Hawaii. We have much work to do.

For Kauai and the ocean to thrive we need to restore the Mana Plain as birthing and nurturing place for birds, fish and plants that it was. This will require ridding ourselves of the merchants of greed and death.


Image above: Queen's Pond, fully formed, as it rarely appears today due to beach erosion. Polihale in the distance and beyond Makaha Ridge. From (http://www.natgeocreative.com/photography/1136837).

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