City officials say they see the residents’ point, but vacancies and other constraints would make their preferred location too hard to maintain. When heavy rain battered Oahu during mid-May’s Kona Low, brown water poured down drainage ditches and through Kailua’s Kaelepulu Pond as it made its way to the ocean, as it does several times a year. Now, the City and County of Honolulu is planning to spend $2 million to filter stormwater that drains into Kaelepulu Pond, also known as Enchanted Lake.
But the location it’s focusing on doesn’t need filtration as much as a different spot nearby. It’s a symptom of bureaucracy that leaves some residents scratching their heads. “The water is crystal clear coming through here,” Kailua resident Kevin Cooper said of the city’s proposed location.
That’s in contrast to a drainage ditch around the corner, where brown water consistently pours into Kaelepulu Pond during rainstorms. But the city is facing constraints, Stormwater Quality Division Program Administrator Randall Wakumoto said. While the residents’ proposed location at what’s known as the Keolu lined channel is in greater need of filtration, it would require too much work to maintain, Wakumoto said.
The Department of Facility Maintenance, like other city departments, is struggling with a high number of vacancies. A vacuum truck that sucks debris out of storm drains, for instance, doesn’t have a crew in Kalilua — only one of three positions on the crew is fille.
