A modest crowd gathered the evening of April 22 in the Kahuku High cafeteria to give input and hear how the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (COE) might tackle flooding issues which have plagued the school — especially the administrative offices, low-lying gym, locker rooms and playing field — for decades.

Milton Yoshimoto, COE manager for what's officially called the Kahuku Storm Damage Reduction Project, explained the federal government would not normally get involved in this type of task, but that U.S. Senator Daniel K. Inouye had pushed through special partnering legislation to move the project forward.

That legislation, Section 112 of the Energy and Water Appropriations Act, provides 65% federal funding for preconstruction engineering and design activities as long as the State Department of Education (DOE) comes up with the additional 35% costs of the project. Half of the money is available in fiscal year 2008, "and hopefully, the balance of it will be available in fiscal year '09," Yoshimoto said.

"What the senator said was, 'move forward with the design. I don't want any more studies,'" he continued. "Just design and construct it."

"We recognize from our past watershed study that there are issues off the campus — there are local flooding problems all around the community," Yoshimoto said. "However, our direction is to focus on the high school."

He explained that the COE will prepare a preconstruction engineering plan with several alternative solutions, "and then the final decision will be with the Department of Education in terms of which plan they select. Once this plan is approved, we'll move forward with the specifications."

Yoshimoto indicated his team will come back occasionally to report on progress, otherwise, he hopes to have the plan done "in about a year."

Michael Wong, a COE Honolulu District hydrologist, showed pictures of past campus flooding at Kahuku High and pointed out that run-off from Kahuku District Park enters the high school. "There is a small berm that's supposed to keep the water from coming into the high school, but as you get down by the gym, the berm is less defined. So one idea is improving this berm."

Wong said improvements are also needed closer to the highway to get the water away from the school, "maybe creating a retention basin at the low spot across from the sugar mill and near the community center"; and he added the COE will also look at possibly replacing some of the older drainage system and extending it with a new system "with larger-size pipes, and possibly bigger grades…to prevent water from the upper campus coming down to the gym."

Wong also mentioned the possibility of putting in improvements to convey the water from Kamehameha Hwy. to hospital ditch, and then improving the ditch so the water drains better.

Several community members at the meeting pointed out that water coming from the area of Manager's Ridge and also from behind the police substation also creates flooding on campus.

Junior Primacio, for example, said a number of dry retention wells were created back in the 1980s, but they didn't work. "Unless we address the flood sources, we're not going to solve the problem."

Kahuku High Athletic Director Joe Whitford said the locker rooms and gym are particularly bad, and that once the football field is flooded, "there's very little we can do. Sometimes the water sits for days, sometimes weeks."

Another man said no one is consistently monitoring the streams for blockage, and added, "How about the village? We've been fighting for this for years."

"However we move the water, we don't want to create more problems," Wong said.

"No decisions have been made yet on how the plan will be put together," Yoshimoto stressed.

To give additional input or for further information, email Yoshimoto or call him at 808-438-2250; or George Casen with the DOE Facilities Development Branch, 808-377-8308.

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