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State to reuse
sand off Waikiki
A replenishing project
for Kuhio Beach aims
to pump from offshore
rather than buy more
The state plans to spend $500,000 this fall for the largest addition of sand to Kuhio Beach in 32 years.
And for the first time the sand will come from areas just offshore.
The project will add 10,000 cubic yards of sand -- the equivalent of 1,000 dump truck loads -- to replenish Kuhio Beach from the Kapahulu storm drain to the Waikiki Beach Center and Police Substation.
If successful, the pump-from-offshore method of beach replenishment could be repeated at other state beaches that are eroding.
The "recycling" aspect appeals to surfer and Waikiki Neighborhood Board member Les Among.
"It's fantastic," he said, because it meets the needs of beach users without bringing in more outside sand.
"They have a history of losing sand at that part of the beach," Among noted. "Mother Nature will always have her way in the end."
The project will close at least part of the Diamond Head basin swimming area and a staging area on Kuhio Beach for the 30 days of the project. Dolan Eversole, the UH Sea Grant coastal geologist managing the project, said the contractor may be able to move sand into position along the beach in the evenings, to be less disruptive to daytime beach use.
The work is to be done in late September or October, between summer surf and the Thanksgiving holiday.
Between 1939 and 2000, almost 250,000 cubic yards of sand were applied to Kuhio Beach.
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Even proponents of beach replenishment admit that most of the sand will return to Mamala Bay after a few years. But they say the cost and benefits are worth it, because of the value of a wider beach to tourism.
Beaches normally grow and shrink with the seasons, said Chip Fletcher, head of the coastal geology department at the University of Hawaii.
Since "Waikiki is an economic engine for the state," replenishing Kuhio Beach can be seen as an investment like re-roofing a house or painting the walls, Fletcher said.
George Downing, longtime surfer and spokesman for Save Our Surf, said he can accept replenishing the beach of the two swimming basins at Kuhio Beach, which are protected from high surf by a low "crib wall" -- as long as offshore sand is used.
But the 74-year-old dean of beachboys doesn't like that roughly one-third of the sand will go to the less-protected Ewa end of Kuhio Beach, between the Duke Kahanamoku statue and the surfboard racks.
Downing said he thinks that sand will quickly be back in the water, possibly altering the nearby surf breaks called Canoes and Baby Queens.
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Downing noted that at Queen's Beach, where the sand is much wider than at adjacent Kuhio Beach, beachgoers cluster along the shoreline, not back on the dry sand.
"When they say we need more sand, we ask 'Why?' " Downing said. He said he is not convinced that repeatedly adding sand to the shoreline and watching the ocean move it away is a good use of public money.
The start date for the Department of Land and Natural Resources project hasn't been determined, but will likely be in September or October, said Eversole.
American Marine, the company that dredged the Ala Wai Canal, is working with the state on how the sand will be pumped to shore and what kind of equipment will be used, Eversole said. When those details are worked out, the contract can be awarded.
Experimental sand pumping in 2000 moved just 1,400 cubic yards of sand and showed that a different type of equipment would have to be used to make this style of replenishment cost-effective, Eversole said.
Another aspect of taking sand from offshore has some people concerned.
Duke Kahanamoku and "at least 100 beach boys" have had their ashes scattered on the water, said beachboy Gilbert "Uncle Gil" Hisatake. "It's a burial ground for traditional ways."
"Some people may be grumbling, 'How come you're scattering my father all over Waikiki,'" said beachboy Ivan Harada.
Still on the back burner -- and unfunded -- is a more controversial, $2 million state plan to replace the 50-year-old crib wall with so-called T-head groins that would supposedly allow more sand to stay on the beach.
Downing said he will fight against losing the protected swimming areas behind the crib wall, the only place in Waikiki that swimmers are safe from incoming surfboards or catamaran sailboats.
The Department of Land and Natural Resources plans to hold a public meeting on the Kuhio Beach sand replenishment project later this month in Waikiki.
www.state.hi.us/dlnr