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Kauai pulls notice seeking
By Anthony Sommer
input on sea-erosion plan
Star-BulletinLIHUE -- At the "urging" of state officials, Kauai County has agreed to "withdraw publication" of an already-published notice seeking public comment on a plan to stop sea erosion at the county's golf course.
Pulled yesterday was an announcement of a draft environmental assessment of the long-controversial revetment (the county insists it's not a sea wall) at the Wailua Golf Course. It appears in the current issue of "The Environmental Notice," published by the state Office of Environmental Quality Control.
The state agency said it had been "unaware of the previous history of this project" when it printed the notice. Since then, the state agency says it has discovered problems with the county's assessment.
For example, the executive summary claims "the golf course has eroded at an average of 1 foot per year over the last 40 years." That indicates 40 feet of fairway has been washed out to sea since 1960.
Pressed on this point, Assistant County Engineer Ken Kitabayashi concedes the high tide line actually is nowhere near the golf course's out-of-bounds markers and no one can predict when it will be. He does insist the beach between the sea and the base of the cliff at the edge of the course has shrunk, but he doesn't know how much.
"I know I used to be able to fish all along that shoreline and now I can't," he said.
When the county submits a new draft, it must include, among other new information, a map showing the revetment and its relationship to the shoreline, address whether it complies with state limitations on "hardening" of beaches and discuss alternatives to the project.
It also must, under state law, address the existing concerns of long-standing critics of the project before it goes to press again.
Kitabayashi is taking the state's rejection of the county's assessment philosophically: "This is why we do the environmental assessment. We're asking for comments."
