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Makaha beach erosion
plan divides residents

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By Janine Tully
Star-Bulletin

Residents of the Makaha Surfside condominium may have reason to celebrate after the city presents its latest erosion prevention plan for Mauna Lahilahi Beach Park.

For years members of the Makaha Surfside homeowners association have been trying to get the city to solve the erosion problem fronting their condominiums.

But not until two years ago, when waves started crashing on the apartments' chain-link fence, did the city take action, said association member Bob Benson.

"Waves were going over the fence, a foot away from the property," Benson said. "The sandbags saved us."

The city placed sandbags along the beach as a temporary solution. Two years ago it appropriated $800,000 to build an offshore breakwater.

A hearing on the project will be held by the state Department of Land and Natural Resources at 6 p.m. today at the Waianae District Park multipurpose room. State officials will listen to testimony on the city's application to build the breakwater and add 5,000 cubic feet of sand to the beach.

Benson, who has fought for a permanent solution to the problem for years, sees the project as a step in the right direction.

"I've seen this beach erode away about 100 feet in the last 20 years," he said. "People say we think this is our park. It is not. It is a city park."

Project manager Don Griffin said that while the park land belongs to the city, the breakwater will be built on submerged lands, which belong to the state.

"The breakwater will be a permanent solution to the erosion problem," Griffin said. "It will be built where the old shoreline used to be."

A Draft Environmental Assessment published in July by Oceanit, an environmental engineering firm, noted that in the last few years the apartments' shoreline, has undergone "severe coastal erosion."

It has lost several trees and the vegetation line continues to recede. Also, an access easement that formerly ran along the mauka edge of the park has been entirely lost to erosion. According to the report, an estimated 35,000 square feet of city park land, valued at $750,000, has already been lost to shoreline erosion.

The structure will reduce wave action causing the erosion, as well as reduce the risk of flooding, say project engineers.

However, the project is not without its detractors, who say the breakwater will harm the ocean's ecosystem and further limit public access to the beach.

"Every time we do something like this we trigger diseases in the fish," said Waianae Neighborhood Board member Charles Herrmann, a staunch project opponent.

Herrmann is concerned that access to the beach will be made more difficult. "Several years ago they stopped people from coming in," Herrmann said. "There was an access road and they put pillars across it and a security guard would tell people to go."

Herrmann also bemoaned the effect the project would have on surfing in the area, including the beach cove site.

"This used to be a great surfing spot where the rides were huge and long," he said.

But Benson said the beach is mostly used by kids on boogie-boards.

Local fisherman William Aila said the project has both negative and positive aspects. And like Herrmann, he's concerned about the long-term effect the breakwater may have on nearby shorelines.

"If the breakwater is built as planned, it will have a minimum impact on fishing because it is built so close to the shoreline," said Aila. "The concern is the effect the movement of the sand will have on the coastline. It could affect fishing because the displaced sand could cover what used to be fishing grounds."

Aila also doesn't think the breakwater will impact coral reefs or the marine life. The project will protect the apartments, city and county park lands and will create a protective habitat for inter-tidal marine life, he said.