KIHEI, Maui >> Marie "Micky" Palmer said since Maui County workers added sand to the eroded beach in front of her home in Kihei last August, more sand has accumulated to widen the beach by 25 feet. Maui County encouraged
by sand replenishment
project at KiheiBy Gary T. Kubota
Star-Bulletin"It's great. It's really nice because more people walk down on the beach," Palmer said.
The sand replenishment project, praised by Kihei beach residents, is prompting the county to look at other areas in which it may assist residents who face coastal erosion.
Mayor James "Kimo" Apana's administration is working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on a $75,000 study of the coastline from Kalama Park to Kealia Pond National Wildlife Refuge.
The Army engineers are developing a map of the submerged land and looking at some historic information about changes in the topography, project manager Jerry Cornell said.
Cornell said the first phase of the work will be completed by December.
He said another phase includes identifying what federal programs, if any, might be useful in the county's effort to fight erosion.
The Apana administration has received authorization from the County Council to spend $100,000 for beach erosion studies.County Public Works Director David Goode said he intends to use the money to assist various groups, such as an association in Spreckelsville, to solve their beach erosion problems.
Goode said some require money to help them go through the permit process and conduct studies.
The $100,000 is also to be used to look at the best way to obtain sand for beach replenishment projects.
The Council has asked the Apana administration to re-examine its plan to use a barge and pumper to extract sand from beyond the reef.
Some authorities on beach erosion believe an easier alternative would be to take sand from inland areas of Maui.
"I think that's the best solution because it won't have any environmental impact at all," said Chip Fletcher, a coastal geologist at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
Fletcher said Maui has some sugar cane fields that are no longer in operation and might have deposits of sand in them below a layer of topsoil.
Fletcher said replenishing sand on the beaches is a "good idea" as long as the county does not become heavily dependent on it.
He said the county will not have to replenish beaches frequently if it restores the original amount of sand in areas.
At residences such as Palmer's along Halama Street, the county replenished the beach with sand taken from mounds at the Veterans of Foreign Wars center several miles away.
Palmer said the county had been using bulldozers to clear the sand from streams and piling it there for many years.
While the beach in front of her house is wider than it was five years ago, it is not nearly as wide as when she moved there 47 years ago. Palmer remembers that when she began living in Kihei, she could stand on the beach and look south at the cinder cone Puu Olai.
"To see that now, you've got to wade way in the water," she said.
Maui County
