STAR-BULLETIN / JANUARY 2002 A number of Lahaina houses were flooded on Jan. 29 along Wainee Street as heavy rains fell on Maui. County officials plan to hold a meeting tonight to discuss a flood control project.

Lahaina drainage plan
under the scope at meeting

The proposal would put a mile-long
canal in former cane fields

---

By Gary Kubota
gkubota@starbulletin.com

LAHAINA >> Experiencing two major floods in the last five years and an estimated $280,000 in losses, Dan's Green House manager Mike Anholt is hoping a government project along the southern hills of Lahaina will prevent further business damage.

"We really need a flood control channel," Anholt said.

Maui County and federal officials will be holding a public information meeting tonight to discuss plans for the Lahaina Watershed Flood Control Project.

The meeting starts at 7 p.m. at the Lahaina Intermediate School cafeteria.

Under the proposal, an estimated $9 million to $12 million would be spent to develop a drainage channel nearly a mile long across former sugar cane land.

The channel would start at an outlet adjacent to Lahainaluna Road mauka of Kalena Street and extend southward and mauka of the former Wainee Village.

The system would eventually empty into the ocean at two points: an existing canal through the residential community of Puamana, and a canal that would be built between Puamana and Launiupoko Park.

The channel would include a number of basins to capture debris and sediment before flood waters empty into the ocean.

Several years ago, Puamana residents objected to a flood control system that would have emptied the flood waters solely through Puamana and required the raising of the canal walls.

County Public Works Director David Goode said under the current proposal, two canals would share in the channeling of runoff water, and there would be no need to raise the canal walls at Puamana.

Goode said once developed, the flood control project would substantially reduce the chance of flooding in residential and business areas.

County officials note that a temporary earthen ditch dug along a similar route as the proposed project prevented major flooding during a storm late last year.

Officials said the ditch became clogged with sediment during the Jan. 29 flood, and water broke through a section of the bank, contributing to the flooding in low-lying areas of Lahaina.

The earthen ditch has since been repaired.

Flooding caused more than an estimated $832,000 in damage to 30 residences and businesses in Lahaina in the 1997 flood.

Estimates put the latest flood damage to several residences and businesses at more than $136,000.