KEN IGE / KIGE@STARBULLETIN.COM A crane was dredging up the Ala Wai Canal earlier this month.

Ala Wai dredging
not turning up
big stink yet

Area condo managers say that
they have not gotten any complaints

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By Diana Leone
dleone@starbulletin.com

People wanted the Ala Wai Canal dredged, but they were afraid.

Afraid the 24 years of accumulated sludge would stink. Afraid the noise of the equipment would be obnoxious.

A week into the 10-month, $7.4 million job, those fears appear to be unfounded.

Yesterday on the sidewalk along the Ala Wai behind the Hawai'i Convention Center, the sound of a pressure-washer being used on the back lanai of the Central YMCA was louder than the crane scooping up muck.

Karen Ah Mai, executive director of the Ala Wai Watershed Association, called the sound of the dredging work "no louder than a moped."

The work was so unobtrusive that some pedestrians in the area yesterday said they hardly noticed it.

Charles Rogers has passed the work site just mauka of the Ala Moana bridge several times since work began Aug. 22.

"This is about as loud as it gets," he said. "And it doesn't stink."

In fact, his main question about the job is why the clamshell bucket removing the sludge is so small.

"It seems like at this rate it'll take four or five years," Rogers said.

Several condo and apartment managers of buildings in the area reported no complaints from residents.

"I'm pleasantly surprised. I thought it would be a smelly and messy operation," said Michael Shimoda, manager of Yacht Harbor Towers, 1600-1650 Ala Wai. He said not one of his 459 residents has mentioned it.

Paul Ban took a day off yesterday to work on renovating his apartment on the fourth floor of Marina Towers, 1645 Ala Wai. Even with his windows and lanai door wide open to the work below, he said there was little effect.

Ban said he thinks the smell and sound have the potential to be more of a problem when the work goes past the McCully Street bridge.

That part of the canal has a "gray, sludgy" appearance even on a good day, he said. And the row of tall buildings might cause the sound to "ricochet."

So far, however, the state Health Department has received no complaints about noise, said spokeswoman Janice Okubo. The department will begin next week to check the monitoring of the muddiness of the water by the contractor, American Marine Corp., she said.

Ah Mai said digging up the muck seems to have a short-lived effect on surrounding water.

A plume of blackish water was visible yesterday downstream from the crane just 10 or 15 feet beyond the barge that carries it. The disturbance was well within the work area enclosed with a bright orange silt curtain.

Robert and Ruth Eckert made a special trip to check the dredging yesterday because it would eventually be in the Manoa-Palolo drainage confluence, near where they regularly walk. They said they look forward to the work being completed, which is expected next spring.

Punahou area resident Angie Loren summed it up as she rested on a canal-side bench with her husband, Frank: "It's got to be done. It's an absolute filth hole."