Investigators to drill for soil samples at Ka Loko

KILAUEA, Kauai » The attorney for Ka Loko Reservoir part-owner James Pflueger said investigators will return to the breached dam Monday to continue their investigation.

William McCorriston, Pflueger's attorney, said yesterday that state experts and "our guys" will return to the dam, which breached March 14, killing seven.

They will be drilling for soil samples, McCorriston said.

McCorriston and members of the Attorney General's Office came to an agreement to allow the experts back to the dam. Pflueger's lawyers have said they have been cooperating fully with investigators since the breach.

In April, a team of about a dozen state-hired experts spent a week looking into possible causes of the breach.

"The work of the experts is not yet complete," Attorney General Mark Bennett said yesterday. He declined to comment on the investigation.

A lawsuit filed against Pflueger by the Kauai victims last month alleges he did work on the dam and covered up a spillway.

A spillway is a safety feature for earthen dams that allows water to escape without flowing over the top of the dam.

Pflueger has told the Star-Bulletin he never saw a spillway and that neither he nor his workers covered it up.

State investigators have yet to dig the area where witnesses said they saw the concrete portion of the spillway.

"They have it in mind to do it later," McCorriston said.