Malama Na 'Apapa

As I am sure many of you know, Koloa Landing, "Hanakaape Bay" has flooded and been covered by tons of green waste, mud and other debris washed down the Waikomo Stream.

This happens at least once or twice a year. Sometimes it is not too bad and the ocean currents and waves can clean out the reef area quickly in a week or so, however many times the amount of debris is so large that it completely mucks up the area for weeks. The last storm in February made it so muddy that no one could dive or swim there for about 3 weeks. For those of you that were here in 2018, Koloa landing was so bad that we could not dive or swim there for about 3 months. In addition to the impact on ocean users, this muck covers the coral reef and kills many corals, which negatively impacts the entire ecosystem.

Many of you have volunteered to help remove the debris in past years and your hard work has helped to quicken the recovery of the reef from the debris, however as those of you have volunteered know, the time it takes to remove the mulch and debris from the water is seemingly endless.

Our plan is to purchase a dirty water pump "Trash Pump" that we can suck out a majority of the debris that is trapped in the water at the entry area. The ocean water from the entry area with the debris will be pumped through mesh nets to filter out the muck and debris, the debris will be removed and disposed of at the dumps. Using this method we can remove much more debris at a quicker rate and help the ecosystem recover quickly.

We have given our proposal to the Division of Aquatic Resources and they have approved the project. The dirty water pump is a very specialized industrial pump that is pretty expensive so we are sending out this funding request to all the ocean users at Koloa landing in hopes that you will be able to help fund the pump. This is a durable industrial pump that should be able to last for many future clean-up efforts at Koloa Landing. We can also make it available for other disaster recovery efforts such as "Morgan Pond" at Lydgate beach park, which has a similar problem as Koloa lading. Also to help muck out residents' homes which are devastated by flooding in floods like 2018.

Thank you for your willingness to help fund this project!