Yet ANOTHER Study and No Action
The Honolulu Advertiser ran another cursory article about the latest beach erosion study, without questioning whatever happened with prior studies or asking why different agencies and counties don't share information they already have!
For what it's worth, click here for the story link and reader comments.
Meanwhile, UH Sea Grant and the State DLNR are doing a separate study of Kailua Beach, which will cover similar ground. In recent years, both Kauai and Maui also commissioned studies pertaining to erosion and setbacks. Each time they develop their own criteria and pay someone to create reports that could have been standardized and used as templates for all islands and beaches. Instead, they reinvent the wheel over and over. So there goes another $100,000 of taxpayer money down the drain for a report that will probably be put on a shelf with all the other studies done over the past 10-20 years.
But according to the same people who get hired to do these studies, we don't need a joint State/Counties task force or coastal commission to coordinate this stuff. Well, I guess if your main concern is job security, that makes perfect sense. At the rate they're going, by the time their studies are complete, many of our beaches will be severely diminished due to inaction. And they'll all be retired with generous civil servant benefits.
We don't need more studies to confirm what our eyes tell us is happening right NOW. Just walk along Kailua Beach and count the number of houses being rebuilt closer to the ocean! In five years or less, those parts of the beach will begin to look just like the shrunken shoreline along Lanikai and Kahala Beach.
BREAKING NEWS: Rep. Cynthia Thielen says she's working on another angle to halt "seaward creep" since the State Legislature failed to pass her bill to freeze setbacks on Kailua Beach. New City Councilman Ikaika Anderson says he will bring up the subject this year, but was vague as to when. I'll believe it when I see it.
For what it's worth, click here for the story link and reader comments.
Meanwhile, UH Sea Grant and the State DLNR are doing a separate study of Kailua Beach, which will cover similar ground. In recent years, both Kauai and Maui also commissioned studies pertaining to erosion and setbacks. Each time they develop their own criteria and pay someone to create reports that could have been standardized and used as templates for all islands and beaches. Instead, they reinvent the wheel over and over. So there goes another $100,000 of taxpayer money down the drain for a report that will probably be put on a shelf with all the other studies done over the past 10-20 years.
But according to the same people who get hired to do these studies, we don't need a joint State/Counties task force or coastal commission to coordinate this stuff. Well, I guess if your main concern is job security, that makes perfect sense. At the rate they're going, by the time their studies are complete, many of our beaches will be severely diminished due to inaction. And they'll all be retired with generous civil servant benefits.
We don't need more studies to confirm what our eyes tell us is happening right NOW. Just walk along Kailua Beach and count the number of houses being rebuilt closer to the ocean! In five years or less, those parts of the beach will begin to look just like the shrunken shoreline along Lanikai and Kahala Beach.
BREAKING NEWS: Rep. Cynthia Thielen says she's working on another angle to halt "seaward creep" since the State Legislature failed to pass her bill to freeze setbacks on Kailua Beach. New City Councilman Ikaika Anderson says he will bring up the subject this year, but was vague as to when. I'll believe it when I see it.
Labels: beach erosion studies, City Councilman Ikaika Anderson, public beach access, Rep. Cynthia Thielen, shoreline setbacks
