Opponents say there’s a better way to handle boat congestion HANAPEPE – The state had a plan to expand the Port Allen Small Boat Harbor by building new slips in front of the Port Allen Fishing Club’s leased clubhouse site.
Opponents say there’s a better way to handle boat congestion
HANAPEPE – The state had a plan to expand the Port Allen Small Boat Harbor by building new slips in front of the Port Allen Fishing Club’s leased clubhouse site.
But after hearing loud and clear from the club Wednesday night that the expansion should take place somewhere else, it’s back to the drawing board for the Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation.
Through commodore Steven Niau, the club told state officials gathered at Hanapepe United Church of Christ that the plan should be scrapped, and offered an alternative.
Nearly 40 people attended the meeting, most of them recreational fishermen who have seen the harbor become congested with commercial fishing and tour operations.
Niau suggested using money for the proposed expansion to improve and expand the existing small boat harbor, by allowing what’s known as Tahitian mooring on the Hanapepe side of the harbor, and finding more room inside the existing breakwater for more boats.
Further, he urged the state to stop issuing permits for large commercial tour boats, because the harbor doesn’t have the infrastructure to support increased commercial activity. The club wants to keep the harbor for recreational boaters and move commercial operations to the state Department of Transportation area of the harbor, where the long finger pier is used by Navy boats.
The small boat harbor, though, is already a mix of commercial and recreational boats, with many signs on boats moored at the small boat harbor offering fishing charters.
The state’s proposed expansion of the harbor on the Hanapepe side lacks community support because of its potential impacts to and from the mouth of the Hanapepe River. Opponents also say it would obliterate a popular surfing spot, and that it would open into swells which come into Hanapepe Bay.
Several speakers talked about an alternative site for a new harbor on the Burns Field side of the bay, something Richard Iwamoto, a retired engineer and recreational fisherman, said has already been studied by the Army Corps of Engineers.
The idea of expansion, said state consultant Bill Bow of Bow Engineering, is to work with Alexander & Baldwin – which owns land above the small boat harbor and has plans for a commercial complex including a restaurant – to allow for loading and unloading of tour-boat passengers above the harbor, and constructing a handicapped-accessible walkway down to the harbor, to eliminate congestion at sea level.
Bow is putting together the so-called mini-master plan for the harbor. A new office for the harbor agent, and new restroom facilities, are part of the plan, which Bow told the audience will not move forward without approval from harbor users.
Niau and the club want an ice house and fuel dock included in any expansion plans, and the state seems willing to listen and respond to the requests of harbor users.
Several of the fishermen talked about the need to assess the proposed expansion’s impact not only on Hanapepe Bay, but on Na Pali Coast if the expansion results in more commercial boats operating out of the harbor.
Vaughan Tyndzik, DLNR small boat harbors Kaua’i district branch manager, agreed with several fishermen that a good question is how many commercial boats can and should be accommodated at Port Allen, and how that number could impact Na Pali Coast.
DLNR is working with the Department of Transportation on developing a 2025 master plan for both Nawiliwili and Port Allen. The Nawiliwili portion of the plan is completed already.
A public hearing on the Port Allen segment of the plan is set for next Tuesday May 22 at 10 a.m. at Hanapepe Recreation Center.
The current harbor scene is “mayhem,” said Bruce Pleas. Fueling, catering and passenger delivery vehicles all mix in confined space with recreational and commercial fishermen near the boat ramp.
A possible solution which may not have to wait until 2025 is construction of a small finger pier between the existing small boat harbor and longer pier, Tyndzik explained.
DOT plans a new finger pier where the Navy boats are now moored, a new wharf for the Navy vessels, and a new wharf for the Chevron fuel ship which calls on Port Allen every other week to deliver fuel for Kaua’i Electric’s power-generating units, said Dean Watase of the DOT Harbors Division.
The existing long pier was built in the 1940s and isn’t expected to have a useful life of more than 10 or 20 more years, Watase explained. It will be torn down and replaced with a longer pier.
Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
