Following 15 months since it last inspected the Ka Loko Reservoir Dam, the state is waiting until next Friday to decide whether its engineers will conduct a second structural assessment. The last time the Department of Land and Natural Resources
Following 15 months since it last inspected the Ka Loko Reservoir Dam, the state is waiting until next Friday to decide whether its engineers will conduct a second structural assessment.
The last time the Department of Land and Natural Resources inspected the dam was Oct. 10, 2006, when state engineers conducted phase I of its post-breach review, Deborah Ward, DLNR spokeswoman, said yesterday.
Board of Land and Natural Resources member Ron Agor said the safety of the Ka Loko Reservoir Dam is of top priority.
The state is charged with the task of inspecting the dam, which breached March 14, 2006. The breach took the lives of seven people and destroyed millions of dollars worth of property.
Bill McCorriston, an attorney for Ka Loko Reservoir owner Jimmy Pflueger, had asked the Board of Land and Natural Resources in February to hold off on using DLNR engineers to inspect the dam, stating his client is being criminally investigated by the Attorney General’s office.
The BLNR has since twice deferred its decision on whether it will allow Pflueger’s engineers to substitute as inspectors for the dam.
Agor said yesterday that the state held off on its decision because it needed more time to be fully briefed on the information Pflueger’s engineers had. It also needs adequate time to make a determination whether that data will be able to substitute for the state’s assessment, he said.
“We want to assure the public of the dam safety and Pflueger hasn’t really made a public statement whether the dam is safe,” Agor said. “The holdup right now is liability and Pflueger doesn’t want, right now, to authorize the phase II inspection.”
Under the Dam Safety Bill, passed into law in 2007, private reservoir owners assume all the liability and all the costs to maintain reservoirs on their property.
Though legislators may have wanted to clearly define reservoir and dam liability, farmers have said they have suffered as a result of the bill. The bill doesn’t address providing water to farmers by a reservoir owner.
“We’re trying to work something out so farmers get water too, so this is why it’s really crucial we find out about the dam safety,” Agor said. “Once we get clarity on the dam safety, then we can proceed with some sort of plan.”
Such a plan could entail allowing farmers to once again rely on water that’s been diverted into the reservoir, or having farmers form an organization to collectively lease a reservoir of their own, Agor said.
Farmers also would have to work out some sort of agreement with Pflueger and the Mary N. Lucas Trust, part-owner of the Ka Loko Reservoir.
Pflueger, the Mary N. Lucas Trust, along with former Ka Loko owner C. Brewer & Co. Ltd., the state, the county of Kaua‘i, the Kilauea Irrigation Co. and its owner Thomas A. Hitch are among defendants being sued as a result of the dam breach.
Last week two engineering firms were added to the list of defendants, including Belt Collins, the firm hired by the state to conduct the Environmental Impact Statement for the Superferry, and Hirata & Associates Inc., for alleged negligence stemming from 1997 grading violations on Pflueger’s property.
According to the Ka Loko Report, authored by Deputy Attorney General Robert Godbey, one of the reasons for the March 14, 2006, breach was because it had not been consistently inspected by the DLNR, despite Hawai‘i law requiring it be done once every five years.
Other reasons for the breach, according to the report, were grading violations that could have put the structural integrity of the dam in jeopardy, and a filled-in emergency spillway, which left burgeoning water no place to go, causing the dam to overtop.
• Amanda C. Gregg, assistant editor/staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) or agregg@kauaipubco.com
