Pakalas pollution should be investigated
Over the last couple of years, we’ve seen several articles about ocean water pollution at various beaches around the Island. For example, “Waiopili officially polluted” in the March 7 TGI.
These articles explore the possible causes of the high bacterial and other pollutant matter found in water samples. In the above article, it mentioned that the only beach with higher levels of pollution was Pakalas, a popular surfing beach. Why have you not investigated and written about possible causes of pollution at Pakalas?
I tend to read the online version of the Garden Island everyday, and unless I’ve missed it, I don’t think I’ve read anything explaining why Pakalas is so polluted, who is responsible, and what steps the county has taken to protect the health of the multitude of citizens exposed to these harmful waters. Is there some reason why this has not been investigated and/or remedied?
Mike Vallee, Kalaheo
Students doing extraordinary things
I was uplifted and inspired last Friday night when I joined hundreds of kids and their families at Wilcox School’s S.T.E.M. Family Night. S.T.E.M = Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. Can you believe it? Hundreds of kids and their families were excited and having fun over science, technology, engineering and math!
I expected to see a classroom with about 30 or 40 “nerdy” students and their parents and perhaps some experiments or discussions. Instead, I found the cafeteria and the large yard outside filled with parents and kids (ages 6 to 13) milling around food booths and workstations that were actually play stations because the kids were having so much fun!
The students were fully engaged, and the parents were having fun, too. Some kids were wearing white lab coats and gloves like real scientists and were dissecting eyes of cows, touching the brain of a goat and watching real lungs of a pig expand and contract. Others were riding a virtual reality roller coaster, creating chemical reactions, shooting off rockets, coding, learning about electrical circuits and how sweet potatoes grow, and puzzling over problems in the Escape Room where you couldn’t get out unless you solved the problems. No one wanted to go home when the event came to an end.
Kudos to Principal Cory Nakamura, coordinator and teacher extraordinaire Natsumi Yamasato and their amazing team of colleagues and helpers who proved to adults and children alike that S.T.E.M. learning can be fun! It was public school education at its best!
JoAnn Yukimura, County Councilmember
Mike…the streams coming from mountains to Pakala run through a cattle ranch. The ranch has been there for over 120 years. The cattle have access to the streams for their drinking water.
This is a legitimate agricultural use of the land, something that is supported and promoted by many. What do you suggest diapers for the cattle? Or, would you prefer to see the lands developed for housing and commercial use?
You can’t have it both ways,
RG DeSoto
Precisely.
Mr. DeSoto:
If the streams that flow into Pakalas run so high, 19,000 or so, it CAN”T be just cattle. That is much too high for just cattle. Dumping grounds possibly?
I would rather have cattle than developments any day, no question about it, but Mr. Desoto, why are you always so rude to everyone who writes a letter?
Sue:
No dumping grounds. You have fallen into the trap of causal fallacies–assuming something is true without enough evidence.
Rude? Challenging an other’s opinion is not being rude…except in today’s PC world. I simply responded to the letter writer with an absurd “solution” diapers for cattle. What else is there to do in the middle of a cattle ranch?
As a youth I spent many hours in that stream/ocean area and never have been infected or made ill. And, believe me, the stream is actually a bit cleaner now than it was 60+ years ago.
RG DeSoto
Do you know what a question mark means? I was asking if there may be dumping going on up there, I do not know, and was wondering if that could be a possible reason to the high counts Surfrider got the other day. Yes, you were being rude, and mostly are with your sacarstic answers. They aren’t funny, just mean. I figured you were old and grumpy, now I know it as fact.
“..old and grumpy…”Speaking of rude…ad hominems are precisely that.
You attacked your opponent’s character or personal traits in an attempt to undermine their argument.
Your question, re: dumping grounds, carried with it an implied accusation.
RG DeSoto
Mr. DeSoto,
Can you not recognize that the land owners are the ones having it both ways? As soon as they can they will discontinue the running of cattle and then develop the same land into the so-called second city on the west side. And they as well as you don’t mind the filth in the water.
Craig:
How do you know this? I can say without any doubt you are absolutely wrong. The Robinson’s have been dedicated ranchers/agriculturists for 155 years and will continue to be.
Your last sentence is completely unfounded and, frankly, irrational.
RG DeSoto
Who sold the land to the big resort that is supposed to go in? Was it the Robinson’s or someone else?
Sue – Look it up yourself on the county property tax website. The land wasn’t sold. You have a pretty wild imagination thinking up all these falsehoods.
Get the facts straight…the Kapalawai Property was not sold.
RG DeSoto
Besides cattle and natural land erosion from Mauka to Makai, the Pakala residential camp still utilizes leaching cesspools which was built with these plantation homes long ago. With these homes being build close to ocean, and on low leveling land, these cesspools don’t have great depth. I do not know if there is a forward working project, to alleviate this issue
The EPA supervised replacement of most of the cesspools with septic systems several years ago.
RG DeSoto
R.G….thanks for your opinion. I was actually looking for something a little more scientific or fact based rather than conjecture. Ocean pollution concerns all of us who surf, swim, scuba, etc. I’m wondering if the Garden Island newspaper or the County have done actual investigations, looking into the pollution such has been done at Waiopili. If not, why not? I don’t know why you would assume or suggest I would prefer development. Just a knee-jerk reaction I suppose. I’m actually very much against further development and intend to support those candidates who feel the same way. I would urge other who feel like I do to support slow growth candidates in the upcoming elections.
@Craig Millett – That would be pretty darn hard with all their ag lands between the highway and the mountains designated as Important Agricultural Lands”. Takes an affirmative vote by the State Legislature to change that. Development of those lands won’t have until the community cries for it.
Mr. DeSoto: First, I can’t find any record of the Pakala Camp’s cesspools being replaced by the EPA or any gov’t agency. Do you have a link or proof of some sort to back up this assertion? Second, isn’t there another community inland from Pakala’s with quite a few homes and some sort of meat processing facility? Has anyone ever looked into what waste byproducts emanating from these homes and businesses produce and where it goes? Have that communities cesspools been replaced? The high count of human fecal matter in the waters of Pakalas should alarm the County and anyone who swims or surfs there. Props for the Surfrider Foundation. At least they are doing something about our waters
Cattle give off plenty greenhouse gasses, naturally grown food crops give off OXYGEN. Seems an acre of food gives off more food than an acre of cows, some crops anyway, though some of those biggah buggahs you pass when crossing over from the highway to Pakala are not only ferocious looking by mighty big and probably put out plenty food.
Thankfully those giants don’t know they are headed for the back door of a fast food hamburger joint, or the dinner table of the landowners.
Charlie