HAWAII KAI, OAHU- Hawaii Kai residents who live near the site of a proposed cemetery are concerned about large amounts of asphalt being stockpiled in the heart of Kamilonui Valley.
“So the question is, what is the capacity of that area,” said Elizabeth Reilly, a member of the Hawaii Kai Neighborhood Board. “When are they going to stop bringing in fill? It’s been about seven years now.”
The city and state approved plans for the new cemetery in 2001 and 2005 respectively, but there are no immediate plans to begin construction. A conglomerate of landowners under the name Hawaii Kai Memorial Park LLC hopes to eventually build Oahu’s first cemetery in nearly sixty years. The cemetery would be constructed in several phases and contain roughly 60,000 burial plots when finished.
Since mid-December up to twenty large trucks have been using Kaiwi Road every weekday morning to haul aggregate material to the 69-acre parcel of land where the cemetery may be built.
Residents are upset about noise from the trucks and the dust they kick up as they travel along the roadway that boarders Mariner’s Cove.
“It’s just awful,” said homeowner Patrick Hughes. “All these trucks just showed up one day and it’s really upsetting.”
Royal Contracting Company, which has a stake in the land, told Khon2 the stockpiled asphalt would eventually be used to build roads in and out of the future cemetery. The company has a stockpiling permit from the city that has been renewed annually.
Still, residents are concerned about what may happen to all of that asphalt during a severe rain storm.
“If they do have a permit I don’t believe they looked at whether there’s going to be heavy rain back there and where all that stuff is going to go,” said Hughes.
“It’s all going to get into the marina and eventually get out to Maunalua Bay,” added Gary Wells, another member of the Hawaii Kai Neighborhood Board.
According to the city’s Department of Planning and Permitting, the future cemetery site is an ‘undetermined flood hazard, which means a flood analysis has never been performed.
On January 3 the city issued a notice of violation to Royal Contracting after the company began building an unpaved road in the area without a permit. The company was told to immediately stop all work or face fines of $50 per day.
“We didn’t realize we had to get a permit for something that was grubbed six years ago,” said Royal Contracting Vice President Leonard Leong.
Friday afternoon Wells led a meeting at the Mariner’s Cove Bay Clubhouse to inform residents about trucks coming in and out of the valley and the stockpiling of asphalt. The meeting was attended by about sixty people, including East Oahu Councilman Stanley Chang.
Chang said the landowners had agreed to make a presentation to the community later this month in order to share information.
“We’re concerned about clean water issues, but I think in the longer term we’re concerned about the development of the cemetery,” said Chang. “We’d really appreciate at the community level a lot more transparency so that people understand what’s going on.”
Inspectors with the State Health Department’s Clean Water Branch and Solid and Hazardous Waste Branch inspected the proposed cemetery site before Christmas but failed to identify any environmental hazards.
“The inspectors tell me they did not see any significant issues that were urgent or needed immediate attention,” said DOH spokeswoman Janice Okubo. Okubo said a report would be available toward the end of the month.
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See the original article at: KHON2 Local News
