ALA WAI PROJECT CHRONOLOGY
Fall 2018: Congress appropriates money to fund the Project. The appropriation is for the full amount, but a local sponsor must put up $125 million of the cost. The State and City cannot agree on how to split this up. Ultimately, although the Army Corps had been dealing with the State, and not the City, for years, the State insisted that the City sign the Project Partnership Agreement (PPA) as local sponsor. The State would provide the $125 million and the City would be responsible for operations and maintenance of the Project features.
January 17, 2019: SB77 introduced. The Governor seeks to fund the Ala Wai Project through a legislative appropriation or through the sale of certificates of participation (COPs) by the Department of Budget and Finance (B&F).
At the Ways and Means hearing on SB77 only B&F and the Governor’s office testify in favor and the other testifiers stand in opposition. The Army Corps and City do not testify. Chair Dela Cruz defers bill to another hearing allowing and requesting that the Army Corps and City appear. At the subsequent hearing, the Ways and Means Committee passes SB77, which eventually passes the Senate and is sent over to the House.
March 19, 2019: Town hall meeting held at Manoa District Park, hosted by the City and featuring a presentation on the Project by the Army Corps. Three hundred to five hundred people show up. In response to an audience question asking how many in attendance oppose the Project, 75%-80% stand up. Also, virtually every audience member who takes the microphone is against the Project.
January-March: Seven out of eight Neighborhood Boards vote to support a resolution requesting that the State Legislature not fund the Project in its current form.
March 2019: SB77 dies in the House when Chair Sylvia Luke of the Finance Committee declines to schedule it for a hearing.
April 18, 2019: Gov. Ige writes to Mayor Caldwell saying that he intends to fund the Project by issuing COPs provided the Mayor sign the PPA by June 28, 2019 (end of fiscal year). The Mayor fails to sign by the deadline.
August 21, 2019: The City Council passes Resolution 19-182, which authorizes the Mayor to sign the PPA and receive the $125 million from the State.
September 19, 2019: Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between the State and City is signed. State agrees to provide the $125 million to the City by November 30, 2019. The Mayor agrees that the City will be the local sponsor and sign the PPA.
September 19, 2019: Protect Our Ala Wai Watersheds files a motion in State circuit court for a temporary restraining order halting the sale of the COPs.
October 21-22, 2019: After scheduling a hearing on POAWW’s motion for a preliminary injunction, the court holds a two-day hearing.
October 29, 2019: Circuit court finds for plaintiff POAWW and enjoins the State from proceeding with the sale of COPs before the State EIS has been approved.
October 31, 2019: In a letter from the Mayor to the Governor, the Mayor does not approve of the State EIS sent to him. He lists four categories of deficiencies. The State must remedy these deficiencies in order to comply with Chapter 343, HRS.
As a consequence of the court’s order and the Mayor’s disapproval, the sale of the COPs cannot proceed, and the three-to-five-month process comes to a halt.
November, 2019: In a newsletter the Army Corps announces, “USACE HQ authorizes Ala Wai system modifications.” Headquarters authorized the local group to proceed with an EDR to investigate and validate modifications to the original plan.
June 23, 2020: State announces completion of the State EIS. Prior to that date the Mayor already approved it. This EIS is based on the original plan.
August 17, 2020: the Army Corps releases its EDR, presenting a significantly revised Project plan. The detention basins in the upper Manoa and Palolo Valleys have been removed. Structures have been added in order to deal with the additional water in the lower watershed areas. The detention basins were removed because revisiting and revising their computer projection models showed the basins to be less effective than originally thought.
September 9, 2020: The City Council passes Resolution 20-230, which adopts the Permitted Interaction Group/Oceanit’s alternative to the Army Corps plan. In a nutshell, the Oceanit plan envisions two underground tubes—in Manoa and Palolo—which will carry away excess water into the ocean.