Inside Honolulu: March 4
It’s another busy week at City Hall: Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle’s first budget was unveiled Wednesday, while the majority of Honolulu City Council members are en route to Washington, D.C. On Friday, reporters are invited back to Waimanalo Gulch for the first time in weeks.
Landfill Preps for Limited Opening
4:55 p.m.
Waimanalo Gulch is scheduled to reopen to the public on Sundays, beginning this weekend. Joe Whelan, general manager of the company that operates the landfill, invited reporters back to the site today for the first time in several weeks.
The landfill closed after intense rains caused a near-catastrophic failure at the site. The most intense Jan. 13 storm dumped more than six inches of rain in a three-hour period. That represents rainfall so heavy and fast it could be classified a 200-year rain event, a meteorologist in the area told Civil Beat at the time.
A stormwater diversion channel that Whelan said could have prevented a decision to release water into the ocean to prevent a structural failure has been finished since Feb. 15. Whelan told Civil Beat he’s been sleeping much better since then.
But the channel is only required to handle a 25-year rain event. Whelan said he asked contractors to “beef up” some key parts of the channel to handle heavier rains.
“The design criteria is for 25 years,” Whelan said. “But we enhanced that in several critical areas of the diversion structure to meet 100-year criteria.”
Asked if there were still portions of the channel that would only handle a 25-year rain, Whelan acknowledged there are.
“There are,” Whelan said. “But I didn’t design it, so I don’t know what they are.”
Oh the Irony: Heavy Rain Predicted for Landfill Tour
For the first time in weeks, the city and operators of Waimanalo Gulch landfill are inviting reporters to visit the site. Workers are making ongoing repairs in the wake of a Jan. 13 mega-storm that caused near-catastrophic structural failure at the landfill.
But the landfill is scheduled for this afternoon, and heavy rain is in the forecast. A spokeswoman said officials will decide around 10 a.m. whether the 2 p.m. tour will go on as planned.
Kobayashi Heading Out of Town, Too
Five City Council members are spending the next week in Washington, D.C., for the National Association of Counties Legislative Conference. City Council member Ann Kobayashi told Civil Beat she’s taking the opportunity to do some personal traveling of her own.
It means the acting council chairman will be Ikaika Anderson. The only other two council members sticking around are Ernie Martin and Tom Berg.
Catch Up on This Month’s Inside Honolulu
March 3, 2011: Line-by-line budget to go online in about a week; Five City Council members are D.C.-bound.
March 2, 2011: Mayor Peter Carlisle raises taxes, fees in first budget; More money for autopsies; Liquor commish nominee Wesley Fong talks commission image issues; TheBus turns 40; Ides of March deadline for City Council’s HART nominees.
March 1, 2011: City Council member Breene Harimoto worries about bandaid approach to homelessness; Planning Committee advances North Shore communities plan; Parks and Rec eyes new dog park; Tom Berg pitches Matson containers as possible living space.
