A Missouri River Court Decision Could Sink Hawaii’s Ala Wai Flood Control Plan
The Army Corps of Engineers might have to go back to the drawing board to keep the controversial urban Honolulu project feasible.
The nearly 30-year push to better protect one of Hawaii鈥檚 most populous watersheds from extreme rains and flooding has hit another snag, city leaders say 鈥 this time due to a federal court ruling that upholds farming interests along the Missouri River.
The ruling in that case, , could drastically drive up costs for the Ala Wai Flood Control Project, plus scores of other U.S. Army Corps of Engineers efforts around the country, according to Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi and his managing director, Mike Formby.
Specifically, the two leaders said, it could make as many as 1,300 landowners in the Ala Wai watershed eligible to be compensated for ,鈥 or water that runs along their property in a storm as a result of the flood control measures.
Those owners could be eligible regardless of how large or strong the water鈥檚 flow, the two city leaders added.
Blangiardi and Formby said Friday they didn鈥檛 know how much more the Ala Wai project would cost if the city and its federal partners had to cover those extra costs. The Corps of Engineers is currently appraising those properties to try and estimate the impact, they said.
Eric Merriam, the Corps鈥 Ala Wai project manager, was unavailable to discuss the Ideker decision鈥檚 impact on Monday. In a statement Monday, the Corps said it was working to see how the decision would impact the Ala Wai effort, and that would delay its final report on the latest flood control plan.
The Corps added in that statement that it would provide a more detailed update sometime in the near future.
Nonetheless, Blangiardi and Formby said the court ruling could kill the Ala Wai flood control effort, which officials have described as critical to guard urban Honolulu against the growing impacts of climate change, unless the Corps can somehow redesign the project so that it doesn鈥檛 affect so many properties or if Congress intervenes to change the law.
鈥淲e鈥檙e as surprised and challenged by this as you could possibly imagine,鈥 Blangiardi said Friday.
He and Formby have met twice in the past two weeks with the Corps鈥 to discuss the situation.
The hope, Blangiardi said, is that the federal agency can get additional money to study how to minimize the Ala Wai project鈥檚 impact to private owners and make it financially feasible.
The administration is determined to keep the Ala Wai flood control project from failing, Formby added. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not taking no for an answer,鈥 he said.
A Shifting Landscape
The Ideker decision found that farming interests along the Missouri River after the Corps scaled back its flood management there in 2004 to help protect endangered species.
The move restored parts of the river back to a natural state with regular flooding and a constantly morphing floodplain. However, that also flooded the farmland and crops that farmers grew along the river for decades under the assumption that the Corps would protect the land against the water.
The Corps lost its appeal of that decision last year.
In Honolulu, the Ala Wai flood control plan was scrapped in January 2021, when the Corps announced its cost estimate had nearly doubled from $345 million to $651 million, largely due to design changes 鈥 including a proposed pumping station where the Ala Wai and Manoa-Palolo canals meet.
The Corps then resurrected the local project in 2023 with the goal of bringing costs back in check. However, by December the price tag had nearly doubled again to $1.07 billion.
The project has faced stiff resistance among some in the community over the years. In 2019, attended a public meeting to protest the catchment basins proposed for the Makiki, Manoa and Palolo valleys as part of the plan. Those features were later scrapped.
Later that year, the grassroots group filed suit to stop the project from moving forward. A state judge sided with the group and issued an injunction, stalling it. Two years later, the Corps canceled that version of the project when it deemed the costs had grown too high.
The Corps鈥 most recent flood control plan largely relies on flood walls built as tall as 6 feet high along the Ala Wai, Manoa and Palolo canals, as well as in upper Manoa.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 think it would fly. It would be such a change to the landscape down there. I don鈥檛 think the public would allow it,鈥 Sidney Lynch, president of the grassroots group, said of the walls Monday.
The Ideker decision could provide an opportunity to reevaluate the flood control project, Lynch added. It鈥檚 a potential 鈥渟topping point before they get too far along and people will stand up and fight yet again on something they鈥檙e not going to want,鈥 she said.
Blangiardi said the project remains critical, despite those concerns.
鈥淲e鈥檙e talking about saving lives and property,” Blangiardi said. “At the end of the day, I鈥檇 rather deal with it from a prevention standpoint than look at all the kind of devastation鈥 that鈥檚 possible.
Civil Beat’s coverage of climate change is supported by the Environmental Funders Group of the Hawaii Community Foundation, Marisla Fund of the Hawaii Community Foundation and the Frost Family Foundation.
