A bill advances in state House to pay for small boat harbor dredging : Maui Now

A bill to provide state funding for maintenance dredging at small boat harbors statewide has advanced to the Finance Committee in the House of Representatives.

The revised measure comes amid a recent Maui County Council resolution urging the state to repair the Māʻalaea Small Boat Harbor Ramp. There, sediment buildup has made it too shallow for vessels to use safely, especially at low tide. West Maui Rep. Elle Cochran says urgent repairs are also needed at fire-devastated Lahaina Harbor and badly deteriorated Māla wharf and boat ramp.

The House Committee on Water and Land Committee reviewed Senate Bill 2156, Senate Draft 2, House Draft 1, on March 20. The panel referred it to the House Finance Committee without an appropriation dollar amount or line-items for specific dredging projects.

A section in the revised bill requires the Department of Land and Natural Resources to begin including line-item funding requests in its next annual budget for maintenance dredging at state boating facilities. DLNR’s Boating and Recreation Division manages state small boat harbors.

During a tour of Lahaina Harbor and Māla Ramp on Tuesday, Cochran said the destruction of Lahaina Harbor should make it a top priority for repairs to make it operational as soon as possible.

“Here we’ve got people; these people’s lives and their livelihood,” she said, referring to commercial boat operators who rely on Lahaina Harbor to conduct charter tours, fishing or other business. “Let’s get this up and running. Let’s get the people back and their jobs.”

Cochran described wildfire damage to Lahaina Harbor as being “like a war zone.”

“Finger piers” that led to docked boats at Lahaina are gone, along with burned vessels that had been in the harbor in the wildfire’s aftermath. Māla Wharf on the north end of Lahaina is shut down behind a chain link fence because of its badly deteriorated condition, and Māʻalaea Harbor is busy with boaters who have few options on the west and south shores of Maui.

Heidi Speedie, operations manager of family-owned Kolea Charters, said its glass-bottom semi-submersible, Reef Dancer, was burned beyond repair on Aug. 8. Efforts to acquire another submersible have been unsuccessful so far.

Often referred to as “the yellow submarine,” Reef Dancer took visitors who paid $50 each from Lahaina Harbor to the reef at Baby Beach five times a day since 1991.

“We had scuba divers in the water who brought up sea urchins, sea stars, octopus to the windows for close viewing,” she said.

The business employed 16 regular crew members and five casual, fill-in crew. A few have moved away from Maui, although most have found other work on the island, Speedie said. Five employees lost their homes in the wildfire; two others were “kicked out” of rental homes to make way for landlord relatives whose homes burned, she said.

Speedie said she’s hopeful that the state has a plan to rebuild docks, waterlines, moorings and other infrastructure at Lahaina Harbor.

“Even if the state finished this by the end of the year, that could help boats have a safe place to park,” she said. However, “we don’t know if a route to the harbor for crew and guests will be approved after the harbor is repaired.”

Cochran said: “I really want the state and people to understand that, you know, the funding is critical… and No. 1 priority, having spoken to all three different groups of people, is the dredging. We need a management dredging plan. And, basically, what that means is that there’s a certain depth every channel needs to be at and when (sediment) reaches above it, you go in; you dredge it; you blow it out, whatever you do, bring it back to that standard (depth). So you don’t wait ’till it’s an emergency situation.”

In written testimony submitted to House lawmakers, Dawn Chang, chair of the Board of Land and Natural Resources, said the estimated average cost of a dredging project is about $1 million to $1.5 million, including the cost of design, permitting and dredging work. The department anticipates being able to complete two or three dredging projects each year and estimates a recurring annual appropriation of $3 million would cover annual maintenance needs.

Chang’s list of state harbors needing dredging on a regular basis does not include Māʻalaea, although it does list Lahaina Harbor and Māla Wharf Channel.

Lahaina resident and commercial fisherman Brendan Au, who lives on his 31-foot, twin-diesel boat in a boatyard he manages, said the lack of dredging at Māla Wharf has been a chronic problem.

And, he said he’s heard the same explanation about the lack of dredging from the state Boating and Ocean Recreation Division: (1) there isn’t funding; and (2) permits are needed. That work is expected to take two years, Au said.

Now, “I cannot launch my boat during low tide,” he said. “The ramp is that shallow.”

Also, because the water leading to the ramp isn’t deep enough, “now a little swell from the north or south; your boat gets bashed into the dock,” Au said.

One of two props on his boat costs $1,200, he said, and damaging it in shallow water “that can screw you up big time.”

Au fishes for bottom fish such as ʻōpakapaka, uku and onaga. Before the fire, his customers were West Maui restaurants, including Gerard’s Restaurant and Pacific’o on the Beach, both destroyed in the wildfire. Now, his customers have been reduced to only one restaurant.

Concerned about public safety, Au said he’s doubtful, in the event of an ocean emergency, that the Maui Fire Department could launch its $250,000, 30-foot rescue boat during low tide at Māla. “They can’t rescue you,” he said. “They have to wait until the tide comes up before they set the boat out.”

On March 8, the Maui County Council adopted a resolution urging the DLNR to repair a ramp at Māʻalaea Harbor. Council members noted that the boat ramp is in disrepair, endangering public safety and making it unsafe for the US Coast Guard to launch its small vessels during low tide. Sediment runoff into the harbor has made it too shallow for most vessels.

The DLNR Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation said dredging of the Māʻalaea launch ramp would require $4 million in funding and permits. The division said the work hinges on the department receiving funding from the Legislature.

Maui Now reached out to DLNR for information about its dredging plans for state small boat harbors, but there was no immediate response.

The current bill includes a legislative finding that “the current process of waiting until dredging is imminent to appropriate funds and only then initiating the permitting process creates a haphazard system for the allocation of money and the issuance of permits.”

“This disorganized process sometimes contributes to worsened conditions at these facilities when increased amounts of marine sediment and foreign debris accumulate, sometimes up to such a height that, if not cleared immediately, can damage the hulls of ships,” the bill says.