A nearly century-old Hawi reservoir and dam will be destroyed after decades of disuse.
At Friday’s meeting of the state Board of Land and Natural Resources, the board discussed and ultimately approved a request to remove a plantation-era dam located north of Akone Pule Highway in North Kohala.
The dam — which currently appears to be little more than a small earthen embankment — was built in 1930 and captured a roughly 6-acre reservoir that was used to irrigate ranch land.
According to documents submitted to the BLNR, the reservoir — designated the Hawi No. 5 Reservoir — was fed by an irrigation ditch connecting to a nearby watershed and could store 17.9 million gallons.
The reservoir has not been in use since 1975, although it was only drained of water in 2014, after the Department of Land and Natural Resources found serious deficiencies in the dam that posed a high risk of failure.
About 60% of the reservoir is located on land owned by the state Department of Agriculture, while the remainder is on private farm land.
The owners of that private land, Hualua Farm, submitted a proposal in February to the BLNR to remove the reservoir.
Hualua Farm owner Bahman Sadeghi told the board Friday that the dam has been considered unsafe for years, well before he purchased the land, and that he eventually hopes to build a dairy on the site. Sadeghi said he will fully pay for the process, which is estimated to cost about $104,000.
DLNR engineer Tony Koyamatsu said Friday that breaching the dam will entail digging a 15-foot-wide, 20-foot-deep channel through the dam to render it useless.
Charles Young, a member of the DLNR’s Aha Moku Advisory Committee — which serves to integrate traditional indigenous resource management and practices into DLNR’s greater land management strategies — testified in support of the project, which he said will not impact any cultural or traditional practices in the area, nor will it have significant environmental impact.
The BLNR voted unanimously Friday in favor of the dam’s removal after brief discussion.
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
