Dredging of the Ala Wai Canal
I have had first hand experience with the Ala Wai Canal all through out high school. I was a four-year paddler in high school and we held our practices in the Ala Wai, let me tell you, that canal is pretty nasty. I feel sorry for those people who have to scoop up that sludge. The sludge on the bottom to the canal is black and is pretty smelly. The canal is pretty shallow, if you wanted to, you could stand up with your head above water. In some parts of the canal if you don't be careful the canoe can get stuck because it is so shallow. One of my friends got pushed into the Ala Wai and he came out with his face covered in that black sludge. It was pretty nasty. I was lucky to have only fallen in three times. Some of my friends fell in three times in one year. One of the times I fell in I touched bottom and let me tell you that sludge felt pretty nasty. The canal is really in need of a dredging and I think that this dredging is necessary, but I really wish that they wouldn't just dump it back into the ocean. In the long run is that really going to help out? The are just polluting the ocean and may possible harm the wildlife out there. But it makes me feel a little better that the place they
So I conclusion I think the state made a good decision to dredge the Ala Wai Canal, they shouldn't have waited as long, but it good that they are finally doing it. Hopefully they are not polluting the ocean by dumping the sludge in there, but I guess that was there most sensible alternative. I can't wait to see it completed and hopefully I'll get a chance to paddle in it once again. are dumping this sludge is sanctioned by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). So, hopefully the spot were the are dumping everything has no sea creatures in the area and is an extremely deep so it will just go to the bottom, no affecting anything. They are now saying that this is going to cost the state more than they had previously estimated. AMC had reported that there is a lot more sludge in the Ala Wai than they had estimated and the price is going to go up from $7.4 million, but not more than $10.3 million. Phase III, which is at the Kapahulu end of the Ala Wai, is considered to be the most polluted end of the canal. They going to propose another method of disposal for the 1,815 cubic yards of sediment that is in that area do to the pollution. There is quite a bit of chlordane and lead found in that area of the Ala Wai. One proposal was to use the sediment to fill in low spots in the airport reef runway, but some question that it might allow the pollutants to escape in the future. The barges that they dump the sludge into are called "dump scows," which are specially designed for the Ala Wai to be able to fit under the low bridges. Each dump scow is designed to haul 250 cubic yards of waste. These dump scows are not capable of stopping on a dime, so people who will be using the Ala Wai have been forewarned that it cannot stop quickly. The final area, which is Phase IV, is the Manoa-Palolo drainage canal. This area is also quite filled with sediment, so will require a lot of dredging, but it is not that big of an area so it should take to long. Now that they have started using the 345 Caterpillar Hydraulic Excavator, which is the crane they are using to dig all the sludge out of the Ala Wai, they are able to make six trips a day to the dump site. Phase I of the operation is located between Ala Moana and the McCully Bridge. This is the least dirty area of the Ala Wai and also the deepest, so it did not take long to complete.
Some common words found in the essay are:
Ala Wai, Wai Canal, Phase II, IV Manoa-Palolo, Natural Resources, Mantis Shrimp, ala wai, McCully Bridge, Agency EPA, Corporation AMC, Moana Bowls, cubic yards, phase ii, wai canal, mccully bridge, yards sediment, cubic yards sediment, dredging project, ala wai canal, pretty nasty, sludge ala wai, water quality, manoa-palolo drainage canal, sludge ala, sludge pretty nasty,
Approximate Word count = 1586
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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