State warns HPP for dust violation

[Rob Tucker]

I was disappointed that not one subdivision was willing to do any test miles of the X-zyme process from Brazil. It certainly looked worth a shot. I think I was the only one signed up to do a test project on my property for a pond.

What X-zyme Corp was looking for was some test miles for their natural road building system. This was in 2008. The costs as I recall was something like $30k per mile. The spiel was that in Brazil they had a massive road problem in the Amazon region where, in the rainy season, farmers couldn't get their crops to market due to the mud wallow roads. They had an enzyme which, when mixed with a soil/sand blend, would develop concrete hardness. Their Brazilian remote roads which had this surface had endured for ten years. They had some test sections completed in San Diego and New Mexico for officials to visit.

No one on the Big Island seemed interested. It certainly seemed worth a few miles of test.

If we had done study four years ago a determination could be made about now. So I guess we'll never know.

[DanielP]

If X-zyme was serious, and they were confident in their product, they would have offered a test section for free.

[Rob Tucker]

Aloha Daniel, I think the company had better prospects ahead of them than a rural district in the middle of the Pacific. There was local interest starting on Maui.
It seemed worth a try at the time - but only to me I guess.

[KeaauRich]

I seem to recall that the Orchildland road crew looked into X-zyme a year or two ago and determined that we didn't have the right type of earth material to make it work

[oink]

I'm somewhat familiar with a paving method that involves less or no road bed work and few permits because the asphalt/rock pavement is water permeable. I don't know if this would be an option for HPP or if Kahunascott has already looked at the option.

Below is the original long winded version of this post but the gist of it is above.

Where I'm currently living, the street was a sand grade which was either mud or washboard, depending on the season and required weekly grading. The county put down shell rock, which stabilized the road some, but resulted in billowing clouds of white dust, that at times made the landscape, even up into the trees, look like it was snow covered. The county not only did my street that way but a fair number of other county grades. Well, it turned out that shell rock dust is toxic and causes lung disease of some sort. Shortly after all of this came out, the roads got paved, but not a standard pavement. It was a single layer of large porous asphalt. There was absolutely no road bed work done prior to the paving. I was told by one of the county workers that it was way cheaper that way because of the simple paving technique, but more importantly it was quick and cheaper as fewer permits and EPA type stuff was necessary because the pavement was water permeable. I don't know if that is an option for HPP but it seems like it would work even better there due to the underlying rock.

Pua`a
S. FL
Big Islander to be.

[macuu222]

Would have, should have, could have.... These are all things in the past. HPP paved what they could with the money they had. It's done (or almost done). The present problem is that the state is asking HPP how they are going to fix the dust problem..."in writing". And HPP officials are saying.... what "can" we do? It sounds from the article that there is no money to do anything. Maybe they need to get another loan and pave the rest of the roads which would mean much higher road maintainence fees for everyone in the park....maybe they should just rent a couple of water trucks and hose down the roads after a dry spell...or maybe HPP should just do nothing and let the state decide how they want to play this. I personally like the last one.

[Kapohocat]

Although my subdivision only has a few cul-de-sacs left unpaved, this dust abatement issue is a "be careful what you wish for" type issue.
Learn from others mistakes.

As I understand, if the state proceeds, then they will have to deal with all their dirt roads too? Is that how I read it? Or this a case of only if a complaint is filed on a specific road?

[JohnLuchau]

As has been stated this is not a new issue. The same things were being discussed when I first joined the board in the early 90s. Our study of chip sealing as HOVE has done determined that it would not work in HPP because of the annual rainfall. HOVE raised their road maintenance for all lotowners just enough to get the roads chip sealed. Once it was completed they dropped the road maintenance fee back down to a previous lower amount. Our attempt in HPP to do this by going to the membership to raise dues to an amount that would allow the roads to be paved failed by vote. Now it would cost more than four times as much to pave. The time to solve this issue is now. Paving costs will not go down even if a barrel of oil price goes down. The county should be involved in this solution afterall they've reaped the benefits of our taxes without providing road services for more than 50 years.
I think those who complain about dust should be told that it is not roads that cause the dust it is the drivers who speed on those roads. If each dusty crossroad had boulders placed across the road at the halfway point through traffic would be halted and there would be less dust. That would be a temporary solution until the roads could be paved and might satisfy the state, however, it would be quite an inconvenience for some.
My road has been a constant problem. We have fewer people living on it but there is a school at the Makuu end that is a magnet for speeding soccer moms. It should have been one of the first to be paved with the addition of speed bumps but obviously it did not meet someone's criteria.
It truly is too bad that we have residents that will file complaints with governmental agencies against the corporation. Fines by the state would just mean we would have less money to pave roads with. It hurts all of us when a few complainers carry it over to a governmental agency or files suit. It is the reason I stopped participating so many years ago.

John

[EightFingers]

Anyway to find out who the "complainers" are?

[csgray]

The health department warning probably states where they monitored the dust, which could be a clue as to where the complainers live.

I would like to know what our current county councilor is going to do to help HPP work this out with the state. Once again Fred is notably missing in action on a matter of importance to his constituents. This is a perfect opportunity for leadership at the county level to step up and help facilitate a solution. Where's Fred? Where's Billy?

Carol