Champagne Pond - Best solutions?

[Rob Tucker]

I've thought about this for the past several days and have two opinions.

Long Term is beginning to be addressed with the initiation of planning for a waste treatment system for Kapoho. Like most things in Puna it is overdue but seems to be underway. The property owners I know in Beach Lots have a sincere interest in a solution to water quality.

DLNR needs to follow suit and develop a plan for the lava fields adjacent to Champagne Pond. This is a case of the "leaders" following the people. A broad range of community input is needed. I would not mind seeing a proposal for a marine preserve there. I don't like the idea of KFC and MacDonalds trash replacing the honu.

Short Term I think that the vehicle access to Champagne Pond needs to be ended immediately. The most excessive current problems are the result of too many people arriving with too much stuff and staying too long. The Pond cannot support this. Beach lots restricts vehicle accumulation which is one minor saving grace. Vehicles, all of em, should be kept out of the pond area. (That includes my van too.)

I cannot see how increasing the flow of humanity to this very small and rare ecologically valuable area can make it better.

That's my POV.

Punaweb moderator

[Kapohocat]

quote:

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The county should have never issused building permits in the first place...
KEEP PUNA RURAL

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I agree with you in theory.

The county and state also can't tie it up so in essense the lot owners are "stuck" able to do nothing and no end in sight.

I am also talking about people who bought years and years ago, not in the last 2-3 years where the situation was already in progress and acknowledged the situation and now crying foul.

One of the things we are working on for the Waiopae maine conssrvation area is to get the lots on the ocean or where the ocean touches the lot into a land trust or state land as a park. Although these lots probably should be condemened, the county has already told me that there is not interest in that because they can't afford it.

There are many "new home" owners who oppose that because they told me specifically "we want to keep them (locals) out" but dont have a gate (yet). I about blew a gasket.

I know there are people who think all I do is try to get people to build, but we also work on how the current lot owners who have been tied up for years, yes years, able to do something with their land whether that is build, sell, donate or ?. Today I had a client on the phone that cant build, cant even put up a fence to keep people from pooping on her lot and containating the ponds on her unimproved lot. She agrees every holiday to allow the association to put porta potties up on the edge of her lot. She said she would be happy to have her lot condemned and become part of a park. She cant even donate it to the county because they have no money to take it. She cant sell it but still pays taxes. So we are working towards trying to acquire money from private foundations to set aside land like these lots for appropriate use for the tidal pools.

A wonderfully imformative woman at the DLNR told us about the Land Conservation trust that is privately funded and we have been researching that avenue. I am hesitant though because the one thing I DO NOT WANT to see happen is for access to be limited use of the area to the "haves" and not the "havenots". Our kuleana is to stay an island of inclusion rather than exclusion.

One other idea to start letter writing campaigns to people like Wizard Publishing http://www.oahurevealed.com/main/contactus.html to (politely) ask them to remove our delicate areas from the guide book.

Catherine Dumond
Blue Water Project Management
808 217-7578
http://bluewaterpm.125mb.com/index.html
"We help make building your dream home a reality"

[PunaLover]

Thank You Cat

I agree with you in theory.

The county and state also can't tie it up so in essense the lot owners are "stuck" able to do nothing and no end in sight.

I am also talking about people who bought years and years ago, not in the last 2-3 years where the situation was already in progress and acknowledged the situation and now crying foul.

One major issue I've come across is that same, "it's how we've been doing it" mentality. That needs to educated. I had neighbors who for 20 years pruned their 2 acres of guava next door and tossed the branches onto the neighboring empty lots and across the street. All for sides. Then the between us was bought and they were asked not to throw them onto to lot between us. A temp. hog wire fence was strung up, tacked to trees, ohia posts temporary, but good enough to keep dogs in. They started stacking the branches against the fence, in the fence, piled 6' high the legnth of the fence from road to back of lot, eventually pulling down the fence. Burried it. When asked to, Please move your branches of the fence. The reply? "You want em moved, you move em yourself". Thus the begining of my puna community involvement and introduction to the "county system". Got educated and found it to be a loosing battle. One I've picked up and let go several times in the last 1/2 dozen years. Too much stress and frustration. It's hard to teach the unwilling.
Just because something has been done a certain way for a long period of time doesn't mean it will always be so. Times change things have to change with it. Do we always have to change it the way of everyone else?
Can we be inventive?

I'm gonna post "Peter's Law's" here because
even though they have my name I am not the author but it must say something that Peter's may think a like. Don't know don't know any others.

NOTICE and Disclousure
( These are to be taken with a light heart and a sense of humor)

PETER'S LAWS


1. If anything can go wrong. Fix it! (To hell with Murphy!)
2. When given a choice—Take Both!
3. Multiple projects lead to multiple successes.
4. Start at the top and work your way up.
5. Do it by the book…but be the author.
6. When forced to compromise, ask for more.
7. If you can’t beat them, join them, them beat them.
8. If it’s worth doing, do it now! Don’t procrastinate.
9. If you can’t win, change the rules. If you can’t change the rules, then ignore them.
10. Perfection is not an option. Remember the Persian Flaw.
11. When faced without a challenge, create one.
12. “No” simply means begin again at the next higher level.
13. A Bureaucracy is a challenge to be conquered with a righteous
attitude, a tolerance for stupidity, and a bulldozer when necessary.
14. When in doubt, THINK!
15. Patience is a virtue, but persistence to the point of success is a
blessing.
16. The faster you move, the slower time passes, the longer you live.


Knowledge Wisdom Compassion Creativity


KEEP PUNA RURAL

[Rob Tucker]

Kapohocat wrote:

The county and state also can't tie it up so in essense the lot owners are "stuck" able to do nothing and no end in sight.

There's a lot in life that doesn't always seem fair. A similar situation exists in South Lake Tahoe. Hundreds of property owners are precluded from building due to environmental (largely waste disposal) concerns. Without the availability of building permits the lots have no buyers.

Not every real estate investment is guaranteed or destined to be a good one.

[Kapohocat]

yup thats true too. Although real estate is typically a sound investment - not always the truth. Royal gardens anyone? ha ha

[PunaLover]

and the real esate saying "you can't grow land" not so on Hawaii.

KEEP PUNA RURAL

[Bob Orts]

There's an article on this in todays issue of Hawaii Tribune Herald (at least their on-line version)

[Kelena]

The situation described in the article Bob references is just disgusting. In the short time I have known about the existence of this unique body of water it is has gone from Champagne Pond to Bacterial Soup. The problem is very clear, just from looking at the photo in the Tribune: too many people, being shuttled to the pond. The short term solution to making things better immediately is to block off access from the gravel road. Block it off to everyone. I don't live in Kapoho, but neither do I mind parking outside the gate and walking (or hitching a ride) to the pond.

That is really sickening. The article itself should be handed to every visitor.

Of course, the effluent from the cesspools is another matter, but that will have to be handled long term. In short term, we need to close off the road.

[jerry]

Glen,

"Block everyone off" benefits the landowners but not anyone else.

The problem is simple: refuse and sewage. It seems to me the solution is also simple: Port a pottys and dumpsters.

Emily says she would put them in but can't because it is state land. Maybe she should just do it.

Someone said the port a potty companies won't come out there because the access is bad. I have worked on construction sites harder to get to and they manage.

It also seems that when government gets involved the simple solutions become impossible.

Jerry
Art and Orchids B&B
http://www.artandorchids.com

[Rob Tucker]

Blocking the illegal road only blocks off the cars and trucks. Walking in is a much lighter footprint and Champagne Pond won't survive with a parking lot except as a puddle of lifeless water. When it was a 'walk in' place things seemed okidoki year after year. When the vehicles arrived it became unmanageable.

It is more important for everyone to have all their stuff there or to have it clean and beautiful with fish and Honu?

So many people talk about the place without mentioning those that live there.... the marine creatures we claim to respect and enjoy so much.