About 1/4 Of Beaches On 3 Hawaiian Islands Lost Or Reduced Due To Seawalls In Last 100 Years
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Over the past two decades, state and local officials have granted more than 230 environmental exemptions to owners of homes, hotels and condos statewide. More than a quarter of those involved permitting emergency sandbags to protect properties from lashing waves and rising sea levels. The permits are typically limited to three years, but the Star-Advertiser and ProPublica found that homeowners rarely remove them when they expire, and state officials repeatedly grant extensions or don’t enforce deadlines.
In response to the reporting, the state Department of Land and Natural Resources is revising its rules governing shoreline structures with a focus on the emergency permits for sandbags. “We’re trying to, like, brace up a boulder with a stick until we find a better way forward,” said Sam Lemmo, administrator for the department’s Office of Conservation and Coastal Lands.
He said it was too early to offer specific policy changes, but he has assigned staff to research ways to “improve our tracking of (emergency authorizations) and our ability to make rational decisions regarding whether or not to allow them to continue.” The Star-Advertiser and ProPublica found that the department terminated just one of the 66 emergency sandbag permits it issued over the past two decades. When the news organizations asked about several permits that had expired, the department said they “fell through the cracks” and vowed to contact the owners.
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Researchers estimate that roughly a quarter of the beaches on Oahu, Maui and Kauai have already been lost or substantially narrowed because of seawalls over the past century. Future projections are more dire, with scientists warning that most of Hawaii’s beaches could disappear if hundreds of homes, condos, hotels and roads that line the coasts aren’t moved inland.
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https://www.staradvertiser.com/2020/12/31/hawaii-news/paradise-lost-hawaii-officials-promise-changes-to-seawall-policies-that-have-quickened-beach-destruction/