Sarah Ghio leans on the rear bumper of her dead silver SUV, taking a sip of juice to wet her chapped lips. It’s her sole alternative since she returned to her flood-stricken North Shore Oʻahu farm, where tap water remained unsafe to drink. You can see the exhaustion in her face, hear it in her voice.
Ghio lives off the grid on leased land once owned by Dole Food’s sister company Castle and Cooke, a small piece of more than 300 acres still framed by the pineapple plantation’s century-plus-old irrigation ditches. Invasive weeds have, over time, strangled that ditch system, which merges with natural streams to carry water through farm fields and out to the ocean. If the Kona low storms of recent weeks are any indication, they’re no longer up to the job.
For years the region’s waterways have been neglected. Waialua farmers and residents say that while last weekend’s historic rainfall was not avoidable, the extent of the damage was. They blame the culverts, ditches, bridges and overgrowth that became dams for the detritus carried downhill by the stormwater, which together blocked some key drainage systems.
Many don’t know who’s at fault. They say government departments refer them to other county and state agencies – what some describe as a goose chase. As tempers rise amid the wreckage, North Shore residents are demanding answers from large uphill landowners, government officials and Dole, which has sold off thousands of acres in recent decades.
“These guys made money off these systems for years. Then when they aged out, they neglected them,” Ghio said. “I don’t hate them. I just know we have to manage the problem when they start turning things over: Who’s responsible for this canal and what are the roles and responsibilities, and are there gaps and who’s accountable? We definitely aren’t.”…