THE CARROLL COX SHOW - Nuuanu Landslide

PODCAST

SUNDAY, August 28, 2016

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Alternate access to broadcast: CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD - Show082816.mp3

August 28, 2016, Honolulu, Hawaii.


Carroll's guest is former City Councilmember Rod Tam, who is now running for the state senate. They talk about an ongoing landslide in Nuuanu that affected homeowners believed to be caused by the city's sewer line on an easement between their properties. The current slippage has now broken temporary sewer pipes, installed to bypass the original, broken line, and is damaging area homes as dirt and sewage water piles up against their walls. While sewage continues to spill out of the pipes, the city says they did not cause the landslide and it is not their problem. They also say they did not previously know about the problem when residents talked to them in January, 2016. Even though city engineers are still studying the issue, and inspection reports show the original sewer pipe had holes in it. The city says the residents need to take care of the problem themselves.

Some background. In a 2012 letter the city notified residents in the area the sewer line was compromised and they needed access to their property to evaluate the lines. They installed liners in the pipe but later it was learned the liners were not working. They even found rodents and cockroaches living in the pipe. The question is, how much sewer water from the original pipe saturated the soil during this period of time, and for how many years? The city then put in temporary, above-ground sewer pipes to divert sewage water around the broken sewer main. However, when the hillside started slipping, the temporary lines also broke. On several occasions the homeowners had to repair the line themselves because the city said it was not their problem since the pipes were now on private land.


Even though city engineers determined the slope was unstable as early as 2013, after they were notified by homeowners in January, 2016, the city told the homeowners they needed to hire their own engineers to fix the problem. After one owner did so, attempting to fix his property, the city said that caused even more problems and issued a violation for unpermitted grading after the owner had his house dug out of the mud. After lawyers were hired, the city rescinded the notice of violation. Now, slippage has caused the temporary pipes, that the city installed to bypass the main sewer line, to slide out of the city's easement and onto private property. The city says the sewer line not their problem because it is on private property, and they cannot do anything to fix it. What is the logic?

This whole problem was caused by the city not maintaining the sewer lines. We all know they break, so why does the city keep studying and denying this particular problem. The land is unstable, and sewage is spilling. The city needs to do its job and take immediate action to remedy the situation.




Click here for more pictures of sewer pipes and landslide

Link here to video of the broken pipe with sewage flowing out of it. Also, link here to our story on HawaiiNewsNow.


The picture below shows sewer water leaking onto the street, to the right of the white roof.




The last 10 minutes Carroll talks about the Honolulu Zoo. A couple of years ago Carroll did stories about the death of Rosey, one of two hippopotamuses, during construction
of the new water filtration system in the hippopotamus habitat. After spending close to three million dollars, the habitat has never been completed. The second hippopotamus is now living, or being stored, behind a barrier around the old elephant habitat, and cannot be viewed by the public. Link here to an article Bloomberg just published about zoos, quoting Carroll about the hippopotamus case. Link here to the original story airing on 8/17/14 and 8/24/14.

Noooo !