Our watersheds sustain life and provide vital services, such as clean drinking water, productive fisheries, and outdoor recreation, that support our economies, environment and quality of life. We all live in a watershed, and watershed health is important to everything and everyone that utilizes and requires water to survive.
Human activity and development in the Maunalua region has significantly increased over the past 70 years which has contributed to a number of negative environmental changes such as erosion, habitat loss, pollution, and rapid growth of invasive species, all of which are exacerbated by the presence of excess harmful nutrients from urban and storm runoff. These contribute to the degradation of our ecosystems mauka to makai – from our forests to our coral reefs. Everything that we do on the land affects the sea, and we focus many of our efforts mauka, to mitigate these problems at the source before they can cause further environmental degradation in Maunalua Bay.
Photo Credit: Cameron Brooks Photography
The Issue: Runoff
The Maunalua Bay region encompasses 10 watersheds which feed into Maunalua Bay. The area is highly suburbanized supporting over 50,000 households, 11 shopping centers, 14 schools, which is heavily paved and supports a complex storm sewer network of swales, ditches, storm drains, and cemented streams.
Pavement cannot absorb and the infrastructure is designed to take urban and storm water quickly off land and into the Bay, largely to prevent the potential for flooding. As this storm water runoff washes over the parking lots, driveways, streets, and highways, it flows – along with debris, garbage, sediment, and pollutants – directly into one of the region’s 5,000 storm drains and into the ocean, untreated. In addition, on-site disposal systems, mainly cesspools, fringe some of the coastal areas allowing wastewater to enter the Bay.
In order to mitigate the negative environmental impacts that runoff imposes on Maunalua Bay, Mālama Maunalua has developed projects and campaigns which involve working alongside academic institutions, agencies, and other organizations to better understand the sources and extent of land-based sources of pollution, working with the government to improve our infrastructure, partnering with other local organizations and agencies in service work to restore our watersheds, and informing the community to help us continue to change the course of history.
Runoff Mitigation Projects Include:
- Ridge to Reef Project
- Follow the Drop Rainwater Assessments
- Cherish Protect Restore (CPR) Campaign
- Rain Gardens
Follow the Drop Rainwater Assessments
Help prevent flooding and erosion in Maunalua!
Rainwater assessments show you where and how much rainwater is occurring on your property, and ultimately identify ways to help prevent flooding and pollution, and even save you money. There are many benefits to getting one for your property that can help you as a property owner and the overall environment.
If you live in the Maunalua region, you can get a FREE rainwater assessment of your property from 3rWater and Mālama Maunalua. To sign-up for one, visit rainwaterhawaii.com
Cherish Protect Restore Campaign
In 2020, we launched, with 22 partners, an initiative to clean up the waters of Maunalua Bay. With support from the Castle Foundation, the Cherish, Protect, and Restore the Ahupuaʻa of Maunalua Bay campaign (CPR) encourages homeowners to implement simple actions to reduce pollution and runoff coming from their land. Much of the pollution in Maunalua Bay is a result of poor land-use practices by homeowners.
CPR works by sharing information about runoff mitigation related resources and opportunities that homeowners can take part in. They range from providing tips on building rain gardens, info sharing on the benefits and uses for rain barrels, and encouraging property owners in the Maunalua region to sign up for free rainwater assessments provided by MM and 3Rwater.
KoKo Head Rain Garden
A rain garden is a depressed area in the landscape that collects rain water from a roof, driveway or street and allows it to soak into the ground. Planted with grasses and native plants suited to the environment, rain gardens can be a cost effective and beautiful way to reduce runoff from your property.
In June 2022, Mālama Maunalua restored the Koko Head District Park rain garden with the help of the City and County of Honolulu Summer Fun group in the region. This rain garden will help collect rain water from the street and allow it to soak into the ground, allowing more water to percolate back into our aquifers and preventing pollution from entering the storm water drainage system which would eventually enter our ocean and pollute Maunalua Bay.
We are looking for individuals or community groups to help mālama our rain garden at Koko Head District Park! If you are interested in being a rain garden steward, please email lbailes@malamamaunalua.org!
Photo Credit: Laura Bailes