I was heartened to see articles in the local papers this week about the Devil’s Gate sediment removal project. Despite the massive size of this county public works project, it has received very little publicity. Given the unpalatable nature of the news, however, that is perhaps not surprising: 50 double dump trucks an hour leaving Hahamongna and going by the high school playing fields 12 hours a day, six days a week, nine months a year, for up to five years.
The key question is whether the goals of the project, especially flood protection, could be accomplished by a smaller project with less devastating environmental impacts. The county’s own documents suggest this is the case. When Flood Control first proposed the project in 2010, the plan was to clear 50 acres initially and to leave only 15 acres permanently bare. Now the proposed plan would permanently denude 120 acres from the dam to the JPL campus.
