Michael Kumukauoha Lee, who has been fighting Haseko over its plans to build a marina, and now a lagoon, out in Ewa, lead a tour earlier this week explaining the cultural importance of Oneula beach, also known as Hau Bush, to native Hawaiians. 

He writes by email:

The Oneula site visit was a great success. I informed 30 people from the Heads of Haseko Ewa Inc., their engineers, archeologist, planning specialist, communications VP , and others from the OIBC, Pua Aiu, Administrator of SHPD , and 25 residence members of the great and grave  importance to save the karst cave system with/for our royal family burials. The fresh water that runs through the caves  give neutriants to the limu that bring in the  fish for our customary food and  gathering rights, and other historic features that the archeologist present never knew existed from a “1873 map” of the site. That sent three of them scrambling into the bushes to find this special feature that I had identified.
I showed Haseko’s engineers that they made a fatal flaw in their planning, and that if they built their 188 foot ditch 20 feet deep and 10 feet wide it will fill up with spring water and become a giant lap pool, instead of a dry retention ditch for rain water drainage to run off due to all the springs that I pointed out on this site visit walk.
Councilman Tom Berg took video of the tour. You can watch Part 1 below, and find the rest here: 

What it means to support Civil Beat.

Supporting Civil Beat means you’re investing in a newsroom that can devote months to investigate corruption. It means we can cover vulnerable, overlooked communities because those stories matter. And, it means we serve you. And only you.

Donate today and help sustain the kind of journalism Hawaiʻi cannot afford to lose.