The Army Corps of Engineers has awarded Hawaii-based Hui Huliau Technology Services a $159 million contract to demolish hazardous structures and remove debris and ash from 140 commercial and public buildings destroyed by a fire that broke out Aug. 8 in Lahaina.
Crews began work on the project last week, a key step in restoring the town's nearly destroyed economic center, but fewer than a third of the businesses are enrolled in the program, a process complicated by the need to get every tenant in each building to sign up.
Nonetheless, the Army Corps of Engineers believes the project will be completed within a year, including work on the residential areas that began more than two months ago, even before the removal of the residential areas is complete.
A fire in Lahaina on August 8 destroyed a building along Front Street between Lahainaluna Avenue and Dickenson Street. (David Croxford/Civil Beat/2024)
Lahaina resident Kirk Vose returned to the burned area earlier this month and was surprised to see so little debris removal had been done in the business district, including much of Front Street.
Bose, an artist who lost his home on Kufua Street and has sold many of his paintings in the shopping district, said on March 5 that the town looks much like it did just after the fire. He wonders whether he will ever see the town rebuild.
The commercial contract was awarded in late February. It's the second contract the Army Corps of Engineers has awarded to Hui Huliau, a nonprofit umbrella group of six subsidiaries, including Pono Aina Management, which recently completed a $53.7 million contract from the Army Corps to build a temporary school building in West Maui for 600 students who attended the destroyed King Kamehameha III Elementary School.
Kirk Vose, a Lahaina artist who lives in the Kuhua Street home where about a third of the 101 people who died in the fire were found, has been waiting for the commercial cleanup to begin. (David Croxford/Civil Beat/2024)
The Federal Emergency Management Agency often handles and grants home cleanups during disasters, but this is the first time it has done so for private companies with the goal of speeding economic recovery, said Bob Fenton, who is leading FEMA's fire recovery efforts on Maui.
“We've never done that before, because companies typically have insurance and they remove the debris themselves,” Fenton said in an interview last month. “But when you look at how they're describing economic recovery, it was probably intended as a disaster like an earthquake where the whole city is destroyed and there's debris mixed in, and I think that fits this case.”
Fenton said FEMA authorized the removal of Lahaina's commercial waste because much of the town was destroyed, there was no final disposal site for the estimated 400,000 cubic yards of non-recyclable waste, and its proximity to the ocean and coral reefs meant the cleanup needed to be done relatively quickly to prevent further damage to the environment.
“Furthermore, I believe we are currently using most of the removal equipment available on the island,” he said.
As with residential properties, FEMA will collect the insurance coverage available for debris removal from the owner's commercial insurance and cover the remaining costs.
Anchor Square in Lahaina is one of 140 commercial or public buildings included in the Army Corps of Engineers' debris removal project. (Cammy Clark/Civil Beat/2024)
The Army Corps of Engineers plans to use the same safety procedures as the residential program, including wrapping the toxic debris in “burrito wrappers” during transport. The debris should be less toxic than residential debris, said Corey Koger of the Army Corps of Engineers, a debris expert on the Maui wildfires.
The Army Corps of Engineers will also be deploying cultural and archaeological monitors, and cleanup work will require permission from landowners.
As of Monday, the department had received approval for 1,607 residential and commercial cleanups. The department said it had allocated cleanups for 80% of scheduled residential properties, but only 30% of scheduled commercial properties.
Businesses along Front Street have remained largely untouched since a fire on Aug. 8 gutted Lahaina's central business district, but work began last week to demolition damaged buildings and remove debris. (David Croxford/Civil Beat/2024)
“The message we want to get across is that there is currently no opt-out program in place,” said Clay Morgan, Army Corps of Engineers mission manager for Maui's debris planning and response team. “Until Maui County builds another temporary debris site or an eventual permanent repository, there's really nowhere to dispose of the debris.”
For environmental reasons, only waste collected by Army Corps of Engineers contractors is allowed at the temporary waste dump in Olowalu.
If unsafe commercial facilities remain at the end of the Army Corps of Engineers' commercial waste disposal project, it would still be considered a public health emergency and the county would be obligated to take action against it as a “public nuisance,” Morgan said.
“It's possible that they could issue a notice of requisition and give us right of entry as requisitioned property,” he said, “but that would be a last resort and not in anyone's best interest.”
One of the hardest commercial buildings to clear from the fire's debris is 505 Front Street, which includes a flooded underground parking garage and is next to the Lahaina Shores Beach Resort, the only surviving building. (Cammy Clark/Civil Beat/2024)
The Army Corps of Engineers began the second phase of residential debris removal in January and as of Monday had removed 348 properties and returned right of access for 88 properties to the county after the properties were deemed safe after completing soil testing.
Commercial contracts require the removal of fire debris and ash from buildings that include a three-story apartment complex and apartments. Perhaps most problematic is 505 Front St., which once housed shopping, the restaurant Spanky's Riptide and the luau Feast at LeLe.
“The building next door (Lahaina Shores Beach Resort) is being left standing and has to be demolished,” Morgan said. “The garage underneath it was flooded. It's in a culturally sensitive area.”
Technology Services, working with subcontractor Goodfellow Bros. Inc. and others, mobilized two work crews to begin work on the Limahana block in Lahaina.
Bob Fenton, who is leading FEMA's fire recovery efforts on Maui, said this is the first time FEMA has paid for debris removal from a commercial building during a disaster. (David Croxford/Civil Beat/2023)
The work will also include addressing 95 “deferred properties” that the EPA deemed too structurally safe to remove hazardous materials and large amounts of asbestos during Phase 1. But most of the batteries for electric vehicles and solar power systems are outside the buildings and have already been removed.
“They're working on demolishing the fire-damaged structures,” Morgan said, “and part of their first phase is making those sites safe so the next crews can come in to take soil samples and characterize the ash.”
Once those deferred lands become accessible, the hazardous materials will be removed by EPA contractor ACTenviro and shipped off-island to the same location as other toxic waste on the mainland, but this time the hazardous materials will be stored in vacant land near Pioneer Mill in Lahaina, Koger said.
Owners will be able to re-enter their land for the first time and will be able to salvage anything or point out anything sensitive. Once all these steps are complete, concrete and metal recycling and debris removal can begin. For now, private companies have not yet reached this stage.
John Hake, general manager of Hui Huliau Technology Services, said his company conducts a “360-degree walkaround” before installing any equipment on a site to assess any challenges or hazards.
He said crews have been working with property owners and recently discussed preserving a unique piece of concrete acquired from Fleetwoods on Front Street.
“Obviously, there's a lot of concrete to remove,” Hake said, “but we're going to do our best.”
Civil Beat reporter Marcel Honore contributed to this report.
Civil Beat's Maui County coverage is supported in part by a grant from the Nuestro Futuro Foundation.
Civil Beat's coverage of environmental issues on Maui is supported by grants from the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, the Hawaii Wildfire Recovery Fund, the Knight Foundation and the Doris Duke Foundation.
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