The state of Hawaii will receive more than $2 million in federal funding to support coastal resilience projects and protect communities from flooding across the Islands, congressional officials announced Friday.
The funds, which will be administered by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation in partnership with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, will leverage additional funding from the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Defense, Shell Oil, TransRe, Occidental, and AT&T.
The state recently received more than $4.2 million back in July to deploy ocean sensors to observe and monitor sea levels, tides, currents, waves, and temperatures, according to previous reporting by Pacific Business News.
“These projects will restore or expand wetlands, beaches, and forests and will help keep homes and businesses safe from flooding and coastal erosion,” said U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, in a statement.
Hawaii projects receiving federal grant funding in the latest round of disbursements include:
Department of Hawaiian Home Lands
- Project: Developing Community Resilience for Molokai Coastal Homesteads
- Grant amount: $203,940
- Funding will be used to develop a resilience plan for homestead communities on the island of Molokai through scientific analyses and modeling of projected sea-level rise, flooding, groundwater upwelling and other increasing coastal hazards.
Malama Maunalua
- Project: Utilizing a Traditional Framework to Minimize Floods in Maunalua Bay Watersheds
- Grant amount: $262,312
- Project will address the serious flooding issues confronting residential, commercial, and environmental resources surrounding Maunalua Bay by reducing the volume of the stormwater runoff in priority areas through increased filtration with revegetation in natural areas and by slowing down or capturing the water from urban areas.
Maui Nui Marine Resource Council
- Project: Conducting Site Assessments and Planning to Address Recurring Coastal Flooding
- Grant amount: $210,000
- Project will create a workplan for site design, with the goal of preventing property and infrastructure damage due to stormwater flooding and protecting wetland bird habitat, native plant species, nearshore coral reef ecosystems and marine wildlife.
Department of Land and Natural Resources
- Project: Enhancing Flood Mitigation Through Invasive Species Control for a Resilient Ala Wai Watershed
- Grant amount: $1,640,830
- Project will control and monitor an estimated 1,000 albizia trees across 669 acres, treat all miconia plants detected during surveys across 4,000 acres, and treat mule’s foot ferns across 200 acres.
