ELRA has been conducting regular lake cleanups ever since it was founded. For many years these cleanups were done by lake volunteers, but with the quantities of debris brought into the lake by city storm drains it was clear that we needed more than volunteer workers — we needed a regular lake cleanup contractor.
After an extended search for a reliable contractor, we were fortunate to contract with Sean Connell in March 2023 to clear the lake of debris on a monthly basis. Sean also helped Greg Colbert rebuild the old ELRA barges and build a new one.
Sean has established contact with homeowners in areas of the Lake known for accumulating trash. He can use these home locations to pull trash from the Lake via the shore, bag it, and then carry the trash to the street to haul away in his truck, or he can use the Lake barge(s) to access trash areas and pile trash on the barges for removal via different board member properties.
Cleanup Barges: The Association had two existing barges that were becoming dilapidated. We rebuilt one of the two existing barges and built two more in 2023. Some existing floatation materials from the second existing barge were used to help build one of the new barges. A board member also donated a 25HP outboard motor to make one of the new barges self-propelled. The barges are used to collect debris and can also be pulled behind the EcoHarvester as a debris deposit platform when it is used to collect algae.
Trash Removal: ELRA and Sean can be alerted to trash build up by filling out the contact form on the ELRA website, or by sending an email to elra@kaelepulupond.org. If the trash is an immediate safety concern, you can call our ELRA Lake Security Officer at (858) 247-1138.
Volunteers do a cleanup after a storm in 2023.
One of the new lake maintenance barges in action.
Lake Cleanups in the Past
Prior to 2004, cleanups of the lake were done by volunteers from the ELRA community and typically occurred three to four times a year.
Between 2004 and 2023, ELRA tried a variety of cleanup approaches, including recruiting teenage sons and daughters of lake residents to “volunteer” on a weekly cleanup managed by Bob Bourke. Soccer and Scout troops have also conducted cleanups. Kailua canoe clubs have helped with mangrove removals.
These volunteers literally removed tons material from the lake over the years.
The kind of trash and debris found in the lake
In an effort to understand where all this garbage was coming from, a log was kept of the types of debris collected during 5 cleanups. By looking at this information, it was clear that a large portion of debris was greenwaste from yard clippings, tree trimmings and wind-blown material.
A large percentage of the greenwaste consisted of coconuts and coconut fronds. Another significant (by weight) source of trash analyzed was wooden debris from old floats and discarded construction materials. While some of this is obviously from lake residents (old barges and floats) much of it washes into the lake through the many city storm drains and channels.
Every cleanup also produces bag after bag of urban trash including plastic bottles, cans, balls and fast food containers. Most of this material appears to come directly from the storm drains. For example, in the wetland area alone, during 2005 over 400 spray paint cans were removed.
All of the above types of garbage float. An exception to this was found during one cleanup when volunteer efforts were concentrated at the mouth of the lake entering Kaelepulu canal. Here a side drainage channel enters from downtown Enchanted Lake and the bottom of the canal has shoaled to a shallow depth. From this location, we removed more than 20 tires and large amounts of debris such as rags, cans, bicycle parts, and other items that obviously entered from the drainage canal.
While most of the clean-ups concentrate on floating debris, it is obvious that a large proportion of trash enters the lake and sinks to the bottom where it is undetected and difficult to remove.