Issue link: https://bluemagazine.uberflip.com/i/24995
green tide Economic development and surfers are colliding on two Hawaiian islands. A project by the Obayashi Hawaii Corporation threatens both Sunset Beach on Oahu and the Banzai Pipeline on Maui, two of the world's best surf breaks. According to Larry Mcllheny of the Sav.e Shore will ruin a pristine area and overstress the North Shore's infrastructure. "The schools can't handle it. Tbe highways can't handle it. The fire department can't handle it," says longtime Nort� Shore resident and SSB member Peter Cole. The SSB and two other citizen's groups have filed suit to stop the development, but many on the North Shore insist that the project will provide needed jobs to the economically depressed area at little environmental cost. The case is scheduled for September 1997. A second project, on the south shore of Maui, threatens another surfer paradise. At the request of the state of Hawaii, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to build a 600-foot breakwater extension and an enclosed channel that will completely wipe out the Off the Wall surf spot, a zipper-fast wave that breaks directly in the path of the planned extension. The biggest conflict, however, is over whether the construction will affect the Maalaea Freight Train, a world-class wave reputed to be the fastest right in the world that breaks just south of the proposed construction site. The Corps claims the Freight Train will not be affected by the project but locals are not so sure. If all goes accord ing to plan, thousands of tons of coral reef must be blasted and removed, among other drastic changes to the surrounding marine topography. The Corps hopes to reduce the sometimes hazardous wave surge in the harbor channel-the same surge that feeds Off the Wall-and provide more boat slips for Maui's booming tourist trade. No suits have been filed yet, but the Surfrider Foundation is organizing.-Alex Salkever Sunset Beach Coalition (SSB), the corp . photo: corinne day