Month: April 2026

This quarter, we’re so excited to recognize the U.S. Naval Sea Cadet Corps (USNSCC), NAS Puunene Division, for the incredible work they’ve been doing on the Maui Veterans Highway. Their hard work recently earned them the No Ka Oi Highway Hui Award from the State of Hawaii Department of Transportation, and it’s easy to see why!

The Maui Sea Cadets officially joined the program in 2024, taking on a two-mile stretch of Route 311. For this group of young leaders, cleaning this specific highway is about more than just picking up litter. As administrator Mitsue Okamura Eldredge explained, “This is a veterans’ highway, and we are Sea Cadets and we like to honor our veterans. That’s what we do.”

The cleanups have turned into a great way for the cadets to see the direct results of their hard work. It’s been a real learning experience, especially for 8th grader Cadet Damon Ramos. He shared that Adopt-A-Highway “taught me in particular that the littlest removal of trash can make a big difference,” and added that “you can just start by picking up trash wherever you can – in the park, on the highway, on your own. Eventually, your work will not go to waste.”

We want to thank the Maui Sea Cadets for their hard work and for showing so much respect for our island and our veterans. Even though they are a young group, their impact is huge. Their consistency ensures that the road into South Maui stays clean, and by working together, they are proving that local action makes a big difference, one cleanup at a time.

On April 9th, the Stormwater Maui team had an awesome time hanging out with the students at Lahaina Intermediate School! We brought our hands-on flume kit to the classroom, and over 100 students jumped right in to learn about the problem of highway runoff. The goal was simple, but the project took some serious brainpower. We challenged the students to act as environmental engineers and build their own Best Management Practice (BMP) to prevent pollutants from washing off state highways and into the ocean.

To make things interesting, each student was given a set budget to spend at our “BMP Store.” They had to think strategically about how to use their funds to buy the best supplies for the job, choosing from sponges, pipe cleaners, rocks, screens, burlap, and felt, which were all priced differently. The students spent the day prototyping, testing, and tweaking their designs to see which combinations worked best while staying within their budget. It was great to see how they used these everyday materials to model the systems that protect Maui’s coastlines. A huge mahalo to the faculty and all the students for your energy and for being such great partners in protecting our waters.

The HDOT Maui Highways team headed over to Hoʻokele Elementary on April 2nd for an awesome Engineering Night! We set up shop to show students how we can use smart design to protect our watersheds.

The Challenge: Stop the Sprinkles!

We challenged the students to become engineers for the night. Their mission? Design a “Best Management Practice” (BMP) to keep our roads from polluting the sea.

Using a mix of sponges, rocks, and pipe cleaners, students built miniature filtration systems. We then tested them using rainbow sprinkles to represent pollutants. It was a race to see who could design the best way to catch the “pollution” before it washed off the roadway and into the storm drains!

The kids learned how hard surfaces like roads carry runoff directly to the ocean, and more importantly, how clever engineering can help filter that water first.

Mahalo to all the young engineers who stopped by to build, test, and learn with us!

On April 2nd, the HDOT Highways Maui team visited Kamehameha III Elementary to hang out with 58 awesome 2nd graders. We spent the morning learning how to keep our island’s ocean clean.

Using our EnviroScape and Storm Drain models, we showed the students how rain can wash pollutants from Upcountry landscapes all the way down to the beach. The kids saw firsthand that whatever goes into a storm drain flows straight to the sea—no filters, no stops.

It was great to see these young stewards so excited about protecting our reefs. Mahalo for having us, Kamehameha III!