Finding the Right Balance: Protecting Maui's Critical Wastewater Infrastructure with Living Shorelines

This episode, Peter Ravella and Tyler Buckingham welcome Russ Boudreau (Principal, Coastal Fronteers) to the show to discuss the intricacies of coastal engineering through the lens of a project in Maui, Hawaii concerning the Wailuku-Kahului Wastewater Reclamation Facility, the island's primary wastewater treatment plant. Located on the island's coast (think gravity), the facility was identified to be vulnerable to earthquakes, tsunamis, winter waves, flooding, and inevitable sea level rise due to its low-lying beachfront location on the world-renowned high-wind and big-surf North Shore. Russ talks us through how this problem was tackled from an engineering perspective, resulting in an armored living shoreline solution that has shown to be effective.