Pro bono project summary: Hosting a Genki Ala Wai Ball-Throwing Event on Earth Day Weekend
April 20, 2024

As part of Integral Charitable Foundation’s (ICF) commitment to improving environmental conditions, ICF is proud to present the pro bono project for hosting a ball-throwing event with the Genki Ala Wai nonprofit organization in Honolulu, Hawaii, to help remediate the contaminated Ala Wai Canal.

The Ala Wai Canal is a 2-mile man-made waterway in Honolulu built in the 1920s to drain swamps and rice paddies in the coastal wetlands. It also serves as a primary drainage corridor for rivers and streams that run through central and east Honolulu. Historically, this canal was used for recreational purposes for the community to use for swimming and various activities. Over the years, the Ala Wai Canal has been a depository for mud, organic debris, trash, and various pollutants. Sludge forms and accumulates due to oxygen deficiency. Putrefactive bacteria decompose and produce harmful gases such as methane, ammonia, and hydrogen sulfide. The murky water is now filled with bacteria, heavy metals, and pesticides. The catastrophic tarnishing of the canal has made it unavailable to the public for recreational use.

Genki Ala Wai’s purpose is to bioremediate the Ala Wai Canal to make it swimmable and fishable within the next 7 years. Effective Microorganisms® (EM) has been used for over 40 years in more than 100 countries to digest sludge, improve water quality, and restore ecosystems. Genki balls are tennis-ball sized mud globs made from a mixture of the EM solution, molasses, rice bran, and clay soil. In the last 5 years, 21 inches of sludge has been removed at one of the ends of the canal with the help of Genki Ala Wai nonprofit organization.

On April 20, 2024, ICF hosted a public event, partnered with Genki Ala Wai and the Aloha Council of the Boy Scouts of America Outdoor Ethics and Conservation Committee. More than 150 scouts and friends showed up throughout the day to help make the event successful. They made more than 1,500 Genki balls, which undergo a drying process and are then hand-thrown into the canal by local community members and volunteers at the next ball-throwing event. Even though the primary goal is to help restore the Ala Wai Canal, hosting these events help foster relationships within the community and promote environmental awareness amongst the youth!

Systemic inequity leaves low-income communities of color to face disproportionately high levels of environmental degradation with poorly supported environmental protection and educational resources. Across the Bay Area in California, many students unknowingly live near soils and waters that are severely impacted by drought and pollution. It is often up to grassroots nonprofit organizations or community-based “citizen science” to fill the gaps in awareness and action in communities regularly bypassed and overlooked by institutions.

Through a funding grant from the Integral Charitable Foundation, Integral Consulting staff initiated a partnership with Frontline Catalysts, a nonprofit organization offering a Climate Justice Leadership Development Program at no cost to Title 1 schools in underserved communities, to complement and enrich the organization’s work. Integral staff developed an introductory presentation focusing on the impacts of climate change on the quantity and quality of water and on the kinds of simple tasks that can be undertaken to measure these impacts. Following this introductory presentation and discussion, the group visited nearby Peralta Creek to put these lessons into action. Students collected and recorded a variety of observations and chemical data using a combination of student-directed small-group data collection and full-group measurement and discussion. Their direct physical observations and measurements of parameters such as pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen, bacteria, and nitrate were connected back to the larger-scale concepts of drought, thermal pollution, acidification, and eutrophication.

With this pro bono project, Integral Consulting staff demonstrated to students and the community the place data collection and analysis hold within the environmental justice movement. They sought to empower students to implement the scientific method as another dimension of understanding and tool in their arsenal as growing citizens and activists participating with Frontline Catalysts. Seeing the students grow their curiosity while sampling and taking the initiative to continue this work with such enthusiasm and eagerness was an exciting validation of our mission.

This Integral Charitable Foundation (ICF) Pro Bono project is aimed at enhancing the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum’s (SBMM) Marine Science program by providing students with direct access to oceanographic experts and state-of-the-art ocean technologies. Part of the ICFs mission is to expand access to scientific and engineering knowledge and we are so proud of the Integral staff who were able to contribute to this mission in such an innovative and sustainable way.

Integral staff built the BlueROV2 (seen in photo below) to enable observations of marine life in their natural environmental while minimizing impacts of human activity on the seabed. Working in small groups, students learn about ocean technologies and have the opportunity to pilot a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) to view animals in their native marine environment.

The ROV’s maiden voyage was during the “Girls in Ocean Science Conference” organized by the SBMM in September of 2023. The students took turns operating the ROV from a vessel anchored off of Santa Cruz Island in the Santa Barbara Channel (ROV video below).

Integral staff members are in the process of training SBMM staff on ROV operation and maintenance as well as helping SBMM create an engaging curriculum for students based on oceanographic technology.