A bulldozer loads dirt into a truck as state transportation workers clear debris at Keahuaiwi Stream and Maui Veterans Highway following a storm in January. The work is expected to be completed by Oct. 10. The Maui News/Gary Kubota

State transportation officials are close to finishing dredging work for Keahuaiwi Stream, where following a January storm culverts were plugged with mud as runoff water flowed over the road at North Kihei Road and Maui Veterans Highway.

According to the Hawaii Department of Transportation, routine maintenance activities for drainage at Keahuaiwi Stream are expected to be completed around Oct. 10.

“Currently, we are removing built up sediment and debris from the drainageways,” said Robin Shishido, the department’s deputy director for highways. “Work is being done by HDOT crews and contractors.”

Part of the Keahuiaiwi Stream work involves re-establishing a channel that veers into a swale emptying into the pond and mudflats at Kealia National Wildlife Refuge.

Robin Knox, lead scientist for the Save The Wetlands Hui, said she hopes that eventually there will be better ecological solutions.

“I’m for putting water back into Kealia Pond, but we need to have an ecological method to solve an ecological problem,” Knox said.

State land officials say one of the ecological problems is reducing the amount of runoff from the mountains caused by the thousands of axis deer denuding pasture lands.

Ranchers working with the state Department of Land and Natural Resources have developed a plan for decreasing deer numbers through increasing fencing and culling herds.

Knox, who worked as a lead scientist in a restoration project in Louisiana, said Maui faces some unique challenges, such as a mountain that is nearly 10,000 feet high sloping quickly to the shoreline.

“A lot of it is steep,” she said.

Knox said another challenge is preventing valuable soil loss while keeping the sediment from killing the reefs and resulting in an ecological disaster.

She said her group is for a more thoughtful approach that looks at ways to integrate the wetlands into South Maui while reducing the impact of flooding on the reefs.

Earlier this year, a large dredging project was completed at Kulanihakoi Gulch at a cost of $3.3 million, three-fourths of which was paid by the Natural Resources Conservation Service.

Sediment buildup along with dead tree cleanup reduces the gulch’s capacity to handle stormwater, so its removal helps to mitigate flooding, according to Maui County officials.

Work has been done on some streams in South Maui that were subject to flooding earlier this year including the Keahuaiwi (1), Waiakoa (2), Ohukai (3), Kulanihakoi (4), Koieie (5), Waiohuli (6), Waipuilani (7), Kawililipoa (8), Laie (9), Keokea (10), Waimahaihai (11), Kihei (12) and Kaluaihaikoko (13) streams. Save The Wetlands Hui/David Dorn

More than $350,000 has been set aside for Malama Haleakala Foundation to look into establishing sediment basins to capture the runoff.

Foundation executive director Michael Reyes said engineering studies are being done to find locations mauka of Piilani Highway and Kulanihakoi High School where a series of basins might be established to capture the water and allow it to percolate back into the aquifer.

Reyes said the project, still being designed, would develop natural catchments and the engineers would help to identify the most realistic locations.

Residents and businesses say the latest flooding in late January was among the worst.

Kihei resident Bill Boston has been through several floods near his home in central Kihei in the last 12 years, but Boston said the one in late January was the worst he’s seen so far — with a lot more mud.

“It was crazy,” said Boston, whose home was filled with nearly a foot of mud. “With a lot of pressure, it moved my sandbags.”

ABC store manager Mark Cortez said his store in Kihei closed for about a month to recover from a foot of water that flooded the business near Waiakoa Stream.

There’s been some work near the stream area to clear the mud and debris.

“I’m hoping for the best,” Cortez said.