‘What’s That Smell?’ Mysterious Stench Stumps Nānākuli Residents
A West Side community has been plagued for several months by a deathly stink, but no one knows where it’s coming from.
It’s not unusual for residents in Nānākuli’s Princess Kahanu Estates to smell something funky in the air.
Their community, just off Farrington Highway on Oʻahu’s West Side, is virtually surrounded by potential sources of bad smells. Farms proliferate farther mauka into the valley; a stream that sometimes needs cleaning flows from the east; a landfill sits on the other side of the stream.
But residents say recently the air smells different.
“It seems like somebody’s holding something like right in front of our nose,” longtime resident Kina Palaualelo said. “Like something’s dead. Whether it’s feces, or dead animal, or whatever it is, it’s just – it’s horrific.”
The smell has been with residents on and off for months. It shows no signs of going away, despite government officials’ efforts to pinpoint its source. Neighbors who might ordinarily sit outside to talk story or enjoy the weather now hunker inside with the windows closed when the smell is at its most putrid.
“I’ll just close up the whole downstairs and turn on the AC so I just don’t have to deal with it,” Palaualelo said. “And I really just won’t go outside unless I have to water the grass or something.”
Not Normal Farm Smell
Palaualelo was 5 years old when her family moved to Princess Kahanu Estates in the mid-’90s. The development, a Department of Hawaiian Home Lands project, had just been built, and new residents learned to coexist with the farm smells that blew in from the valley.
What’s wafting in the air now is not one of those normal farm smells.
“It’s not the manure,” Palaualelo said. “I’ve lived there my whole life, I know exactly what it smells like.”
Residents have different guesses about the source, but generally agree on a few details: The stink started in the summer, then got worse about a month ago. It’s organic. It’s most pungent when the trade winds blow in from Hakimo Road.
Drina Ellis, another resident, said it recently let up enough that she could host Thanksgiving outside with about 15 people. But she said it was still noticeable, and some guests who don’t live nearby asked about it.
“I always get that comment: ‘What’s that smell?’”
Ellis reached out to Rep. Darius Kila for help, and he told Civil Beat he roped in the state Department of Health. They weren’t able to identify the source — or even detect the smell.
“DOH investigated two locations related to this report. Neither was a regulated solid waste management facility. No strong odors were observed at either location,” DOH spokesperson Stephen Downes said in an email.
City Council member Andria Tupola said in a text she believes the source is Ulehawa Stream. She said the Department of Facility Maintenance has been cleaning the water, but sand sometimes clogs its mouth, leading to stagnation at the inlets.
Ellis, however, is skeptical that’s the cause. She said she doesn’t smell anything when she drives over the stream along Farrington Highway.
Kila said the Department of Planning and Permitting was supposed to inspect a property that was potentially the source for land use violations. Department spokesperson Curtis Lum said in an email inspectors are stymied without a specific address — but still investigating.
In the meantime, residents aren’t holding their breath for a resolution.
“We’re kind of just going to have to live with this,” Palaualelo said.
Who’s Responsible?
Unlike other Fix It! entries, the answer to that question is impossible to determine until and unless the source of the smell is located. We’ll keep an eye on things, though, and report back.
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