04/03/2026
It’s been such an honor building our largest Bioreactor Garden System (8,100 GPD) in Hawai’i for the National Park Service at such a sacred place as Pu’uhonua O’ Hōnaunau National Historic Park. Our team has been humbled by all of the support we received from some very special people and organizations. This project would not have been possible without engineering design from the late Francis Albert McCullough III, lovingly known as “Al”. Al was our good friend, mentor, and brilliant engineer who left us all too soon. Paul Sturm, our Executive Director, laid the foundation for this work, and led our team during construction in the field. Ricardo Liquet Gonzalez constantly supported field work through countless hours of chainsawing, making chips, Biochar, and in implementing biocontrol protocols treating the woodchips for pests - knocked it out of the park as always! John Astilla and Wesley Crile, who have worked with us on these systems since day one, and Kelly Harris, Soul Harris, Karen Backe, and the Ridge to Reefs team were amazing in charging forward with design updates, CAD drawings, coordination, and construction. Our team is proud of Phal Mantha who took the lead on contracting, procurement, input production, logistics, and project management for this project. Huge shout out to our friends Jesse, Hualalai, and Pukaua for helping with gathering and chipping all of the biomass. Steve Allen and Allen’s Plumbing were amazing as always and helped us in ensuring that all of the plumbing connections were perfectly made and easily serviceable for the future. Mahalo to Dash and Erika Kuhr at HIP Agriculture, for letting us rent their chipper, collect dried bamboo, and use their Kiln for making Biochar. Last but not least, gratitude to Emma for helping with so many tasks during this project and for making this reel. We have many more projects like this in the pipeline in Hawai’i and around the world. Stay tuned for more on how we turn waste water into clean water using nature :)
