Maui Preparatory Academy will graduate its first class in May 2010. The seniors are shown here with their senior class advisor: from left, Carmella Lenta, Sean O’Hanlon, Amanda Cuevas, Chelsea Johnson, Barbara Kent, Alex Lewicki, Samantha Hartsell and Chasen Bahouth.

LAHAINA — After 29 years on the drawing board, work on the Lahaina Watershed Flood Control Project is expected to begin next month.

West Maui Soil and Water Conservation District, the county Department of Public Works and U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service will hold a community informational meeting on the flood control system on Wednesday, Sept. 16, at 6 p.m. at Lahaina Civic Center.

“This is an important and long needed project for the Lahaina community. Initial discussion about the need for flood protection started in the 1960s. The planning process started in 1980, and 29 years later we are finally breaking ground,” noted West Maui Soil and Water Conservation District Chairman Wesley Nohara in an invitation to the meeting.

“The Lahaina Watershed project will provide a 100-year level of flood protection to businesses and residences in Lahaina Town. The first phase of construction for the Lahaina Watershed project will start in October 2009 with the installation of the outlet, highway culvert and sediment basin at Launiupoko.”

At Wednesday’s meeting, officials will describe the project’s background, and detail the first phase of construction and its impacts on traffic, shoreline and ocean areas, and other environmental and community resources.

For more information, call Joe Kruger at the county at 270-7434.

The Lahaina Watershed Flood Control Project will establish a floodwater diversion system in the 5,250-acre Lahaina Watershed.

Additional goals are to reduce flooding and erosion problems on land and lower the amount of sedimentation reaching nearshore coral reefs.