A state board has approved an application for a dredging project that would reopen the Pohoiki Boat Ramp.

The ramp, the sole boat launch in Puna, has been unusable since 2018, when the Leilani Estates eruption of Kilauea Volcano deposited a roughly 11.6-acre black-sand beach across the mouth of the ramp.

Since then the state Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Division of Boating and Oceanic Recreation has been gradually progressing through a permitting process for a project that would remove much of the sediment and allow boats to launch from the ramp once again.

On Friday the Board of Land and Natural Resources approved a conservation district use permit for the latest version of that dredging project: a plan to remove about 31,000 cubic yards of debris in order to open a channel roughly 325 feet long and up to 160 feet wide.

Michael Cain, administrator of the state Office of Conservation and Coastal Lands, told the board Friday that the wide-channel option was selected among several other channel alternatives because a narrower channel would be filled in too quickly by ongoing wave action, while plans for jetties or other retaining structures would require additional permitting and therefore take longer.

The proposed channel is a far cry from a previous design for the project, which would have removed as much of the new beach as possible.

That project, which was estimated to cost roughly $40 million, fell through in 2023 after Gov. Josh Green slashed most of its funding during wide-ranging budget cuts.

DOBOR engineer Finn McCall said the project instead was allocated about $5.4 million by the state Legislature in 2023, with an additional $1.2 million from other sources. Construction of the channel is expected to take about six to nine months.

Although Puna residents had previously strongly encouraged the total dredging of the beach, some testified Friday that any movement toward reopening the ramp as soon as possible is welcome after nearly six years without ocean access.

“This is the only area for our fishermen to access the ocean,” said Puna resident Leila Kealoha. “It’s imperative that we move forward on this process. We’ve spent countless hours, months, weeks, years trying to get our ocean access back. … We’re hungry. This is that time of year when our kids are graduating, and we depend on our fish to feed our families.”

Kealoha added that the next-closest boat launch for Puna fishermen is the Wailoa Small Boat Harbor in Hilo, which even in the best of times could be prohibitively far away for many.

These days, however, that harbor is in dire need of its own dredging and is nigh unusable at low tide, making ocean access for fishermen even harder.

“Before the eruption, this ramp was one of the most productive fishing grounds in the State, contributing significantly to household food security and our local economy,” wrote Puna Council member Ashley Kierkiewicz to the BLNR. “The inability to use the boat ramp hampers the County’s ability to conduct effective ocean rescue operations along the southeast shores.”

The BLNR unanimously voted to approve the CDUP.

While neither Cain nor McCall mentioned when construction can start, the project’s final environmental impact statement, published in late 2023, estimated that construction could begin this year.