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Kai Pono Solutions

@kaiponosolutions

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A stormwater filtration device protecting our waterways one storm drain at a time...
Coming Soon to a Storm Drain Near You🌊

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We’re officially releasing the Makena Model! Our new animation showcases exactly how our revolutionary patented product filters stormwater BEFORE it enters our waterways.💧Here at Kai Pono, we’re mission driven and hell-bent on preserving our precious waterways. We’re excited to take on the new year with cleaner water and a brighter future for our environment!🌱

#kaipono #sustainability #stormwater #stormwatersolutions #earth #stormdrains #water #ocean #sandiegostartup #sandiego #newyear #launch #sustainable by @kaiponosolutions

In the U.S., large corporations account for approximately 85% of all patents.

Today, Kai Pono Solutions became part of the 15% of small businesses helping shape the future through innovation.

After five years of research, prototypes, field testing, setbacks, pivots, and unwavering belief, we’re proud to announce that our first U.S. patent has officially been granted.

This milestone is about so much more than intellectual property. It’s a reflection of the persistence it takes to build something from the ground up and the countless hours spent turning an idea into a real-world solution.

Over the last five years, we’ve challenged ourselves to rethink how stormwater can be managed—developing technology that makes it easier for communities to protect their waterways through practical, retrofit-ready solutions.

To everyone who believed in this vision, supported our mission, challenged our thinking, or even doubted us—thank you. Every step has shaped who we are today.

This patent is not the finish line. It’s another step toward our mission of protecting the health of our ocean and building infrastructure that leaves our communities better than we found them.

Here’s to the next five years. 🌊 by @kaiponosolutions

Just wrapped up another successful Kai Pono Solutions install in Northern California for @suisuncity ! Thank you @geosyntecconsultants for working on this project with us!

Each Kai Pono system on this site will be pre treating an underground Tree Well system. The reason the engineer on this project was so excited to use Kai Pono was because there was absolutely nothing else on the market shallow enough to fit his plans. It was a perfect project for our system. We got our discharge depth down to just around 8” below the surface.

Well done team!

#stormwater #pretreatment #civilengineer by @kaiponosolutions

Earth, I love you so much. I will do whatever I have to do to protect you.

Even if it means fighting the good fight of the stormwater industry 😂

For those of you who don’t know, I grew up in Hawai’i and spent every single day of my life soaking up all of the beautiful and amazing things that earth has to offer

Due to my deep connection with our planet, I have fully dedicated my life to protecting our waterways in any way, shape or form

I didn’t start Kai Pono Solutions just to own a business, I started this company because I genuinely love our mission around protecting this planet

Giving back to the ocean is giving back to the place that raised me and taught me everything I know today about the environment and the special role it plays in our lives

Happy Earth Day Yall 🌎❤️

Xoxo - Navy, CEO & Founder

#earthday #stormwater #environment #startup by @kaiponosolutions

Still waiting on one of you engineers to design a better way for me to transport these basins 😂

Thank you Coffman Engineering for the conversation about stormwater and Kai Pono Solutions looking forward to some new projects!

And a special thank you to Kali Bolla, PE for bringing me in (Kali was one of my friends in college before either of us ever knew we’d be working in stormwater!)

#stormwater #ms4permit #cleanwateract #sedimentpretreatment by @kaiponosolutions

Sending all of our love and prayers to everyone back home in Hawai’i affected by this flooding tragedy.

As many of you may know, Kai Pono Solutions first ever install is on Maui.

After the storm, we went out to check on things and saw firsthand how much sediment and debris these systems have to handle.

It’s a reminder that what happens at the street level matters way more than people think.

Putting devices directly in storm drains without thinking about pretreatment can end up creating bigger problems downstream.

And if you are an investor - this is the kind of problem that actually needs backing, not another app.

#stormwater #flooding #civilengineer #industrialfacility #sediment by @kaiponosolutions

Most people market that they are willing to risk anything for the health of our planet — but very few actually do.

Everyone is “sustainable” until it’s time to take action or crack out a wallet.

The conversation gets a lot smaller when the solution isn’t just software.

Somewhere along the way, climate solutions started getting packaged as apps and dashboards. But you can’t filter water with software.

Real change happens with physical infrastructure actually doing the work.

I grew up watching water change firsthand. Sustainability was never a trend to me.

That kind of work is slower. It’s harder. It’s not sexy. And yes, it requires people willing to ACTUALLY invest time and money in real solutions.

At Kai Pono Solutions, we’re interested in working with the people who understand that — the ones who know protecting our waterways isn’t a branding exercise.

It’s passion, infrastructure, and long-term commitment. 🌧️

#stormwater
#civilengineer
#industrialfacility
#venturecapital
#angelinvestors by @kaiponosolutions

disclaimer: no hate to those who wear polos to conferences 😂

Really enjoyed speaking at the Stormwater USA conference this week on Kai Pono Solutions

My presentation was called RETHINKING RUNOFF: Shallow, Retrofit-Ready Filtration for Resilient Cities

We talked about why depth constraints shouldn’t limit water quality goals—and how practical, shallow solutions can make real treatment possible in tight urban and industrial settings.

Two standout sessions for me:
• Chris Rich (Perkins Coie) on how new federal actions may impact stormwater regulations
• Jonathan J. Meronek, QISP-ToR, ENV SP, CPESC, QSP/D (SCS Engineers) decoding the future of stormwater compliance at industrial facilities

Since Kai Pono Solutions has a strong focus on industrial stormwater challenges, those topics hit close to home.

Happy to share my slides with anyone interested—just send me a message!

#stormwater #civilengineer #industrialcompliance #environmental #startup by @kaiponosolutions

One of the biggest advantages of not coming from the stormwater industry? Kai Pono Solutions

I never assumed I had the answers.

Before we ever tried to sell anything, we listened.
Hundreds of conversations with civil engineers, public works teams, contractors, and municipalities.

Every meeting was an interview:
What fails? What’s expensive? What slows projects down? What makes maintenance harder than it needs to be?

Iteration 1: Deep basin.
We assumed deeper = better filtration. Customers corrected us — competitors have already solved this problem. Flow rate, clogging risk, cost, and maintenance mattered more.

Iteration 2: Long, shallow basins.
Faster flow, easier access, lower excavation risk. Better — until feedback showed stair-step profiles disrupted flow and added buildup.

Iteration 3: Material mattered.
Engineers wanted performance. Public works needed lightweight. Contractors needed cost-effective. Stainless steel checked one box — not all three.

Iteration 4: Everything combined.
Shallow + long for flow. Simple geometry for maintenance. Lightweight, durable, and cost-effective materials. Designed to be installed, pulled, and serviced in the real world.

After interviewing this deeply, I’ve faced nearly every pain point in the industry — which means today, I have an answer for almost every question that comes up.

This wasn’t designed for customers.
It was designed by them.

#civilengineer #stormwater #filtration #publicworks by @kaiponosolutions

🚫 Stormwater is not wastewater.

When it rains, water flows from our streets straight into local waterways—unfiltered and untreated.

📍 270 million storm drains across the U.S.
📉 Fewer than 1% have treatment infrastructure

This is one of the most overlooked sources of pollution—and one of the biggest opportunities to fix it.

Kai Pono Solutions

#stormwater #civilengineer #industrialfacility #municipality #runoff by @kaiponosolutions

Kai Pono Solutions isn’t the first thing Dan and Navy have built together. 👷‍♀️

Meet the co-founders: Dan and Navy McKee.
 If you spend any time around them, you’ll notice something quickly — even in the most professional settings, Navy still calls him Dad.

Dan is blue-collar through and through.
He’s spent over three decades designing and building flood control and stormwater infrastructure — jobsites, concrete, crews, long days in the field. He knows what works because he’s built it… and fixed what didn’t.

Navy grew up on those jobsites with him.

She also grew up in Hawaiʻi, where Dan raised her with a deep respect for the ocean — and a firsthand understanding of what happens when stormwater pollution goes unchecked.

Navy is the business side. Dan is the field reality. But they share the same why.

Kai Pono Solutions didn’t start as a startup idea.
 It started as a problem Dan had been seeing for decades in the field — and a problem Navy experienced her entire life every time she wanted to go swimming after a storm.

Dan has watched plenty of “innovative” systems look great on paper and fall apart in the field. So when they started building Kai Pono, he had one non-negotiable rule:

If it can’t survive the blue-collar field crews, they don’t build it.

That’s why their system is shallow — depth is where projects go to die. Utilities, cost overruns, street disruption.

And even though Navy is technically the boss now 😉, she still listens when Dad says something won’t work.
Because field reality always wins.

@808ransom @navymckee
#stormwater #civilengineer by @kaiponosolutions

I bet you didn’t think Kai Pono Solutions had just one application did you? Check out this illustration of our basins in a parking lot setting.

Instead of creating 100’s of products for singular applications, we have created a singular product for 100’s of applications

Our speciality is CUSTOMIZATION without the drama or long lead times. Having lego block pieces allows us to put these basins anywhere we want 🤷‍♀️

Kai Pono is not just subject to a curb and gutter line, it can be placed ANYWHERE that there is a flow line of water, oftentimes leading us to clients who use it for pre-treatment for biofiltration, treatment with trench drains, parking lots, industrial facilities, and just your standard curb and gutter line. Did we mention we’ve even had inquiries for indoor fish scaling facilities?!

#stormwater #waterfiltration #waterinfrastructure #biofiltration #pretreatment by @kaiponosolutions