KOLOA, Kaua'i — At least seven major construction projects in the arid Po'ipu area are undergoing site work at one time — and residents say the dust and noise problem is enormous.

After months of complaints from people around them, eight of the developers Tuesday night announced at a community meeting that they have set up a dust complaint telephone line, a centralized calling center that they say will get immediate response from any of the involved projects.

With multiple projects under way at once, during a drought in an already-dry area, on rocky terrain that requires frequent blasting, and involving projects that are crushing dry rock onsite, some fugitive dust may be inescapable, said retired state land agent Sam Lee.

"The dust control measures aren't working, as far as I'm concerned," Lee said.

Resident Penny Osuga said the dust stains her carpets and drapes. When she comes home, the water in her toilet is brown with dust.

"I have bath towels over my stove because it gets so dirty," she said.

Greg Stancil, who runs the Waikomo Stream Villas, said visitors regularly show up and refuse to check in due to the dust and the dense construction. He believes blasting has cracked the swimming pool deck.

"The pictures on the wall vibrate from the machines. The windows rattle when they blast," said lifelong Po'ipu resident Adelia Fuller. Her elderly and ill mother is caught between baking in the heat with the windows closed to keep out the dust, or letting the trade winds blow through but breathing dust.

Residents complained that they often got the runaround when trying to resolve differences — from developer to contractor to insurance company to lawyers. Sometimes one developer will say the dust is coming from another project, and that one will blame a third project.

"They say they can't say whose dust it is," Fuller said

Residents of Koloa-Po'ipu brought the issue to a Koloa Neighborhood Center community meeting Tuesday at which more than 100 people attended, including several dozen Goodfellow Brothers construction workers. Goodfellow is the site work contractor for several of the projects.

"We as a development community absolutely recognize that there is a problem on the south shore with dust," said Kukui'ula Development president Dick Holtzman. "And it should not be your job to determine where the dust is coming from.

"I can commit to you that we are going to do the very best we can ... to bring some solution and resolution," said Holtzman, the only developer of the group that has had a dust complaint line all along.

Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com.