The civil trials associated with the Kaloko Dam disaster of March 14, 2006, will start in two years and are expected to occupy one of the 5th Circuit Court's courtrooms for almost all of 2009.

Judge Kathleen Watanabe on Tuesday set an estimated six-month trial to start Feb. 2, 2009, in a case brought against dam owner James Pflueger and others by families of the seven people killed when the dam failed, sending a huge flood down Wailapa Stream valley.

She set a second trial, scheduled to last three months, to start Sept. 7, 2009. It is mainly a property damage claim brought by people whose land was reported damaged in the flood.