November 30, 2011
5:30 pm
University of Guam CLASS Public Lecture Hall
Featured Speakers:
Kyle Kajihiro, Hawai’i Peace and Justice
Abacca Anjain-Maddison, Former Senator, Rongelap Island,
Ken Kuper, FITE Club
Victoria-Lola Leon Guerrero, Guahan Coalition for Peace and Justice
Sponsored by the Division of Social Work and Guahan Coalition for Peace and Justice
The Honolulu Star Advertiser reports that the proposed expansion of Marine Corps aviation activities in the Marine Corps Base Hawaii Kaneohe Bay will increase by 49%. Ko’olaupoko residents have an opportunity to speak out against this plan!
Skies above Marine base expected to grow busier
POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Nov 16, 2011
A new Marine Corps study says airfield use at Kaneohe Bay is expected to increase 49 percent by 2018 compared with a 2009 “base-line” level of activity, as the Corps and Navy update aging aircraft and add new capability in a reflection of Hawaii’s growing importance in the Pacific.
Plans call for basing 18 P-8A Poseidon submarine-hunting jets at Kaneohe Bay, 24 MV-22 tilt-rotor Ospreys, 18 AH-1 Cobra and later, Viper, attack helicopters, and nine UH-1 Huey transports.
The 652-page draft environmental impact statement released by the Marines for the helicopters and Ospreys also points to a 200 percent increase in “transient” large jet operations by aircraft such as Air Force C-5 cargo carriers and Russian/Ukrainian An-124s, the world’s largest cargo airplane, as logistical needs grow.
The increases would be offset by the retirement of two squadrons of about 24 aging CH-53D Sea Stallion helicopters (one squadron of CH-53E Super Stallions would remain) and the departure of most of the Navy’s propeller-driven P-3C Orion sub hunters.
Plans for so many aircraft plying the skies near their neighborhoods have some Kaneohe residents worried even more about the noise that has been a constant and sometimes unwelcome companion along the emerald bay.
“It’s absolutely ridiculous,” said Kaneohe resident Guy Ballou. “The noise is going to increase so much here that the quality of life is going to go down incredibly.”
[…]
Between 2012 and 2018 the helicopter and Osprey basing would bring about 1,000 active-duty personnel and 1,106 dependents to Kaneohe Bay, which had 9,872 Marines and dependents living on base in 2010, according to the study.
The Marines’ preferred plan for the helicopter and Osprey basing is paired with $578 million in anticipated construction costs to demolish old barracks and build three new four-story buildings, construct two hangars and a new headquarters, renovate and expand existing facilities, and create an additional reinforced concrete landing pad at West Field over six to 10 years.
The helicopters would be the first to start arriving, as soon as next fall, with five Cobras and four Hueys.
The Marine Corps has prepared an draft environmental impact statement that is currently available for review and comments.
Officials said in May the first P-8A Poseidons would come to Hawaii in 2015, and the basing plan has one squadron of 12 Ospreys showing up in 2014 and the second in 2015.
The draft EIS, available at www.mcbh.usmc.mil/mv22h1eis, has a 45-day public comment period, and public meetings will be held on Oahu and Hawaii island from Nov. 30 to Dec. 8.
The Osprey are a controversial and dangerous aircraft that has come under fire by Congress for cost overruns and accidents.
The helicopter and Osprey basing is “part of the Marine Corps’ plan to restructure and rebase its forces in the Pacific over the next 10 years,” the report said.
It seems that the plan to “restructure and rebase” U.S. forces in the Pacific are linked to growing opposition in Okinawa. The expansion would not only affect Kane’ohe. Training areas outside of Mokapu, such as Pohakuloa and even Kalaupapa on Molokai, will see increased activity under the proposed plan.
Flight training would take place not only at Kaneohe Bay, but also at Bellows, Schofield Barracks East Range, Dillingham Airfield, Pohakuloa Training Area on Hawaii island and even at Kalaupapa Airfield and the inactive 12-acre Molokai Training Support Facility, which would be reactivated.
[…]
According to the environmental study, there were 52,669 aircraft operations at Kaneohe Bay in 2009, including 5,449 landings and takeoffs by practicing Air Force C-17s, one of the biggest sources of jet noise complaints. By 2018 there are expected to be 78,725 flight operations.
By comparison, in 2002 there were 90,000 airfield operations. Marine Corps officials said the increase was preceded by the closure of Barbers Point and movement of P-3 aircraft to Kaneohe Bay.
Here is the schedule of Public Meetings on the Draft EIS:
Public Meetings Public meetings will be held to obtain comments on the EIS in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and to meet public involvement requirements pursuant to Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA).
Island of Hawaii
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Waimea Elementary School Cafeteria
67-1225 Mamalahoa Hwy., Kamuela, HI
5:30-6:30 PM: NHPA Sec 106 input
6:30-8:30 PM: Open houseThursday, December 1, 2011
Hilo Intermediate School Cafeteria
587 Waianuenue Ave., Hilo, HI
4:30-5:30 PM: NHPA Sec 106 input
5:30-7:30 PM: Open houseIsland of Oahu
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Mililani Middle School Cafeteria
95-1140 Lehiwa Dr., Mililani, HI
5:30-6:30 PM: NHPA Sec 106 input
6:30-8:30 PM: Open houseWednesday, December 7, 2011
Waimanalo Elementary & Intermediate School Cafeteria
41-1330 Kalanianaole Hwy, Waimanalo, HI
5:30-6:30 PM: NHPA Sec 106 input
6:30-8:30 PM: Open houseThursday, December 8, 2011
Castle High School Cafeteria
45-386 Kaneohe Bay Dr., Kaneohe, HI
5:30-6:30 PM: NHPA Sec 106 input
6:30-8:30 PM: Open house
The Pearl Harbor-Hickam Restoration Advisory Board will meet tomorrow at 7:00 pm at the ‘Aiea Library. The Pearl Harbor Sediment Draft Feasibility Study should be of interest to many. It will deal with proposals for cleaning up the contamination in the sediment of Ke Awalau o Pu’uloa, which is substantial. Here’s the invitation. The meetings are open to the public:
Aloha,
This is a reminder of the Pearl Harbor-Hickam Restoration Advisory Board (RAB) meeting on November 17, 2011 to discuss three presentations:
- Pearl Harbor Sediment Draft Feasibility Study, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii
- Time Critical Removal Action for the Sandblast Grit Disposal Sites, Waipio Peninsula
- Transport Yard Draft Remedial Investigation Work Plan Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard Intermediate Maintenance Facility
Date: November 17, 2011 (Thursday)
Time: 7 p.m.
Location: Aiea Elementary School Cafeteria (see attached map), 99-370 Moanalua Road, Aiea, HI 96701
Mahalo,
Rachel Gilhooly
Geologist
Environment, West Region, Pacific District
NATIVE VOICES #3: 11/9/11, 7pm, Halau O Haumea, Kamakakuokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies.
DEMILITARIZING THE PACIFIC: a roundtable featuring scholars & activists from HAWAII & GUAHAN, including JULIAN AGUON, LISA NATIVIDAD, TY KAWIKA TENGAN, TERRI KEKOʻOLANI, & KALEIKOA KAʻEO. Hosted by CRAIG SANTOS PEREZ.
Featuring author-activist-attorney
Julian Aguon
Ka Huli Ao Center for Excellence in Native Hawaiian Law
Maoli Thursday
Thursday, November 3, 2011
11:45 AM – 1:00 PM – Moot Courtroom
William S. Richardson School of Law
Julian Aguon is an indigenous Chamoru writer-activist, attorney who specializes in international law and is the author of numerous books and law journal articles on the subjects of self-determination, human rights, indigeneity, colonialism, and militarism. He was a 2010 Post Juris Doctor Research Fellow at Ka Huli Ao Center for Excellence in Native Hawaiian Law. He teaches International Law at the University of Guam, and was named a 2011 Petra Fellow by the New York-based Petra Foundation. His most recent book, What We Bury at Night, describes the present day realities of the United States’ continuing colonial relationships with the islands and peoples of Micronesia. He is currently working on a fourth book entitled Little Bird Sings Sedition. Julian is a 2009 graduate of the William S. Richardson School of Law.
Maoli Thursday is a lunchtime forum and speaker series held every first Thursday of the month.
The event will be live-streamed at www.KaHuliao.com
FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Refreshments will be served if you RSVP by Tuesday – November 1st, 2011 to NHLAWCTR@hawaii.edu
Developers want to change agricultural land to industrial in the heart of Lualualei valley in Wai’anae, some of the richest and most productive farm lands in Hawai’i.
The Waianae Sustainable Communities Plan is coming before the City Council on Nov. 2nd (1pm, Kapolei Hale).
1. Please send letters to the council members through this link sponsored by KAHEA.
2. Come to the hearing to testify in person and/or show support with signs etc. See instructions below on how to testify.
3. Send in written testimony online at this link.
The key issue is to remove the “purple spot” (agricultural land rezoned to industrial) from the Waianae Sustainable Communities Plan. Waianae and Ewa residents should also contact Tom Berg with your concerns. As the Council Member for the district, his position will be influential.
CITY COUNCIL
PUBLIC HEARING
| DATE: | WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2011 | |
| PLACE: | KAPOLEI HALE
CONFERENCE ROOMS A, B, C 1000 ULUOHIA STREET KAPOLEI, HAWAII 96707 |
|
| TIME: | 1 P.M. |
|
|
Bill 50, CD1 (Exhibit A) – Amending the Waianae Sustainable Communities Plan. (Amending Chapter 24, Article 9, Revised Ordinances of Honolulu and replacing the Waianae Sustainable Communities Plan.) | |
|
|
Bill 54 – Relating to stored property. Establishing a procedure for the removal and disposal of personal property stored on public property.) | |
SPEAKER REGISTRATION
¨ Prior to the Day of the Meeting
Persons wishing to testify on the above-mentioned public hearing items may register by:
a. using the On‑Line City Council Speaker Registration form available at http://www.honolulu.gov/council/attnspkph.htm;
b. sending a fax to 768-3826 indicating your desire to register to speak, along with your name, phone number and subject matter;
c. filling out the registration form in person; or
d. calling 768-3814.
¨ On-site on the Day of the Meeting
Registration on-site for the above-mentioned public hearing items will be from 7:45 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Persons who have not registered to testify by the deadline will be given an opportunity to present oral testimony on an item following the registered speakers by raising their hand at the time additional speakers are called upon.
Each speaker shall not have anyone else read their statement and is limited to a three‑minute presentation.
WRITTEN TESTIMONY – Prior to the Day of the Meeting
If you wish to submit written testimony:
a. fax to 768-3826 or
b. go to http://www.honolulu.gov/council/emailph.htm to e‑mail your written testimony.
15 copies are requested if written testimony is submitted on-site.
By submitting written testimony, you are not automatically registered to speak. Refer to “SPEAKER REGISTRATION” procedures above.
If submitted, written testimonies, including the testifier’s address, e-mail address and phone number, may be posted by the City Clerk and available to the public on the City’s DocuShare Website.
Any physically challenged person requiring special assistance should call 768-3814 for details at least one day prior to the meeting date.
Copies of the Bills and any amendments thereto are available at the City Clerk’s Office, Room 203, Honolulu Hale or on-line at http://www4.honolulu.gov/docushare.
CITY COUNCIL
CITY AND COUNTY OF HONOLULU
ERNEST Y. MARTIN, CHAIR
URGENT ACTION TO SAVE KULANI LAND AND REVERSE THE TRANSFER TO THE NATIONAL GUARD
Kat Brady of the Community Alliance on Prisons issued a call to contact Gov. Abercrombie ASAP and urge him to revoke the executive order that transferred Kulani prison land to the State Department of Defense for a military Youth ChalleNGe acadey.
THIS MUST BE DONE TONIGHT OR TOMORROW, THE MEETING IS ON FRIDAY.
E-mail the Governor asking him to issue an Executive Order turning back the full 622 acres of Kulani lands to the Department of Public Safety. Right now it is in the hands of DOD. The current proposal is to let the Department of Defense keep 279.76 acres and turn 342.24 over to DLNR, who will start processing the Natural Area Reserve (NAR) designation, making it off-limits to reestablish a wellness or pu`uhonua facility at Kulani.
REQUEST:
E-mail Governor Abercrombie: governor.abercrombie@hawaii.go
MESSAGE:
Please revoke Executive Order No. 4341 (TMK (3) 2-4-08:09) and issue a new Executive Order turning back the full 622 acres of Kulani lands to the Department of Public Safety. Reopen Kulani as a center for treatment and reentry.
Lori Wallach, Director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch
October 25, 2011
4:00 PM
University of Hawai’i Art Auditorium
2535 McCarthy Hall
Sponsors:
School of Social Work
Department of American Studies
School of Pacific and Asian Studies
Office of the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs
On September 28, a wildfire caused by an Army detonation of unexploded ordnance burned 100 acres in Makua Valley:
A fire burned about 100 acres of the Army’s Makua Valley training range Wednesday after it was started by workers who had detonated unexploded ordnance.
An Army spokesman said the detonation was part of a routine, ongoing cleanup operation. No one was injured. The fire was contained about 4 p.m.
No threatened or endangered species or native Hawaiian cultural sites were affected, according to an Army cultural resoucre official at the scene, the Army said.
This week, the court ruled that the Army failed to adequately study possible contamination of seaweed in the sea off Makua training area. The Civil Beat reports “Army Can’t say Whether Hawaii Seafood Is Safe”:
Waianae-area residents still can’t be certain whether seafood they harvest off their shore is safe from dangerous levels of arsenic and lead. A federal judge has ruled that Army tests of possible contamination have fallen short and advocates for the community say more tests likely will be necessary.
Contractors hired by the U.S. Army to test whether 80 years of military operations had poisoned local residents’ seafood attempted to test seafood including fish, limu, sea cucumbers and octopus without diving into the water to collect specimens, according to an environmental law firm that sued the Army.
But the contractors never left the beach and the testing was inadequate, said David Henkin, an attorney with Earthjustice representing Malama Makua, a local community organization.
[…]
“What’s really sad is for a community to have to get into federal court and spend over a decade to battle the military,” said Sparky Rodgrigues, president of Malama Makua and a Vietnam veteran. “I went to battle hoping I wouldn’t have to come home to battle.”
Bullets and unexploded ordnance are strewn throughout the Makua Military Reservation where the Army has been doing military exercises since the 1920s. Residents worry that chemicals such as arsenic, lead, chrome and uranium from the artillery could be leaching into the soil and entering the ocean through runoff. Rodrigues said that the chemicals could also be released into the air and absorbed into plants.
The court order supplements an October 2010 ruling in which Mollway also ruled that the Army had failed to adequately test marine resources. While the military found high levels of arsenic in a previous test of seafood, officials didn’t test whether it was inorganic arsenic, and thus highly carcinogenic, or organic, which doesn’t pose a human health risk.
The 2010 ruling also said that the Army violated a separate settlement obligation to complete archeological surveys to determine whether cultural resources could be damaged by stray shells and mortar rounds.
The military has been banned from doing live round firing since 2004 and is unlikely to be able to resume the activities until the testing is complete.
Rodrigues said the military wasn’t being good neighbors “by contaminating the water, food source and environment.”
“The military takes from our community and doesn’t really give back,” said Rodgrigues.
Moana Nui 2011 – Pacific voices against the APEC agenda.
There will be a Panel on “MILITARIZATION AND RESISTANCE IN THE PACIFIC”
Thursday, November 10, 2011
2-5:30 PM,
CHURCH OF THE CROSSROADS
featuring Suzuyo Takazato(Okinawan Women Act Against Military Violence), Christine Ahn (Korea Policy Institute), Lisa Natividad (Guahan Coalition for Peace and Justice), Kyle Kajihiro (DMZ-Hawaii/ALoha AIna and Hawaii Peace and Justice), Bruce Gagnon (Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space), Mayumi Oda (Artist and activist), Craig Santos Perez (Chamorro Poet), Ikaika Hussey (Hawaii Independent, Moderator)
Pua Mohala I Ka Po
in collaboration with the
International Forum on Globalization
presents
[ NOVEMBER 9-11, 2011 HONOLULU, HAWAII]
The Asia-Pacific region; nations of the Pacific rim which include Australia and the American and Asian nations, including Pacific Island nations are an increasing focus of geopolitical competition and economic stresses. Struggles for national sovereignty and cultural viability bring about rapidly expanding campaigns toward economic self-sufficiency. These campaigns challenge the legacies of colonialism, continued militarism in the region, growing trade and development conflicts, and corresponding environmental degradations. Whose interests are advanced in these struggles? Whose views are served? What are the dominant economic interests in play? How do we take control of our future? Which is the best way forward—convergence or resistance?
Organized by a partnership of scholars, community and political activists and Hawaiian and Pacific Islander cultural practitioners, Moana Nui is intended to provide a voice and possible direction for the economies of Pacific Islands in the era of powerful transnational corporations, global industrial expansion and global climate change. This conference will issue a challenge to Pacific Island nations and communities to look for cooperative ways to strengthen subsistence and to protect cultural properties and natural resources. The timing of this conference is intended to overlap the next meeting of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in Honolulu, and hopes to call public attention to the critical importance of maintaining sound and productive local economies in the Pacific Islands both for their own sake and food security in the world. Invited speakers will include Native economists, farm and fishery practitioners, advocates for political and economic sovereignty, specialists in media, public education, environmental studies and law. The conference will be open to the public and the conveners will seek to facilitate the attendance of practitioners from other Pacific Islands. All of the proceedings will be documented by video and a published collection of the presentations is anticipated.
For further discussion and information, find us on facebook at Moana Nui 2011 or contact admin@moananui2011.org
