Category: Hawai’i

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Hundreds turn out to demand access to shoreline access in Kona

The Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawai’i Autority (NELHA) is a State of Hawai’i agency under the Department of Business Economic Development and Tourism. It is based at a site on the Kona shoreline, near the Kona airport. The public has had access to prime shoreline recreation and cultural areas via a jeep road that runs near the NELHA site. Recently, NELHA has locked the gates to the beach. Kona residents have mobized to demand access.

What’s not been discussed much is the role of NELHA in supporting military research via the National Defense Center of Excellence for Research in Ocean Sciences (CEROS), a state-run, federally funded program housed at NELHA.  CEROS is a program of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) which conducts many secret research programs in Hawai’i.

Is the beach access closure related to any security measures required by CEROS/DARPA?

Here’s a report on the recent meeting by Kona activist Shannon Rudolph:

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Hundreds Turn Out For NELHA Gate Closure Meeting

August 22, 2009

By Shannon Rudolph

A polite but agitated crowd, an estimated 500 to 600 people, filled the Kealakehe High School Cafeteria Friday night and spoke unanimously; open the gate at Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority (NELHA) to O’oma / Kohanaiki – now.

Many members of the Kohanaiki ‘Ohana community public access group and other residents gave testimony to open the gate immediately, including former council member Angel Pilago, along with representatives of the Kapena, Ka’aaina, and Freitas families. Kaimanu Freitas told the audience he had the original deed to the NELHA property proving his family ownership.

The community talk story sponsored by Sen. Josh Green and Rep. Denny Coffman included representatives from the state Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Department of Business Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT). (Click here and here to see previous references to the community meeting.)

Many testifying called for NELHA chief executive officer (CEO) Ron Baird to be fired immediately, not only for locking the shoreline gate, but also for putting the community in danger with the unfinished and unacceptable access further south on the highway. Rep. Coffman and the DOT representative also called the secondary highway access unsafe.

Hawaii County Councilman Kelly Greenwell told the crowd that he held the “key” to to the NELHA gate and that community members held that key also – namely, civil disobedience – and invited everyone to come down on Saturday morning to help remove the gate.

Puna’s Kale Gumapac and other community activists from around the island also attended and spoke of the need to stand up and protect public access in all areas of the island for future generations.

Sen. Green urged the audience to call NELHA’s CEO Ron Baird at (808) 329-7341, along with his boss, Ted Liu, director of DBEDT at 808-586-2355, email tliu@dbedt.hawaii.gov and urge them to open the gate. On Hawai’i island, call 808-947-4000 ext. 52423.  Ron Baird was invited, but did not attend the meeting or send a NELHA representative.

(Shannon Rudolph is a Kona resident concerned about shoreline access amongst other community issues.)

Source: http://www.bigislandchronicle.com/?p=8208

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Nuclear Regulatory Commission public meetings on Depleted Uranium in Hawai’i

NRC public meetings on Army’s DU permit application

August 24th, 1:00 pm

Hawaii Army National Guard’s Wahiawa Armory 487 FA, at 77-230 Kamehameha Highway in Mililani

August 25th, 6 – 8:30 pm

Wahiawa District Park – Hale Koa Nutrition Site, 1139 Kilani Ave., in Wahiawa

August 26th, 6 – 8:30 p.m.

King Kamehameha Kona Beach Hotel, 75-5660 Palani Road, Kailua-Kona

August 27th, 6 – 8:30 p.m.

Hilo High School, 556 Waianuenue Ave., in Hilo

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http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/news/2009/09-135.html

NRC NEWS
U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Office of Public Affairs
Telephone: 301/415-8200
Washington, DC 20555-0001
E-mail: OPA.Resource@nrc.gov
www.nrc.gov

No. 09-135 August 17, 2009

NRC ANNOUNCES HEARING OPPORTUNITY, PUBLIC MEETINGS IN
HAWAII ON U.S. ARMY DEPLETED URANIUM MUNITIONS

Printable Version PDF Icon

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued a notice of opportunity to request a hearing on a license application from the U.S. Army for possession of depleted uranium at two installations in Hawaii where depleted uranium remains from munitions training during the 1960s.

Enough depleted uranium remains on the sites to require an NRC possession license and environmental monitoring and physical security programs to ensure protection of the public and the environment.

NRC staff will hold public meetings in Oahu on Aug. 24 and 25, in Kona on Aug. 26 and Hilo on Aug. 27, to explain how the agency will review the Army’s license application and – if the license is subsequently granted – monitor and enforce the license to ensure there is no danger to public health and safety or the environment. Finally, the agency is requesting public comment on the Army’s plan.

In the 1960s, the Army used M101 spotting rounds made with depleted uranium in training soldiers with the Davy Crockett recoilless gun. The M101 rounds were used at proving grounds at Schofield Barracks on Oahu and the Pohakuloa Training Area on the Island of Hawaii until 1968. Fragments of expended rounds remain on the ground in impact areas of those training ranges.

Following a site visit to Schofield Barracks on Aug. 24, NRC staff will conduct a meeting with Army representatives at the Hawaii Army National Guard’s Wahiawa Armory 487 FA, at 77-230 Kamehameha Highway in Mililani, beginning at 1 p.m. This meeting will be primarily for Army officials to discuss their monitoring plans for managing the depleted uranium. Members of the public are welcome to attend and will have a chance to talk with NRC staff after the business portion of the meeting but before the meeting adjourns.

NRC staff will brief the public on the agency’s license review process on Aug. 25 from 6 – 8:30 p.m. at the Wahiawa District Park – Hale Koa Nutrition Site, 1139 Kilani Ave., in Wahiawa. Similar meetings will be held Aug. 26 from 6 – 8:30 p.m. at the King Kamehameha Kona Beach Hotel, 75-5660 Palani Road, Kailua-Kona, and Aug. 27 from 6 – 8:30 p.m. at the Hilo High School, 556 Waianuenue Ave., in Hilo.

To request an adjudicatory hearing on this application, potential parties must demonstrate standing by showing how the proposed license might affect them. They must also raise at least one admissible contention challenging the license application. Guidance on how to file a petition for a hearing is contained in a Notice of License Application and Opportunity for Hearing, published Aug. 13 in the Federal Register and available online at http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/pdf/E9-19449.pdf.

The deadline for requesting a hearing is Oct. 13. Members of the public may submit comments on the Army’s application until that date as well, to the NRC project manager, John J. Hayes, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Mail Stop T8-F5, Washington, D.C., 20055-0001, or by e-mail at John.Hayes@nrc.gov.

The Army license application and associated documents, including the environmental monitoring and physical security plans and site characterization studies, are available through the NRC’s ADAMS online documents database at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams/web-based.html by entering these accession numbers: ML090070095, ML091950280, ML090900423 and ML091170322.

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Army report says DU at Pohakuloa not a threat

Updated at 11:19 a.m., Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Depleted uranium at Pohakuloa no threat to public, Army report says

By Nancy Cook Lauer
West Hawaii Today

HILO – A preliminary study completed by the military earlier this month finds no threat to the public from depleted uranium at the Pohakuloa Training Area.

The study is part of a U.S. Army licensing application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a site-specific environmental radiation monitoring plan. Public hearings are planned for next month and then there will be a comment period before a safe-handling license is issued.

So far, only three pieces of the radioactive material have been found at Pohakuloa and it is believed that the remainder, if there was any, likely fell into the cracks in the lava, the report says.

Environmentalists, however, remain skeptical.

Sierra Club member Cory Harden says she’d like to see the military experts in a forum that includes other scientists who may dispute their findings, such as Maui resident Dr. Lorrin Pang, a former Army doctor and World Health Organization consultant and Mike Reimer, a Kona resident who served 10 years as head of research at the School of Mines in Golden, Colo., after a 25-year stint on a uranium project with the U.S. Geological Service.

“The Army is prepared to say there’s no significant harm from the DU, but they’re not prepared to back it up in a public forum, and that concerns me,” Harden said.

The Army suspected DU at Pohakuloa after research stemming from the 2005 discovery of the munitions at Schofield Barracks on Oahu led to records showing that 714 spotting rounds for the now obsolete Davy Crockett weapons systems were shipped to Hawaii sometime in the early 1960s.

The Hawaii County Council last year passed a nonbinding resolution requesting the military halt live-fire training exercises at PTA until it was determined if depleted uranium was there. The Army, however, has not stopped exercises.

Howard Sugai, chief public affairs officer for the Army’s Pacific region, said the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will help the Army establish procedures to deal with the DU.

“They will establish the guidelines,” Sugai said. “The NRC will issue us the policies, the procedures, the protocols on which we manage depleted uranium on our ranges.”

The Army’s monitoring plan must characterize conditions at each site where depleted uranium has been found and identify possible exposure pathways, changes in site use and any off-range migration of DU to the surrounding environment.

The Army document says a baseline human health risk assessment wasn’t completed because so little DU has been found at the site, and air and soil samples don’t show elevated levels of radiation.

“To this point, the Army has only found three DU rounds at PTA. This is not surprising given the geological conditions at the site,” the July 8 report says. “If any significant quantity of DU was fired at PTA, it is expected to have quickly migrated through the pahoehoe and aa basalt flows and is no longer detectable at the surface.”

Reimer said the migration theory “made me giggle.”

“On the basis of that study, they can’t come to that conclusion,” Reimer said. “That document they sent to the NRC I think was extremely superficial and often contradictory.”

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission plans to take public comments at meetings on Oahu on Aug. 24 and in Hilo and Kona on Aug. 27. The agency will then publish a notice in the Federal Register, giving the public 60 days to submit comments in writing.

Officials said they still don’t know the extent of the DU ordnance used on the island, but said such munitions are not being used currently, nor is there a plan to. The research is tedious because records are not easily accessible, but the work continues, they said.

Experts with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the state Department of Health and the University of Hawaii, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Office of Army Safety have said the radiation is low enough to make risks to the public and environment extremely unlikely.

Measurements have ranged from 3 to 9 micro-R – low-level gamma radiation – an hour, which is considered safe background radiation coming from natural sources, according to the military. In comparison, radiation must reach 2,000 micro-R an hour before it is considered “actionable,” and the Health Department gets people out of the area.

But some Big Island residents who have attended meetings on the issue are not ready to take the military at face value. Even the number of rounds that may have been fired at PTA has been unclear.

“I certainly hope the NRC can pin this stuff down,” Harden said.

Source: http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20090729/BREAKING01/90729058/-1/RSS01?source=rss_breaking

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“Hazards of military Depleted Uranium” the topic of webcast

The activists from Moku o Keawe (Hawai’i island) are organizing a webcast of an interview with Dr. Lorrin Pang on the hazards of depleted uranium contamination.  Here’s an excerpt from an email from Jim Albertini:

The Hazards of military Depleted Uranium (DU) in Hawaii will be the topic of the Big Island Live Broadcasting Network (BILB) as it launches its premier broadcast via the internet on www.bigislandlive.com. 5:00 – 6:00 PM, Saturday, August 1st. There will be a live interview with the state’s leading authority on Depleted Uranium (DU), Dr. Lorrin Pang, MD. The public and press will have the unique opportunity to ask Dr. Pang questions and become more educated about DU found at the Pohakuloa Training Area on the Big Island. The live show will be aired on www.bigislandlive.com and phone calls with questions will be taken at (808) 987-8610.

Depleted Uranium, and its hazard to the residents of Hawaii, has been an issue for the last four years since its discovery on Oahu. In July, 2008, the Hawaii County Council passed Resolution # 639-08 calling for the Army to halt all live-fire training on the Big Island until there is an assessment and clean up of the depleted uranium already present. The military has never stopped live-fire exercises and refused attempts by the state’s leading authorities to be involved in the DU testing/assessment. DU expert, Dr. Pang, states that the type of testing being done up on the mountain would not show the presence of the type of DU that would be a threat and further testing is necessary to truly assess the risk factor on the mountain. To watch a short trailer of the interview, follow this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beZZoCanpm0 BILB Network programming will be aired on the internet, cable-TV and on Public Access stations throughout the state.

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Mauna Kea selected for more desecration

Posted on: Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Mauna Kea selected for world’s largest telescope

Native Hawaiians, environmentalists object to use of area

By Mary Vorsino
Advertiser Staff Writer

Mauna Kea was chosen yesterday as the site for what will become the world’s largest telescope – a mega-feat of engineering that will cost $1.2 billion, create as many as 440 construction and other jobs and seal the Big Island summit’s standing as the premier spot on the planet to study the mysteries of space.
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But opposition to the project from environmental and Native Hawaiian groups could still prove a formidable hurdle for making the telescope a reality. Marti Townsend, program director for Kahea: The Hawaiian Environmental Alliance, said opposition groups will go to court to stop the project if needed.

“This is a bad decision done in bad faith,” Townsend said.

The new telescope – known as the Thirty Meter Telescope – is set to be completed in 2018, following seven years of construction. Astronomers say the project is expected to spur big advances in their field and offer new insight into the universe and its celestial bodies, including whether any far-away planets are capable of sustaining life.

The TMT will be able to see 13 billion light years away, a distance so great and so far back in time that researchers predict they’ll be able to watch the first stars and galaxies in the universe forming.

“It will really provide the baby pictures of the universe,” said Charles Blue, a media relations specialist with the Thirty Meter Telescope Observatory Corp.

Mauna Kea’s 13,796-foot summit was picked as the site for the new telescope over Chile’s Cerro Armazones mountain after more than a year of study, providing some rare good news for Hawai’i construction industry officials in today’s dismal economy.

“This is definitely going to be a shot in the arm for our industry,” said Kyle Chock, executive director of Pacific Resource Partnership, a labor-management organization that represents the Hawaii Carpenters Union along with some 240 contractors. Chock said building the telescope will require 50 to 100 construction workers daily.

TMT Observatory has pledged to make sure many of those jobs go to Hawai’i residents.

Another 140 jobs will be created for operations over the life of the telescope.

“It’s a huge announcement,” Chock said.

In a news release yesterday, Gov. Linda Lingle said the decision to build the telescope in the Islands “marks an extraordinary step forward in the state’s continuing efforts to establish Hawai’i as a center for global innovation for the future.” She added, “Having the most advanced telescope in the world on the slopes of Mauna Kea will enhance Hawai’i’s high-technology sector, while providing our students with education and career opportunities” in science.
strong objection

The telescope has also been met with strong opposition from Native Hawaiian and environmental groups.

Mauna Kea is considered sacred to Native Hawaiians, while environmentalists have raised concerns about how the project will affect rare native plant and insect species atop the volcano. That opposition could affect work on the new telescope, especially if those against the project decide to head to court.

“The people are stuck. What are we going to do? Sue or lose our rights,” said Kealoha Pisciotta, president of Mauna Kea Anaina Hou, which participated in a 2007 legal challenge that helped derail plans for a $50 million addition to the W.M. Keck Observatory.

The new telescope is much bigger than that project. A draft environmental impact statement estimates that the site for the project will cover approximately 5 acres on the summit, with a 30-meter segmented mirror in a 180-foot dome housing, a 35,000-square-foot support building and a parking area. The TMT project also calls for a mid-level facility on Mauna Kea at 9,200 feet along with headquarters at the University of Hawai’i-Hilo.

Sandra Dawson, EIS manager for the project, said TMT officials have had multiple public meetings and sit-downs with residents to get their thoughts on the telescope. She has gotten about 300 comments to the draft EIS, which are being reviewed.

“What we’re hoping for is that people who have in the past been in opposition will work with us to try to make this as acceptable as possible,” she said. “We’re going to do everything we can” to work with people.
14 telescopes

The telescope will be the 14th on Mauna Kea. It will require a permit from the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, which TMT officials are hopeful won’t be delayed. Meanwhile, the University of Hawai’i is in negotiations with TMT over the project. UH manages the summit of Mauna Kea, and Dawson said the university will get observing time in the new telescope as part of a lease.

TMT officials expect to finalize the EIS on the project by the end of the year. They expect to kick off construction in 2011.

Virginia Hinshaw, UH-Manoa chancellor, said in a statement that the project is “tremendously exciting for Hawai’i and will bring benefits both to our astronomers and certainly to our citizens through workforce development and science education.”

She added the decision to choose the Islands as the site for the cutting-edge telescope highlights the role “of Hawai’i … (in) advances in our understanding of the universe.”

UH-Hilo Chancellor Rose Tseng said the new telescope “holds great potential.”

“I’m doing everything I can to create the conditions under which a project like TMT can succeed on Mauna Kea and benefit the community,” she said.

TMT will be built by the University of California, the California Institute of Technology and the Association of Canadian Universities for Research in Astronomy.

About $300 million has been pledged so far for the construction of the new telescope, said TMT’s media specialist Blue. About $50 million has been pledged for design and development.

He said despite the economic downturn, “we’re confident the remaining funding can be secured.”

The new telescope will allow astronomers the clearest picture of space ever.

With it, astronomers will be able to view objects nine times fainter than with existing telescopes.

“It’s going to keep Hawai’i at the center of the world of astronomy,” said Taft Armandroff, director of the W.M. Keck Observatory, which has twin telescopes atop Mauna Kea with 10-meter mirrors, currently the world’s largest. “It’s a real validation that Mauna Kea is one of the absolute best places in the world to do astronomy.”

Reach Mary Vorsino at mvorsino@honoluluadvertiser.com.

Source: http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20090722/NEWS01/907220344/Mauna+Kea+selected+for+world+s+largest+telescope

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Hilo residents blast giant telescope plan

Scope faces critics in Hilo

by Peter Sur
Tribune-Herald Staff Writer

Published: Thursday, June 18, 2009 9:39 AM HST

More than 150 people heard impassioned speeches Wednesday night in Hilo on a proposal to bring the Thirty Meter Telescope to the Big Island.

Much of it was negative, in stark contrast to Tuesday night’s meeting in Waimea. While the first four speakers in Waimea spoke glowingly of bringing the advanced observatory to Hawaii, the first six speakers in Hilo all slammed the idea. But as the night wore on, more people spoke in favor of the project. The meeting was still ongoing as of press time, with 14 in favor of the telescope and 14 against.

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Public gets snow job on proposed giant Mauna Kea telescope

Telescope receives a warm reception in Waimea

by Peter Sur
Tribune-Herald Staff Writer

Published: Wednesday, June 17, 2009 9:45 AM HST

Majority of speakers during meeting voices support for TMT

WAIMEA — A friendly crowd filled an elementary school cafeteria Tuesday night to speak in favor of locating the Thirty Meter Telescope in Hawaii.

The Waimea meeting was the first of six meetings being held around the Big Island, plus one on Oahu. If approved and completed on time, an observatory with a primary mirror 98 feet across could be up and operating on the north slope of Mauna Kea by 2018.

TMT board members will meet July 20-21 in California to decide whether to build the telescope on Mauna Kea or on Cerro Armazones, a remote mountain in Chile.

The mood in Waimea, home of the W.M. Keck Observatory headquarters, was not unanimous, but of the 16 people who spoke, nine favored the TMT. A smaller number was opposed to bringing the telescope and the rest were ambivalent.

Richard Ha, a farmer and member of the Hawaii Economic Development Board’s TMT Committee, spoke of his efforts to have TMT fund a $1 million community benefits package.

Judi Steinman, executive officer of the Hawaii Island Chamber of Commerce, told a crowd of about 50 people that the chamber “strongly supports the TMT coming to Hawaii Island.”

“Our members see the TMT as an important part of our island’s business community to ensure the strength of our economy,” Steinman said.

“We can have a balance between Hawaiian culture and science,” said Mark Lossing, who said he represented more than 500 unemployed construction workers. “I also support the TMT because it will provide Big Island jobs.”

Andrew Cooper argued the scientific benefits of the telescope while wearing a yellow button that said, “TMT YES!”

Keawe Vredenburg took a different tack, asking for the development of a “Mauna Kea Protocol Management Plan” to protect the mountain’s numerous cultural resources.

Clarence “Ku” Ching disagreed. He was one of the plaintiffs in the court case that led to the development of the Mauna Kea Comprehensive Management Plan [CMP], and remains a strong opponent of building the TMT in Hawaii.

“I believe that the draft EIS (environmental impact statement), which is the subject of tonight’s discussion, is tainted. It’s … full of misrepresentations, deceit and fraud.”

[ku: What I said was that the EIS was principledly based on the CMP (being challenged in a Contested Case Hearing and will probably be modified) and the Mauna Kea 2000 Plan (unapproved by BLNR) – and that if “they” do not remove all references to these 2 documents – they would be crossing the boundary of misrepresentation, deceit and fraud.]

Wiley Knight, a former technician for the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, asked that the TMT be built where the aging NASA Infrared Telescope Facility stands, instead of a “pristine area.”

Before the meeting, TMT representatives provided a preview of their presentations for the news media and answered some of the objections that Kealoha Pisciotta, an opponent of the telescope, had publicly raised.

Pisciotta had said, among other things, that the acceptance of federal funds triggers the need for a federal EIS.

“The federal government, federal agencies, they make that decision. We don’t. And what triggers NEPA (National Environmental Protection Act) is a significant federal action,” said Michael Bolte, director of California’s Lick Observatory and member of the TMT Board of Directors.

Regarding the Mauna Kea Comprehensive Management Plan, “we are an independent process. The legal opinions are that right now we can go forward completely independent of anything that happens with the Comprehensive Management Plan.”

[ku: This is utter bullshit! Without an adequate CMP – I believe that we can get an injunction to stop any construction that they think they can begin to put up there. In our court appeal – Judge Hara “stopped” any future construction on the mountain “until” a CMP was in place. So we’ll see which way it goes. This sounds like the TMT throwing down the gauntlet – that I’m sure we’ll be willing to take on the challenge.]

Two people commented on the spelling “Maunakea” in the EIS, said Sandra Dawson, environmental impact statement manager for the TMT. She explained that the University of Hawaii, not TMT officials, chose to spell Mauna Kea as one word.

Jim Hayes spoke on behalf of Parsons Brinckerhoff, the consulting firm that produced the EIS.

Hayes explained how consultants focused on impacts to culture and historical resources, biology and aesthetics, because those areas were singled out in earlier meetings.

“There’s no historic properties within 200 feet of the project, and there’s no unique or prime geologic areas in the disturbance area,” Hayes said. “We found the project would have minimal impact in the cinder cone habitat area, which is the most sensitive area.”

The impacts of the 50 people working at the observatory daily would be mitigated by the mandatory “ride-sharing” for crews from Hale Pohaku, resulting in an estimated 12 vehicle trips per day.

Remaining issues to be resolved include the specific route for the access road, the level of decommissioning and whether the enclosure should be painted white, brown or with the preferred reflective finish.

Anneila Sargent, an astronomy professor at the California Institute of Technology, touted the myriad scientific benefits of the TMT, including an advanced adaptive optics system that would allow for images 10 times sharper than the Hubble Space Telescope.

TMT, she said, would allow a deeper, sharper view of the universe in the visible and infrared spectra than any observatory that exists today — back to the formation of the first stars 13.3 billion light-years away.

More important than being able to image distant stars, arguably, will be an advanced instrument called a spectroscope, which can analyze the chemical elements of distant stars and even determine whether they have planets.

“The potential for what we can find is just astonishing,” Sargent said.

The next meeting is today from 4 to 8 p.m. in the Hilo High School cafeteria.

E-mail Peter Sur at psur@hawaiitribune-herald.com.

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Wife sues Iraq vet accused of murdering son, stabbing wife and killing unborn child

Updated at 12:14 p.m., Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Big Isle man accused of killing son, unborn child sued by ex-wife

By Peter Sur
Hawaii Tribune-Herald

HILO – A Big Island man who has been charged with murdering his 14-year-old son and unborn child in a knife attack is being sued by his estranged wife.

Cheryl-Lyn Vesperas filed lawsuits last week against Tyrone Vesperas in Third Circuit Court on behalf of herself and her late son, Tyran Vesperas-Saniatan.

Tyran, 14, died on Kamehameha Day, 2007. The boy’s death stemmed from a physical confrontation between his parents, Cheryl and Tyrone, in the Ainaloa home the couple once shared.

Police have said that Tyrone Vesperas stabbed his estranged wife repeatedly in the abdomen with a military-issue combat knife, and Tyran was stabbed in the neck when he tried to intervene.

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Call to Action to protect Haleakala and Mauna Kea!

Plans for major construction in the sensitive ecosystems of our most sacred summits continue to push forward, despite significant opposition from the community. The University of Hawaii has filed two environmental impact statements — one for the world’s largest telescope in the world’s only tropical alpine desert, and another for a duplicative solar telescope in one of the most threatened national parks in the U.S. Both of these projects can be built in less sensitive areas.

Though both summits are protected as conservation districts, where the law expressly discourages construction, the University refuses to compromise, insisting that these giant, intrusive structures be built where they will cause the most harm.

Don’t let good science be used to justify unnecessary ecological destruction and cultural disrespect. Take action now to defend our sacred, fragile summits.

1) Protect Haleakala — the House of the Sun — from another, unnecessary solar telescope (http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2699/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=1037)

2) Defend the Sacred Summit of Mauna Kea from the World’s Largest Telescope
(http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2699/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=1129)

Public hearings on the proposal to build the world’s largest telescope on Mauna Kea are being held now. All meetings are 5 to 8 p.m., with an open house in the beginning, followed by formal presentations, and then comments from the public.

Public Hearings on the New Mauna Kea Telescope Proposal

June 16 (Tuesday) Waimea – Waimea Elementary School Cafeteria

June 17 (Wednesday) Hilo – Hilo High School Cafeteria

June 18 (Thursday) Puna – Pahoa High School Cafeteria

June 22 (Monday) Ka’u – Ka’u High/Pahala Elementary School Cafeteria

June 23 (Tuesday) Hawi – Kohala Cultural Center

June 24 (Wednesday) Kona – Kealakehe Elementary School Cafeteria

June 25 (Thursday) Honolulu – Farrington High School Cafeteria

The Draft EIS is available on the Project website — www.TMT-HawaiiEIS.org — and hard copies can be found at public libraries throughout Hawaii.

Mahalo nui,
Us Guys at KAHEA: The Hawaiian-Environmental Alliance

1149 Bethel St., #415
Honolulu, HI 96813
www.kahea.org
blog.kahea.org
phone: 808-524-8220
email: kahea-alliance@hawaii.rr.com

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Air Force runway expansion studied in Kona

Air Force runway project gets second land study

By Gregg K. Kakesako

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, May 28, 2009

The Air Force will conduct a supplemental environmental study on building a $30.3 million auxiliary runway at Keahole Airport in Kona that would be used to train C-17 Globemaster cargo jet pilots in short-landing field operations.

Air Force 2nd Lt. Jason Smith, Hickam Air Force Base spokesman, said the first environmental assessment was completed in 2005.

However, work was never started on the proposed auxiliary runway, which will be used by the eight C-17 Globemaster jets based at Hickam Air Force Base, because money was never appropriated for the project. The Air Force said it is hoping that Congress will authorize the needed $30 million this year so construction money can be added to the Pentagon budget now under review. If that happens, work could begin by late summer 2010.

Air Force regulations require a supplemental environmental assessment if no work is started within five years, Smith added.

Smith said the second study will begin in June and take nine months to complete. The public will be given 30 days to comment on the draft after it is completed.

The proposed 3,950-foot “Kona auxiliary training runway” will be built on the makai side of the current runway. State transportation officials are working with the Air Force to ensure that it is long enough to be used as an alternative runway during emergencies.

In 2005 the Air Force completed an environmental assessment of what it calls a “short austere airfield,” which is needed to keep its C-17 pilots proficient in short takeoffs and landings on semi-improved runways used in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. The 174-foot C-17 Globemaster jet can land on runways as short as 3,500 feet and on unimproved dirt fields. By contrast, the runways at Honolulu Airport are 12,000 feet long.

In picking the state airport at Kona four years ago, the Air Force rejected use of 20 airfields, including those at Kalaeloa in Leeward Oahu, the Pacific Missile Range on Kauai and Marine Corps Base Hawaii at Kaneohe Bay. However, in the interim, Air Force and Hawaii Air Guard pilots have been given a temporary waiver to use the Kaneohe Bay and Kalaeloa runways to stay proficient. Paint marks are used to simulate the shorter runway length

The 2005 environmental assessment found “no significant adverse impacts to developing a mutually beneficial military-civilian partnership at KOA (Kona Airport).”

Past Air Force tests showed that increased C-17 traffic will not raise the noise level at Kona since the jet is quieter than many of the civilian aircraft that fly there now.

The Air Force has said that during takeoffs and landings the C-17 generates less noise than the Boeing 747, Boeing 737, DC-10 and DC-9 jets.

Thomas said the Air Force estimates a maximum of 40 C-17 flights to Kona a month. There will be a maximum of four training takeoffs and landings per day — two in the day and two at night.

Thomas said Kona now accommodates 54 daily commercial flights and 318 commercial carrier flights per week.

Source: http://www.starbulletin.com/news/20090528_air_force_runway_project_gets_second_land_study.html

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