PROTECT THE ʻĀINA, PROTECT THE PEOPLE, STOP MILITARY EXPANSION
The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Nov 18, 2008 6:09:54 EST
HONOLULU — The Office of Hawaiian Affairs and the Army announced Monday that they have settled an OHA lawsuit filed in 2006 over the establishment of a Stryker brigade and its impact on Native Hawaiian cultural resources.
OHA representatives and a neutral archaeologist accompanied by Army representatives will survey certain Army training areas, the announcement said. Continue reading “Army settles Hawaii culture lawsuit”
The University of Hawai’i (UH) has overdeveloped Mauna Kea in violation of previous management plans and Kanaka Maoli religious beliefs. Now it seeks to build the Pan-STARRS, an Air Force telescope, and a giant Thirty Meter Telescope. Furthermore, UH is seeking to become the managing entity for Mauna Kea, which would be the proverbial fox guarding the henhouse.
The Hawaii Tribune Herald reported on recent hearings. Here’s an excerpt:
“The state may not give the university something the university is not authorized to do,” said Kealoha Pisciotta, president of Mauna Kea Anaina Hou, one of the plaintiffs in the outrigger telescope case. She struck out at a proposal to manage public access to the mountain.
“Mauna Kea is a temple. It’s created by Akua for the people,” Pisciotta said. “The university may not close the doors to the temple. You are not in control. We are not in control. Akua is in control. And quite frankly, I am totally opposed to that. How dare you. Would you close the doors to a church? No. You may not do that to Mauna Kea either. And who does the university think they are to make people go to classes? The public is not the problem on Mauna Kea. Overdevelopment is, and you are the developer (a reference to the university).”
The article also quotes Moanikeala Akaka:
“Mauna Kea belongs to the people of Hawaii,” said Moanikeala Akaka, a former Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustee. “It does not belong to UH or Ku’iwalu to use, abuse or control.”
“As the court has ruled, there has already been negligence, environmentally and culturally, on the summit of Mauna Kea,” she said.
The Hawaii Tribune Herald reports that the Marine Corps seeks expanded training facilities in Pohakuloa:
The proposed upgrades are designed to simulate conditions that Marines face in Iraq and Afghanistan, and other trouble spots around the world.
A draft environmental assessment set for release Sunday, prepared by the Marine Corps, proposes that the Marines develop a 6.2-mile long convoy live-fire range, complete with simulated roadside bombs and pop-up moving targets. This range would be located on the slopes of Mauna Loa, near the southern edge of Pohakuloa.
A “modular military operations in urban terrain” training facility would simulate urban combat. The Marines would place modified shipping containers on a 19-acre site around Pu’u Lehue, near the northern boundary of PTA. Seven clusters of containers would simulate various urban settings, including marketplaces, residential areas and town squares. This facility would involve the use of “flash-bang” explosives and simulated ammunition, but no live fire.
November 18, 2008
Deal with Army aims to ensure protection of cultural resources
By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer
The Office of Hawaiian Affairs and the Army have settled OHA’s 2006 federal lawsuit claiming the Army failed to protect Native Hawaiian cultural resources when it brought the Stryker brigade to the state.
OHA representatives, along with an archaeologist, will be able to survey certain Stryker training areas at Schofield Barracks, Kahuku and Pohakuloa as a result of the agreement, the state agency announced yesterday.
Through the surveys, OHA said it and Army representatives “aim to ensure the appropriate identification and treatment of cultural and historic resources located in Lihu’e, the traditional name for the Schofield Barracks region,” as well as other parts of Hawai’i.
The settlement means the Army can put behind it another legal case involving the $1.5 billion Stryker brigade of 4,000 soldiers and about 328 of the armored eight-wheeled vehicles.
The unit is deployed to Iraq. The soldiers and vehicles are expected back in Hawai’i in February or March.
“This agreement will afford OHA the opportunity to have a firsthand look at important cultural resources that would not otherwise be accessible to the general public, and to determine whether they were fully addressed in the Army’s prior surveys of areas affected by Stryker activities,” OHA chairwoman Haunani Apoliona said in a statement yesterday.
Col. Matthew T. Margotta, commander of U.S. Army Garrison, Hawai’i, said the Army values the “spirit of cooperation and communication with OHA.”
Margotta added that the agreement will “build upon our existing robust programs to identify and care for these cultural and historical resources, while balancing the need for soldier training.”
When it filed the lawsuit, OHA said cultural monitors had been partly responsible for the discovery of historically significant sites and burial grounds that were overlooked by the military’s archaeologists.
On July 22, 2006, an unexploded-ordnance removal crew bulldozed across a buffer protecting Hale’au’au heiau at Schofield, according to cultural monitors hired by the Army.
OHA also said there were other incidents involving displacement and damage of petroglyphs, the filling of a streambed known to contain Native Hawaiian sites and the construction of a road over burial grounds.
The Army in 2001 decided to base a Stryker unit in Hawai’i, and started about $700 million in construction projects.
Based on a separate federal lawsuit, a federal appeals court ruled in 2006 that the Army had not adequately examined alternative locations outside Hawai’i for the fast-strike unit, and ordered the Army to do so.
The decision temporarily halted one of the biggest Army projects in the Islands since World War II.
The end of that lawsuit brought the resumption of about six construction projects related to the Stryker brigade. Work is projected to continue through 2017.
Source: http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20081118/NEWS01/811180360/1001
Jim Albertini of Malu ‘Aina issued the following statement calling on the military to honor the Hawai’i County Council resolution for a moratorium on live fire training at Pohakuloa, a site contaminated with depleted uranium.
A CITIZEN CALL TO ACTION
The military officially confirmed radiation contamination from weapons training at The Pohakuloa Training Area (PTA) on Aug. 20, 2007 . The full extent of the contamination is not known but the military has refused to halt all live-fire until an assessment of the problem has been completed. PTA is located in the center of Moku O Keawe (Hawaii Island) and covers over l33,000-acres. For more than 50 years this sacred area between Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea has been used for a wide range of live-fire target practice, from small arms to B-52 and B-2 bombing missions. Up to l4 million live-rounds are fired annually
On July 2, 2008 the Hawaii County Council passed Resolution 639-08 by a vote of 8-l that requests the military with urgency, to address the potential hazards of radiation at PTA with the following eight-point plan:
l. Order a complete halt to B-2 bombing missions and to all live firing exercises and other activities at the Pohakuloa Training Area that create dust until there is an assessment and clean up of the depleted uranium already present;
2. Establish a permanent, high-tech monitoring system with procedures to ensure air quality control;
3. Establish a citizen monitoring system to work closely with Military experts to assure transparency and community confidence;
4. Host quarterly meetings to update and inform the public;
5. Ensure permanent funds are available for the monitoring program;
6. Provide a liaison to the County of Hawaii to facilitate communication between the U.S. Military and the County of Hawaii;
7. Provide semi-annual reports to the Hawaii County Council summarizing depleted uranium monitoring, detection, and mitigation efforts; and
8. The U.S. Military shall conduct a search of all records for firing of Depleted Uranium at the Pohakuloa training Area and all other Hawaii State military sites and release pertinent information to the public…
To date, more than 4 months since this resolution has been passed, there has been NO action by the military to address any of the above 8 points. In fact it is quite insulting to hear military officers who are charged with protecting community health and safety comment that the county council’s call to action “is only a resolution,” and that stopping live-fire at PTA “is not going to happen.” This tells us that our community health and safety is secondary to military training. So who and what is the military defending?
If the military truly cared about community health and safety it would operate on the precautionary principle and halt all live-fire until the full extent of contamination was known. We suspect a lot more than one radiation weapon system called the Davy Crockett was used at PTA. The military has a major conflict of interest as investigator of the problem. It wants to continue live-fire. It does not want to risk finding additional radiation problems that may force shutting down the base.. That’s why we need independent testing and citizen involvement at all levels to assure transparency and community confidence. What appears to be happening is military stonewalling.
Stop the Bombing of Hawaii Island
1. Mourn all victims of violence. 2. Reject war as a solution. 3. Defend civil liberties. 4. Oppose all discrimination: anti-Islamic, anti-Semitic, etc. 5. Seek peace through justice in Hawai`i and around the world.
Contact: Malu `Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action P.O. Box AB Ola`a (Kurtistown),
Hawai`i 96760. Phone (808) 966-7622 Email ja@interpac.net http://www.malu-aina.org
Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet (Nov. l4, 2008 – 374th week) – Friday 3:30-5PM downtown Post Office
—
Jim Albertini
Malu ‘Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action
P.O.Box AB
Kurtistown, Hawai’i 96760
phone: 808-966-7622
email: JA@interpac.net
Visit us on the web at: www.malu-ania.org
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2008/Apr/26/ln/hawaii804260329.html
Posted on: Saturday, April 26, 2008
Air Force won’t fly low over Big Isle
Advertiser Staff
The Air Force has dropped a plan to establish a low-altitude flight path over the Big Island as a training route for C-17 cargo transport planes, U.S. Rep. Mazie K. Hirono said yesterday.
The decision came after Big Island residents raised concerns about noise, pollution and safety, as well as possible effects on area livestock, Hirono said in a news release.
The Air Force said it wanted to fly as low as 300 feet over unpopulated areas of the Big Island, and at 2,000 feet over populated areas.
“I am pleased and impressed that the Air Force took the concerns of the community to heart, and acted so expeditiously to address this situation,” Hirono, D-Hawai’i, said. “They should be commended for their work on this matter.”
Hirono said the proposed training route would have taken C-17 jets over the communities of Honoka’a and Waimea, as well as other populated areas.
Hirono said the decision came after Monday’s meeting of the Hawai’i County Council, where dozens of Big Island residents offered public testimony.
After evaluating the community input, Air Force commanders determined they will be able to satisfy their low-altitude training needs without using the proposed training route over the Big Island, Hirono said.
Hickam Air Force Base spokes-man Phil Breeze said the routing had not been finalized. Low-altitude terrain flying will continue during flights to Alaska, he said.
Col. Andy Hockman, the 15th Operations Group commander at Hickam Air Force Base, recently said, “Flying low and using mountains and ridgelines to keep us away from the threat is one of the tactics that we use in this (the C-17) aircraft, and we practice it everywhere except in Hawai’i.”
The flying corridor would have been four to seven miles wide and about 70 miles long, the Air Force said.
By year’s end, eight of the C-17 Globemaster transports will be based at Hickam. The $200 million jet is the U.S. military’s newest large-capacity transport, with the ability to carry 102 soldiers or three Stryker combat vehicles.
http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/p…./LOCALNEWSFRONT
Air Force needs new Kona practice strip but lacks money to build it
The Air Force is falling short of the C-17 cargo plane training it needs in Hawai’i for combat landings and takeoff practice and low-altitude terrain flying, an official said.
Already, an approximately 4,200-foot “assault landing zone” planned at Kona International Airport is at least two years late as a result of a budget crunch.
Air Force officials hope the 2009 Pentagon budget will include money for the $28 million practice strip.
The Air Force said it wants to incorporate low-level flying down to 300 feet over unpopulated areas of the Big Island, and at 2,000 feet over populated areas.
“Flying low and using mountains and ridge lines to keep us away from the threat is one of the tactics that we use in this (the C-17) aircraft, and we practice it everywhere except in Hawai’i,” said Col. Andy Hockman, the 15th Operations Group commander at Hickam Air Force Base.
The last of eight C-17 Globemaster IIIs assigned to Hickam arrived in July 2006. The active-duty Air Force and Hawai’i Air National Guard jointly operate and maintain the four-engine cargo jets.
The proposed training route over the Big Island avoids Captain Cook, Ocean View and Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park, the Air Force said.
But early information on the plan, which is expected to be detailed in a draft environmental assessment, caused concern that there would be flights over populated areas.
Efforts are being made to reach out to community officials, but the Air Force said it’s too soon to talk publicly about specifics.
“Right now, there are a lot of folks very afraid of what we’re going to do,” Hockman said. “I think we’re going to provide some information that hopefully will get rid of some of that.”
The C-17 “military training route” corridor would reduce the area where the aircraft operate from 14,400 square miles to less than 500 square miles, the Air Force said.
The flying corridor would be 4 to seven miles wide and approximately 70 miles long “while avoiding populated and noise-sensitive areas,” the Air Force said.
Among the areas where low-altitude navigation would take place is Pohakuloa Training Area. The open air space is based on visual flight rules, and the C-17 pilots need to be able to fly under instrument flight rules as well, officials said.
As for combat landings and takeoffs, Hockman said C-17 pilots mainly practice the short-distance maneuvers at the Marine Corps base at Kane’ohe Bay.
A stripe has been painted at 3,500 feet so pilots can practice in the shortened space they need for combat landings.
Hockman said as a result, pilots don’t need to be as precise as they would be in a real-world situation.
“As naval aviators practice to land on an aircraft carrier, they learn to fly airplanes on a normal runway, then they fly into a painted zone on a runway, and then they graduate to an aircraft carrier where they’ve actually got to do it right,” he said. “If we don’t take it to the next level, then we are not practicing.”
In a hostile environment, there may not be the opportunity to “go around, try it again,” Hockman said. “In the combat zone, you’ve got to do it right the first time.”
Every six months, seasoned pilots are required to do four daytime combat landing and takeoff operations, while co-pilots and individuals who fly less have to do eight per month.
The maneuvers can’t be done at Honolulu International Airport because it is too busy, and the 5,000-foot runway on Lana’i can’t handle hard-impact landings.
The $28 million assault landing zone on the Big Island would be built makai of the existing runway and could be used by the state as a taxiway when not in use for C-17 training, the Air Force said.
Posted on: Monday, October 15, 2007
By Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser Staff Writer
The state must realign a part of its Saddle Road highway improvement project after the Army acquired 24,000 acres of land near Pohakuloa Training Area that sits on part of the newly aligned highway.
The $220 million Big Island highway improvement project, under way since 2004, is an ambitious effort to straighten, repave and separate military training from motorists.
But with the Army’s acquisition from Parker Ranch last year of a section called Ke’amuku, the state Department of Transportation must find a new route for the road that will bypass military operations.
The planned alignment crosses the 24,000 acres, said DOT Highways Deputy Director Brennon Morioka in an Oct. 4 letter. The state wants to minimize contact between military training vehicles and civilian traffic in the Army’s Pohakuloa Training Area.
“Consequently, the state DOT will be attempting to establish an alternative alignment which will be infrequently disrupted by military activities and provide an efficient travel route for the general public,” Morioka wrote.
Planning studies have been initiated and a supplemental Environmental Impact Statement will be prepared, he said, adding that agency and public informational meetings will be held.
The Ke’amuku land is north of and now a part of the Army’s Pohakuloa Training Area that is used by several military branches, said Stefanie Gardin, Army spokeswoman.
“We purchased it as a nonlive-fire maneuver training area,” Gardin said.
Built by the Army in 1942, the two-lane Saddle Road extends 48 miles from the rainy Upper Kaumana area east of Hilo to a junction with Mamalahoa Highway six miles south of Waimea.
It connects the Mauna Kea Science Reserve International Astronomical Observatory Complex and the Army’s Pohakuloa Training Area to the rest of the island.
Before the beginning of repair work, much of the highway was a patchwork of repaired potholes, winding over and around blind hills and curves as it runs along miles of old lava flows, pasture land and thick rainforest.
Rental car companies had prohibited their customers from driving on the Saddle Road, but local commuters routinely barreled down the center line to avoid the bumps.
The state has completed a section of the road, mileposts 28 to 35, that is now open to the public, said Scott Ishikawa,DOT spokesman.
“There’s another section, (mileposts) 19 to 28, that’s being worked on,” Ishikawa said. “Goodfellow Brothers is looking to complete the work, probably in late summer 2008. There are other phases that they are trying to gradually connect as funding becomes available.”
Source: HonoluluAdvertiser.com
September 26, 2007
ROD THOMPSON / RTHOMPSON@STARBULLETIN.COM
Former Office of Hawaiian Affairs Trustee Moanikeala Akaka forcefully expressed an opinion to Army public affairs officer Howard Sugai, back to camera, before last night’s hearing on stationing a Stryker brigade in Hawaii.
By Rod Thompson
rthompson@starbulletin.com
HILO » About 60 Big Island residents attended a public hearing last night on whether to base a brigade of Stryker combat vehicles in Hawaii.
Most didn’t want the brigade in the state, and some added that the Army’s nearly 109,000-acre Pohakuloa Training Area on the Big Island should be closed.
“We told the military four years ago, no Stryker,” peace activist Jim Albertini said.
He was referring to the fact that the Army already did an environmental impact statement on the effects of basing Strykers in Hawaii, but a court decision required a supplemental impact statement to consider basing the brigade elsewhere.
The two alternative sites for the unit, which would have 320 of the multipurpose armored personnel carriers, are Fort Carson, Colo., or Fort Richardson, Alaska. Another option is not deploying the brigade anywhere.
Army public affairs officer Bob DiMichele said almost all of the public comment before the meeting has come from Hawaii. Alaska and Colorado residents have mostly been silent.
If based in Hawaii, the brigade would be stationed at Schofield Barracks.
Hank Fergerstrom, identifying himself as representing the Temple of Lono, told about 15 uniformed and civilian Army representatives that the Hawaiian culture discouraged people from going into the uplands — where Pohakuloa is located — because that was a spiritual realm.
“When I was a child, you didn’t want to go up into the kuahiwi (mountains). It has to do with respect,” he said.
The hearing was structured so that the public was required to comment on the draft environmental document chapter by chapter, coming back several times to make several comments.
That brought criticism from Albertini.
“Today we are being treated like children: Open your books to Chapter One,” he said.
John Ota was among several complaining that “depleted uranium,” a nonexplosive form of the metal, had been used at Pohakuloa. He correctly noted that “a number of years” have passed since the usage, more precisely about 30, but concluded, “The government proved to be untrustworthy.”
The meeting was generally peaceful but a tense moment took place when moderator Annelle Amaral tried to tell speaker Lindafaye Kroll that she had only one minute left to speak. Kroll momentarily refused to shorten her testimony and the audience united behind her, some calling out, “Censorship!”
Despite the anti-Stryker audience, Lt. Col. John Williams said public comments are useful, showing the Army, for instance, that it has to build “wash racks” to clean Strykers of invasive species before shipping the vehicles interisland.
Stryker hearings
Four more Stryker meetings are planned. All are 5:30 to 9:45 p.m.
» Tonight: Waimea (Big Island) Community Center
» Monday: Nanakuli High cafeteria
» Tuesday: Wahiawa District Park
» Oct. 3: Kawananakoa Intermediate cafeteria
Source: http://archives.starbulletin.com/2007/09/26/news/story05.html
Public hearings set for September 25 & 26
Wednesday, September 19, 2007 8:44 AM HST
As long as Senator Daniel Inouye has been representing Hawai`i in congress, the islands have received more than their fair share of military pork. With the recent discovery of depleted uranium on Hawai`i Island and O`ahu and a growing awareness about the contamination that results from military operations, public opposition to a greater presence of armed forces is growing.
The United States Army will be holding public hearings on their proposed permanent home stationing of the Stryker Brigade Combat Team in Hawai`i. With a recent environmental impact statement finding that the brigade would cause less damage if based in Alaska or Colorado, and with the controversy surrounding the Stryker’s capability to fire depleted uranium (DU) munitions and possible contamination upon return from the Iraq Occupation, the conclusion could very well be “thanks, but no tanks.”
In 2004, the Army’s top brass decreed that the 2nd Brigade of the 25th Infantry would be transformed into a Stryker unit, and that Hawai`i would be the brigade’s home base.
On the Army’s Stryker Brigade Combat Team website, the Stryker is described as a new force for “strategic dominance across the full spectrum of operations — agile . . . versatile . . . lethal,” one which can be “rapidly deployed anywhere in the world in a few days time.” It includes approximately 4,000 soldiers and 1,000 vehicles, including 320 of the eight-wheeled, light-armor tanks.
Disregarding U.S. law, the Army failed to consider other base locations for the Stryker, as required by the National Environmental Policy Act. Three kanaka maoli groups — Kipuka, Na `Imi Pono and `Ilio`ulaokalani Coalition — filed a lawsuit against the Army, which was ruled upon by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals last October. The court ordered the Army to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) “to address a full range of alternatives” to permanently stationing the Stryker Brigade in Hawai`i.
The Army’s recently released draft EIS examines “a fuller range of reasonable alternatives” for permanently stationing the 2/25th Stryker Brigade Combat Team. Initially, the Army included alternate locations in Alaska, Washington, Colorado and Kentucky. The draft EIS was then limited to locations that have an infantry brigade that could be moved to Hawai`i to replace the Stryker — either Fort Carson, Colorado, or Fort Richardson, Alaska.
The locations in Alaska and Colorado are both military garrisons with large tracts of land that are far removed from civilian populations. Lt. Col. Jonathan Allen, public affairs officer for U.S. Army Garrison-Alaska, said “there’s a lot of maneuver room available here in Alaska. There’s 1.6 million acres between Fort Wainright, Fort Greely and Fort Richardson. We’re looking at having a lot of forces stationed here in Alaska . . . The community in the area is supportive of the military.”
Pat Everett of the Beauty Shop Post Exchange at Fort Carson, responded to the opportunity of the Stryker Brigade relocating to Colorado by saying “Oooh! You mean some more of the boys gonna come down?” Everett was clearly excited at the prospect of giving more buzzcuts.
Checking news reports in the Fort Carson newspaper for controversy over the possibility of basing Styrker units there seemed unecessary as it is a military publication.
Explaining Senator Dan Inouye’s position on the Stryker Brigade, Communication Director Mike Yuen said the senator is “very hopeful that when the Army concludes this process, it will reaffirm the need for the Stryker’s presence in Hawai`i.” Yuen said Inouye “believes Hawai`i is a prime location for basing the Stryker, given it’s strategic location in the Pacific, and given the political situation in S.E. Asia. With regards to what appears to be a condition for the proposal — that only locations with swapable infantry units would be considered — Yuen said “with 100 percent certainty that the senator was not involved with the Army’s decision making process.”
David Henkin of Earthjustice, the law firm representing the Native Hawaiian groups, said “my concern is that this draft EIS assumes that if the Stryker were to go somewhere else, Hawai`i will necessarily have another brigade come replace it. They limited the scope only to places that have a brigade to swap out.
“In their presumption that another infantry brigade would come to Hawaii,” Henkin added, “the Army hasn’t analyzed the impacts of bringing that brigade in. The one from Alaska is airborne, will need airborne facilities, and different cultural sites will be impacted. The Army needs to put all the facts on the table.”
The draft EIS maintains that the controversial discovery of DU munitions fragments at Pohakuloa Training Area, and the radioactive DU particles found at Schofield Barracks, dates back to weapon tests done in the past, and is not related to the Strykers. The document cites their official policy, Army Regulation 385-63, which “prohibits the use of DU ammunition for training worldwide.”
A bi-product of the nuclear energy industry, DU is a radioactive, heavy metal used by the military for its superior, armor piercing force.
BIW sent the following inquiry to Dave Foster of Army Public Affairs: “The Army assures that no DU ammunition will be used when the Styker Brigade Combat Team trains at the Pohakuloa Anti-Armor Live-Fire Training Range on the Saddle Road. What measures does the Army have in place to assure that the Strykers returning from Iraq, which use DU munitions in combat, will be decontaminated for aerosolized, microscopic DU dust?” As of press time, Foster had not responded.
“The Army says they ‘don’t train with ’em in Hawai`i.’ But there’s no question that they fire DU in Iraq,” said Henkin. “Do they clean the vehicles adequately? Under the National Environmental Protection Act, if there’s a scientific dispute, they have to disclose and discuss.”
According to the draft EIS, it was only after “a prescribed burn of the survey area” at Schofield that the Army found DU munitions fragments and 45 separate locations with “Gamma levels higher then background.”
“One of the biggest fears is from the DU oxides created when the material is fired, exploded or burnt,” said Dr. Lorrin Pang, a former military physician. “When inhaled into the lung, the particles are insoluble, and have a half-life of many decades. They are eventually picked up by the lymphatic system, like miner’s lung, and get into the urine.”
Neither the Army nor the Hawai`i Department of Health is testing soldiers who might be contaminated. The DU issue will continue to emit high levels of controversy, distrust and anger until the Army takes the community’s concerns seriously. If individual veterans want to be tested, Pang said Dr. Chris Busby of the European Committee on Radiation Risk has a clinical lab in the United Kingdom that will analyze urine samples for free, because as Pang puts it, “he believes in the cause.”
Explaining Senator Inouye position on Iraq, Yuen said “the senator thinks that the war is a mistake, and that it has devolved into a civil war. Hopefully, some new way will evolve to bring the troops home. Be that as it may, the Stryker should not be a referendum on the Iraq War. Once troops are committed, they should be provided with the equipment they need.”
While the Stryker Brigade draft EIS makes no other mention of DU other then that it was found in Hawai`i and the Army doesn’t use it for training, the EIS does detail a range of other adverse environmental impacts the Stryker will cause. The document lists a summary of impacts on the “valued environmental components” — the land, water and air of Hawai`i, Alaska and Colorado. Adding up the symbols that indicate “significant impact,” the harm to Hawai`i outnumbers the other two.
“Where they put an X, they should have put a double X,” commented Kai McGuire of Mau Pono, a Hilo-based indigenous/environmental action group. “This EIS doesn’t account for the sacredness of the area.”
William `Aila of Na `Imi Pono said “we found records that actually say the Army disposed of Napalm, disposed of ethyl bromide . . . the method of disposal — get this – they dug trenches and dumped ’em in and set it off with munitions.”
`Aila observed “Native Hawaiians have a disproportionate share of asthma and disproportionate rates of leukemia – that’s supposed to be a rare disease — just by looking around at the people in the neighborhood. Around Wai`anae, downwind of Schofield, there’s firing, jet takeoffs. The tradewinds blow right through Kolekole Pass.”
“Our kuleana in Hawai`i is to protect Hawai`i,” said Henkin. “Groups in Alaska and Colorado need to do the same.”
In only two out of the 19 categories, the draft EIS said Stryker’s impact on Hawai`i will be “less then significant” on vegetation, and on transportation. Asking a Pohakuloa Training Area botanist about the findings, she replied “‘less then significant?’ What does that mean?”
`Aila concluded, “to everybody on the Big Island, you need to think about this. Analyze it. Ask the hard questions. Make the decision for your kids and grandkids.”
Army Officials will be on Hawai`i Island next week to hear testimony on the Stryker DEIS. The public hearings will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 25 at Aunty Sally’s Lu`au Hale in Hilo, 799 Pi`ilani Street, from 5:30-9:45pm, and on Wednesday, Sept. 26 at the Waimea Community Center, 65-1260 Kawaihae Rd, from 5:30- 9:45pm.
The complete DEIS is available at the Kona, Waimea and Hilo libraries, and online at http://aec.army.mil/usaec/
To request more information or send written testimony, contact Public Affairs Office, U.S. Army
Environmental Command, Building E4460, 5179 Hoadley Road, Attention: IMAE-PA, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD 21010-5401, telephone: (410) 436-2556, fax: (410) 436-1693, e-mail:
PublicComments@aec.apgea.army.mil
Source: http://www.bigislandweekly.com/articles/2007/09/19/read/news/news03.txt