Mon, 8 Jan 2001 15:30:57 EST

A Call to Support Makua

Aloha Kakou

There will be an important community hearing on the Army's Environmental Assessment, January 17, 2001 at the Wai'anae Army Recreation Center at Poka'i Bay at 6:00 pm. Wai'anae residents working for peace for Makua reject the Environmental Assessment as biased, incomplete and inaccurate. Serious community concerns were never addressed and key information was omitted. The community demands that the Army do a full Environmental Impact Statement.
Please come out to support them and let your voice be heard on January 17, the anniversary of the overthrow. The community will be a gathering at 5 pm in remembrance and to unite energies for the hearing.

Written comments are also important. The Army has begun to mobilize veterans groups to support the training. See below for information on how to submit comments and some talking points.

STOP THE BOMBING! FREE MAKUA!

Kyle Kajihiro/AFSC Hawai'i

This is from a flyer by Hui Malama o Makua:

Why Should We Care About the Army in Makua?


Did you know that Makua was used for:
  • The disposal of 10.5 million pounds of waste - 50% of which is considered hazardous.
  • Waste materials disposed in Makua included:
    • High explosives: TNT, DNT, white phosphorous
    • Toxic chemicals: cyanide, radioactive cesium
    • Heavy metals: lead, mercury, chromium
    • Disposal of an unknown number of tons of ordnance from Vietnam
    • Three hundred fifty 900-lb napalm bombs
    • Picric acid and other toxic materials
Contamination of Makua CAN affect our drinking water.
  • Makua sits over the Kea'au aquifer, which may be connected to the Makaha aquifer. Over 4,000 residents of Makaha get their drinking water from the Makaha aquifer.
  • Dangerous levels of lead and nickel have already been found in the groundwater at one site in Makua. But complete testing hasn't been done.
The Army must conduct a complete Environmental Impact Statement to ensure a clean environment for future generations.
Under Federal regulations, Makua is considered a Solid Waste Management Unit (SWMU). However, the Army has not made a complete disclosure of what has been dumped there since 1941.
The University of Hawai'i has recommended that Makua be designated a high priority for further investigation to determine the actual level of contamination.
The military has not yet adequately looked at alternatives to training in Makua.

What can you do?

  • Call or write requesting a full Environmental Impact Statement be done for Makua:
    Peter Yuh
    Directorate of Public Works
    US Garrison Hawai'i
    Schofield Barracks HI 96057-5013
    Tel: (808) 656-2878 ext. 1051
    Email: yuhp@schofield.army.mil
  • Attend the public meeting January 17 at Wai'anae Rest Camp. Gather at 5:00 pm on Guard Street. The meeting starts at 6:00 pm.
  • Get involved! For more information, contact Hui Malama o Makua and Dr. Fred Dodge (808) 696-4677 or the American Friends Service Committee (808) 988-6266.
* information on this flyer is from: Preliminary Assessment/ Site Inspection Review, University of Hawai'i, Environmental Center, May 18, 1992.
Some talking points for making comments:
No documentation of reduction in readiness for the 25th infantry or local Army reserve, national guard or Marine corp units.
Other alternatives not explored. Cost analysis of alternatives not adequate.
Use of Halliburton study to state that environmental impacts at Makua are limited contradicts the summary and conclusion to the Halliburton report.
Soil permeability data in the Env. Assessment is contradicted by data from other reports.
Inadequate study of surface water transport of hazardous materials.
Impact of transporting munitions through Wai'anae not adequately considered.
Biological stabilization plan is experimental in nature. There is no certainty that this can mitigate the impacts of training.
The biological studies done fail to investigate impacts on endangered species: alae ula, koloa, ae'o, and auku'u. How does training impact the new O'ahu Elepaio critical habitat designation?
Army has already violated the law when it began to modify the training course without consulting Hawaiian groups. Construction began before an archaeological survey was completed. As a result several sites were destroyed or damaged, including a site with over a dozen imu (ground ovens) signifying a large settlement.
The law requires that cummulative impacts be analyzed by the Army. The Env. Assessment fails to consider past impacts on the land, people and culture. What was the impact on the families who were evicted from the valley in the 1940s? What is the impact on cultural practitioners who cannot access the maile lauli'i, lama, shrines and burials and other cultural resources in Makua? Is bombing and live fire training compatible with sacred places? What happens to the cultural knowledge when the last generation to have lived and exercised cultural practices in Makua dies off? What is the impact on youth who lose touch with the cultural practices tied to Makua?
The EA fails to consider the impact on living cultural practices. A new state law requires that Environmental Impact Statements look at impacts on the cultural practices in addition to the cultural sites and resources. The EA omits key oral history data that establishes the importance of Makua to cultural practitioners. The Army cannot conclude that there is no significant impact when its own cultural survey is not yet complete.
The EA fails to disclose the amount, types and locations of unexploded ordnance (UXO) and fails to investigate the environmental, economic, cultural, and social impacts of UXO contamination.
Save Makua: Call for Support (Revised)
Mon, 22 Jan 2001 00:26:30 EST

Aloha kakou
Below is a call from Malama Makua for support. The community has rejected the Army's Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact (FNSI) because the study is flawed, incomplete and inadequate. If the FNSI stands, the Army may resume training as soon as March 9. Please come out to oppose the FNSI and demand a full Environmental Impact Statement for Makua.
Army Public Hearing on Makua Live Fire Training Saturday, 1/27/01, 3:00 pm - finished Wai'anae District Park Multipurpose Room (behind the Wai'anae Library)
Makua supporters meet at 2:30 pm. Please come and sign up to testify: You may submit testimony to the Army until January 30.
Peter Yuh
Directorate of Public Works
US Garrison Hawai'i
Schofield Barracks HI 96057-5013
Tel: (808) 656-2878 ext. 1051
Email: yuhp@schofield.army.mil

Also:
Signwaving for Makua
Farrington Highway,
Tuesday 1/23 to Friday1/26, 3:00 pm til sunset
at the entrance to Nanakuli Park
Mahalo nui loa! SAVE MAKUA! STOP THE BOMBING!

Kyle Kajihiro / AFSC Hawai'i

Save Makua...call for support

Sparky Rodrigues

Sunday, January 21, 2001 10:25 AM
Hi, Next Saturday, 3:00 PM to Pau, at Wai'anae District Park Multi-purpose room, the Army will have their last public comment Meeting on the EA for live fire training at Makua. They have the room from 2 PM to 2 am. They're expecting 500 people. we believe they will be stacking the testimony with pro live fire training supporters.
We need Cultural, Economic, Environmental, Health, Social, etc. Impacts to be discussed... and anyone willing to talk on the IMPACTS of this kind of training on the people, culture, air, water, soil, health, habitat, water, chemical synergy, endangered species ... long and short term impacts... you know da kin...
We will be making signs and banners on Monday 12:00 noon at Hoa 'Aina...
Sign waving at the entrance of Nanakuli Park from Tuesday to Friday from 3:00 to sunset. On Saturday we will be sign waving on the road side at the entrance to the Wai'anae district park. Our base theme is SAVE MAKUA.

Mahalo for your Kokua, sparky

Opinion Piece on Mäkua / Letters to the Editor of The Honolulu Star Bulletin

Date: January 21, 2001
To: Letters to the Editor / The Honolulu Star Bulletin
From: Kyle Kajihiro, Program Director, American Friends Service Committee
Re.: Opinion Piece on Mäkua


We Have a Right to Know:
The Army Must Do an Environmental Impact Statement for Mäkua Training In response to your January 19 article covering the Army’s position on Mäkua, I wish to comment on a few reasons why the Army must do an Environmental Impact Statement for Mäkua.
While the community has made progress towards gaining access to UkanipE Heiau, this does not satisfy the need for a cultural impact analysis, one that considers impacts on cultural practices as well as cultural resources. UkanipEHeiau is only one of hundreds of traditional cultural sites in Mäkua, including other heiau, shrines, agricultural terraces and habitation sites. For nearly 60 years, Native Hawaiian practitioners have been denied access to their religious and cultural sites, as well as resources of the land. Although State law requires cultural impact analyses for major projects, the Army disregarded impacts on cultural practices. Furthermore, key oral history accounts that testify to the valley’s cultural significance were excluded from the Environmental Assessment (EA) despite repeated requests that they be included. If the Army is currently conducting its own cultural survey of the valley, as it claims, how then, can it arrive at a Finding of No Significant Impact (FNSI) before the completion of its investigations?
In violation of the National Historic Preservation Act, the Army failed to conduct the required consultations with state officials and cultural resource persons prior to construction of its training course. As a result, a number of important archaeological sites were severely damaged. These sites contained a high concentration of imu (earthen ovens), indicating that this was once a thriving community. The configuration of these sites also indicates that early inhabitants of Mäkua relied on once flowing streams that could support considerable agricultural production. This discovery may overturn assumptions that Mäkua was always dry and sparsely populated. All six recently studied sites were deemed eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places, a fact omitted from the EA. In order to prevent future harm to our cultural heritage, a comprehensive cultural impact study must be done.
Under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Army must address the cumulative impacts of its actions. The U.S. Council on Environmental Quality wrote in its 1997 publication Considering Cumulative Effects Under the Environmental Policy Act that cumulative impact analysis must consider the present and future impacts added to past impacts and that EAs typically fail to adequately address cumulative impacts.
However, the Army has refused to investigate past impacts on Mäkua in order to establish reliable environmental baseline data. The Army’s admission that "the environmental assessment is not meant to document the impact of past usage" underscores the need for a comprehensive Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for Mäkua that adequately analyzes the impacts of the past 60 years of use.
The Department of Defense’s own National Policy Dialogue on Military Munitions Final Report, September 2000, stated that: "A fundamental premise of managing this important resource is having access to the necessary information about the baseline status of the range, the activities that have occurred and will occur on the range, and the residual effects of those activities." This same report called for an inventory of training ranges to include an analysis of "range parameters (e.g., boundaries, firing lines, targets/impact zones); munitions used (e.g., types, quantities, locations E on and off range, and estimated dud rates); and any range clearance actions conducted (including when, where, detection technologies used, what was found and its condition, e.g., its stability and where live or fused)."
The Army proposes to continue using explosives but has not conducted any investigation of the Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) hazard in Mäkua. Nor has it conducted a thorough study of soil and water contamination. The Army claims that it does not know the quantity and kinds of hazardous materials disposed of in the Mäkua Open Burn / Open Detonation (OB/OD) site. Community members recently learned from a University of Hawaiÿi study that approximately 10.5 million pounds of waste, half of which are considered hazardous, were disposed of at the OB/OD site. There has never been a study of possible health impacts on the community.
Finally, the Army’s EA must be rejected as a scientific document because it was written to support a predetermined outcome. A representative of the Onyx Group, which authored the EA, admitted that his job was to help the Army return to training. Furthermore, the Army’s Mäkua public relations campaign plan lists as its top objective "a successful return to training." The enormous political pressure to resume training could not help but prejudice the outcome of the EA.
The Army’s Environmental Assessment is flawed, incomplete and inadequate. Before any decision about future activities in Mäkua can be made, the Army must do a rigorous and impartial Environmental Impact Statement. The residents of Waiÿanae and the people of Hawaiÿi deserve to know.