Nanakuli industrial park dead

As we reported previously, the Wai’anae community won a major victory by stopping the proposed industrial park encroachment into agricultural land in Lualualei.  The struggle is not over however.  The landowner may try again to rezone the property, and a parallel struggle is taking place over the Wai’anae Sustainable Community Plan, which was modified in its latest draft to include the spot zoning of industrial land at the Tropic Land site and a proposed highway through Lualualei via Pohakea Pass.  The Pohakea pass was slipped into the plan after it had been debated extensively by the community.  It reveals the long term goals of the politicians and developers to bank on a future industrial corridor through Lualualei.

There is already an access road through Lualualei via Kolekole Pass.  If the Navy and Army opened up access, it could serve to alleviate the traffic congestion around the Kahe Point area.

Meanwhile, it is a good time to begin knocking on the Navy’s door to close down Lualualei Naval Communications Center and Naval Magazine to convert it into sustainable civilian uses.

Lualualei has some of the richest agricultural soil in Hawai’i.  The amazing results of MA’O farms is a testament to the productivity of this ‘aina and the potential for food sovereignty.

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http://thehawaiiindependent.com/story/land-use-commission-denies-industrial-park-petition

Land Use Commission denies industrial park petition

Apr 25, 2011 – 09:25 AM | by Samson Kaala Reiny

The State Land Use Commission has denied Tropic Land LLC’s petition to allow a light industrial park’s construction on Lualualei valley farmland.

Of the eight Commissioners present (absent was Maui Rep. Lisa Judge), three –- Normand Lezy, Charles Jencks, and Ronald Heller –- denied the motion for approval made by Duane Kanuha. Land boundary amendments require a supermajority of six votes for approval.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE

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Nanakuli industrial park dead

A refusal to alter the site’s zoning scuttles a project planned for Lualualei Valley

Plans to establish an industrial park in Nana­kuli were derailed Thursday when the proj­ect’s developer failed to win enough state Land Use Commission votes to change the zoning.

The land, once used to grow sugar cane, is now zoned for preservation.

The 96-acre proj­ect in Lua­lua­lei Valley had drawn some opposition for furthering conversion of farmland in the area but also had won praise for its promise to create jobs and business opportunities in an economically disadvantaged region.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE

A Win for Environmental Justice! People of Wai'anae Save Farmland

The people of Wai’anae won a big victory for environmental justice. KAHEA reports, “Tropic Land’s petition for a boundary amendment to allow an industrial park on fertile farmland was DENIED today, April 21, 2011.”  The post continues:

The Petitioner recognized that Commissioners had concerns about the proposed industrial park, especially whether they had access to use the Navy-owned road to leads to the property site.  So in a last minute hail-mary, the Petitioner told the Commission that the Navy was now considering dedicating the land to the City.  Interestingly, the City’s attorney did not know about the proposed dedication.

The Elders reminded the Commission that for six years the Navy and the City negotiated over dedicating the Lualualei Naval Access Road, which did not result in any change in the ownership or use of the road.  The question of proper access to the property is something Tropic Land should have figured out long before proposing a permanent change in the land use designation of their property.

This is a campaign that began back in 2009 when the Wai’anae Environmental Justice Working Group was formed.    Ka Makani Kaiaulu o Wai’anae youth participated in documenting and raising awareness about the issues related to the encroachment of industrial and military activity into farm land, protection of cultural sites, including the important sites pertaining to Maui the demigod, and health effects of environmental contamination.

Congratulations and thanks go out to the Concerned Elders of Wai’anae, the Wai’anae Environmental Justice Working Group, KAHEA, MA’O Farms and the many groups and individuals who worked on this campaign. For now the agricultural land in Lualualei will be spared an industrial onslaught.   However, the threat is still looming, and struggle continues on another front.  The City and County of Honolulu Planning Commission is in the process of reviewing and receiving public comments on the Wai’anae Sustainable Communities Plan (WSCP). The community has long fought to preserve the natural, cultural and human waiwai (wealth) of Wai’anae, but this latest version of the plan includes an invasive ‘spot’ of industrial use where the Tropic Land LLC industrial park is proposed in the middle of agricultural land.    Yesterday, I testified in the second of two long days of hearings on the WSCP.  The Planning Commission will make a decision on the plan in May.

Wai'anae Environmental Justice summer youth program accepting applications for 2010

Applications are now closed.  Download application forms here.

Ka Makani Kaiaulu o Wai‘anae

A Summer Youth Environmental Justice Training Institute

kamakani

Aloha Kakou

We are Ka Makani Kaiaulu o Wai’anae. We are learning how to promote environmental justice in Wai’anae.

We know there is a problem – environmental racism.

We swim and play in these waters. We eat food from the land and sea here. We all have family members who are sick with asthma or cancer.

We want environmental justice.

1. Stop or reduce all harmful impacts, not just the streams, but the sources of contamination: landfills, military and industry.

2. We want the clean up of all the contaminated sites.

3. We demand a healthy environment for our community.

A healthy environment is a human right!

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Ka Makani Kaiaulu o Wai’anae is a summer youth environmental justice organizing training institute for youth from the Wai’anae coast to learn cenvironmental justice and ommunity organizing skills.

The program is geared to youth (age 15 – 19) from Wai’anae who care about the health and well being of their families, communities and the ‘aina.  Applicants must be committed to learning community empowerment skills and using those new skills to help their community and the environment become healthier.

We will learn about issues affecting the Wai’anae community, social justice movements in Hawai’i and around the world, the basics of making  positive social change, and digital story telling as a medium for shaping the vision and plan for the future of our community.

The Ka Makani Kaiaulu o Wai’anae Institute runs four weeks – June 21 through July 16, 2010, weekdays from 9am to 2pm.

Most activities will take place at the Leeward Community College Wai’anae office (86-088 Farrington Hwy, Suite 201, Wai‘anae, HI 96792, Phone: 696-6378). The class will take field trips to help students better understand the issues affecting Hawai’i and the depth and scope of doing this work.

Why should you join other students this summer in this life changing experience? Wai’anae is under attack. It is an assault against the community and against the ‘aina, with military bombs and toxic chemicals, contaminated landfills, water pollution, chemical weapons, destruction of cultural sites, rising costs of living and growing numbers of houseless families. The Ka Makani Kaiaulu o Wai’anae Institute will give the selected candidates a way to learn skills for making grassroots community change and a forum to present their ideas on how to improve conditions for peace and justice and environmental sustainability.

Program eligibility

  • Must be between the ages of 15-19.
  • Must be self-motivated and able to work well in a team towards a common goal.
  • Must have the desire to protect the environment and the health and well being of the Wai’anae community.

Participants who successfully complete the program will receive a $200 stipend.

Program Sponsor

AFSC is a non-profit international human rights organization focusing on peace and social justice. We have worked in Hawai’i since 1941 and have been active in the Wai’anae community since the 1970s. We promote human rights and justice for Native Hawaiians, non-military career alternatives for youth and the restoration and clean up of lands that have been damaged by the military, such as Kaho’olawe and Makua.

American Friends Service Committee – Hawai’i Area Program
Attn: Kyle Kajihiro
Ka Makani Kaiaulu o Wai’anae
2426 O’ahu Avenue
Honolulu, HI 96822

Fax: 808-988-4876

Email: kkajihiro@afsc.org

Mahalo to the Ka Papa o Kakuhihewa Fund of the Hawaii Community Foundation, the Hawaii Peoples Fund and the Kim Coco Iwamoto Fund for Social Justice for their generous support of AFSC’s youth programs.

Army studying effects of dumping of chemical and conventional munitions at sea

Army is studying effects of dumping live ammo in sea

By Gregg K. Kakesako

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Aug 04, 2009

For the past two years, the Army has reviewed more than 2 million documents under a congressional mandate to pinpoint and determine the effects of dumping of chemical and conventional weapons into the ocean — which was banned in 1972.

To date, the Pentagon has spent $7 million to determine the location of these munition dumpsites in Hawaii, analyze the effects on the environment and determine ways to remove the unexploded ordnance.

Tad Davis, the Army’s deputy assistant secretary for the environment, safety and occupational health, is in town this week to meet with Army officials, University of Hawaii scientists involved in several of the ocean monitoring and testing programs and members of the staffs of Hawaii’s congressional delegation.

He also will attend a special session of the Nanakuli and Waianae neighborhood boards tomorrow night to discuss the ongoing environmental issues at Makua Military Reservation, where the Army hopes to resume limited live-fire exercises at the end of this month.

Besides Hawaii, there were chemical weapons sea disposal sites in the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico and off Alaska.

Off Oahu there were three areas where chemical weapons were thrown overboard — two off Pearl Harbor. One is 10 miles south of Pearl Harbor where the ocean depth is 10,000 feet; another is five miles south of Pearl Harbor at a depth of 1,000 to 1,500 feet. The third is believed to be 10 miles west of Waianae where the depth is 10,000 feet.

About 2,000 conventional munitions — weapons that are not nuclear, chemical or biological — were dumped in the shallow waters off Waianae known as Ordnance Reef.

The Army Corps of Engineers hopes to begin clearing the reef and the ocean bottom of conventional munitions at Ordnance Reef, using robotic techniques beginning next summer. The Pentagon’s goal is to clear the water from the shoreline to 120 feet of unexploded munitions.

Davis said the Army will conduct another series of tests sampling the water, sediment, fish and limu living in the Ordnance Reef area later this month and in September. This is part of an ongoing study — the first done in May 2006, followed by another one last winter.

Davis said the Army, the university and other scientists are still studying the data and video obtained earlier this year by two UH deep-diving submersibles which scoured the ocean bottom at 1,500 feet, five miles south of Pearl Harbor.

The Army believes 16,000 M47-A2 bombs, containing 598 tons of mustard gas, were dumped there in 1944.

The Army says that between 1932 and 1944 chemical weapons such as blister agents lewisite and mustard gas and blood agents hydrogen cyanide and cyanogen chloride were disposed in the area.

There are no current plans to remove these canisters.

Davis said the deep-water survey “gave us a better understanding of disposal techniques.”

It was believed before the survey was started that the chemical weapons were thrown overboard at one site. However, Davis said “the (disposal) vessel was moving on a certain course and disposing of the munitions since they were found in a line on the ocean floor.”

Ocean dumping of munitions and other materials is illegal without a permit from the Environmental Protection Agency, according to the 1972 Ocean Dumping Act. The United States signed an international treaty in 1975 prohibiting ocean disposal of chemical weapons.

Source: http://www.starbulletin.com/news/20090804_Army_is_studying_effects_of_dumping_live_ammo_in_sea.html

EPA orders city to clear illegal fill from Mailiili Stream

Updated at 11:28 a.m., Thursday, July 30, 2009

EPA orders city to clear illegal fill from Mailiili Stream and restore stream bed

Advertiser Staff

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said today that it has ordered the city to remove illegal fill from Mailiili Stream in Maili and to restore the stream bed and banks.

The EPA said the city will be required to:

– Halt further placement of material into the stream.

– Submit a plan to remove the material and restore the stream within 60 days.

– Submit a final report to the EPA when the work is done.

In June, inspectors from the state Hawaii Department of Health inspected the stream after it received a complaint that the city had used equipment to place concrete and other material in the bed and bank of the stream.

Inspectors found the material and work reports that confirmed the city had placed it in the stream between February 2008 and May 2009.

On June 18, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued a notice of unauthorized activity notifying the city of alleged violations for placing concrete slabs and other fill in the steam.

The city had filled an area of about 1.08 acres in Mailiili Stream. Along the stream’s north and south banks, the fill was about eight yards wide for a distance of about 175 yards. Fill extended across the entire 33-yard channel width for the uppermost 70 yards of the stream.

The Clean Water Act prohibits the placement of dredged or fill materials into wetlands, rivers, streams and other waters of the United States without a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Source: http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20090730/BREAKING01/90730054/EPA+orders+city+to+clear+illegal+fill+from+Mailiili+Stream+and+restore+stream+bed

NOAA monitors munitions dumped off Wai'anae

NOAA to track munitions in sea

Monitors at weapons dumpsites will check environmental effects

By Gregg K. Kakesako

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Jul 22, 2009

Nine ocean current monitoring sensors will be placed off Pokai Bay at two World War II weapons dumpsites Friday as part of the Pentagon’s continuing assessment of the potential effects of sea-disposed munitions.

Tony Reyer, a scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said yesterday that four sensors will be located at the conventional weapons dumpsite a few miles off Waianae known as ordnance reef. Two will be placed in 300 feet of water, and another two at 50 feet.

Five others will be anchored with 3,000-pound weights in 8,000 feet of water at a deep-sea chemical weapons munition disposal site 10 miles west of Pokai Bay. A string of sensors will be linked at depths of 40, 492 and 1,476 feet.

Kekaula Hudson, project manager for the Army Corps of Engineers, said the Army hopes to begin recovering some of the conventional weapons dumped at ordnance reef as early as next summer using underwater robots.

“The plan is to use a barge system,” Hudson said, “and to treat the munitions on the barge and then take the scrap metal out of the state for disposal.”

All of the sensors will be battery operated and will be in place for a year.

The sensors will record speed and direction of ocean currents to determine where they would carry munitions materials if they were ever released.

“These sensors will collect data that has not been previously available and will give us a better understanding of the ocean conditions in the area,” said Jason Rolfe, co-leader of the $1.6 million NOAA project.

The current data also will be used in other projects, Reyer added, such as coastal zone management, pollution control, tourism and search and rescue operations.

Sensors will be deployed from the 68-foot NOAA research ship Hi’ialakai, commanded by Cmdr. John Caskey, and the UH research vessel Klaus Wyrtki.

Sixty years ago, the military dumped munitions off the coast of Waianae and now the NOAA is launching a study to learn more about the potential impacts from those sites.

Reyer, who was involved in NOAA’s 2006 sampling of sediment, water and fish at ordnance reef, said the dumpsites have not caused any health problems. No explosives or related compounds were detected in the fish samples taken during the two-week survey. Most munitions are covered with coral growth.

No similar tests were done at the deep-water dumpsite, Reyer said.

Hudson said a follow-up screening at ordnance reef will take place next month.

Tad Davis, the Army’s deputy assistant secretary for the environment, safety and occupational health, said the Army will spend $3 million to remove or destroy in place up to 1,500 conventional munitions using remote underwater drones and other robotic techniques perfected by oil companies.

The weapons range from .50-caliber or smaller ammunition to 50- to 100-pound bombs and 105 mm projectiles. Many of the munitions have been in the water so long that they have been become part of the reef.

The Army’s goal is to clear the water from the shoreline to 120 feet offshore.

Source: http://www.starbulletin.com/news/20090722_NOAA_to_track_munitions_in_sea.html

Army trying to coopt Native Hawaiians

Yesterday, the last day of AFSC’s summer youth environmental justice training program Ka Makani Kaiaulu o Wai’anae,  we took the ten youth out to Makua to learn about the struggle to rescue the valley and to give ho’okupu back to the ‘aina – ti leaf plants that they had nurtured at home during the course of the program.  As we drove down the coast, past the growing blue and gray tarp cities of landless Kanaka Maoli, we saw two Chinook helicopters flying north towards Makua.

As we got to Makua, we saw that the helicopters had unloaded their passengers. It looked like a press junket.   I yelled “Stop the bombing!” and “Army out!” to try to get the attention of the press pool, but the Army quickly whisked the group away in waiting SUVs.

Unbeknownst to us, the group flown in by the Army included Native Hawaiian leaders.  The whole show was really a big public relations stunt by the Army to make it look like Native Hawaiians were supporting the return to training.  Some Native Hawaiian leaders are actively helping the Army to win support from the Hawaiian commmunity for military training in Makua.  As William Aila told our group of youth that day, the fact that so much money and energy is being spent by the military and the political establishment to try to win support for military training in Makua indicates that they are concerned.    Sadly, some good people who are opponents of military destruction of Hawaiian lands, attended the PR stunt and were used by the Army to make it look like they too supported the Army’s efforts.

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HonoluluAdvertiser.com

July 18, 2009

Army reaches out to Native Hawaiians on Makua Valley

Training, cultural needs can be balanced, it says

By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer

MAKUA VALLEY – The Army presented a different side of itself yesterday, one that’s attempting to reach out to Native Hawaiians as it seeks a return to live-fire training in the cultural resources-rich Wai’anae Coast valley, where legal action has prevented bullets from flying and bombs from exploding for the past five years.

The Army flew five Native Hawaiians, with varying constituencies, out to the valley in a CH-47 Chinook helicopter to describe its efforts at balancing training needs with stewardship of a valley.

Makua has 121 archaeological sites and more than 50 endangered animal and plant species. Local media also were invited along.

“The Army is made up of folks who have the same type of values, the same type of beliefs, that you have,” Col. Matthew Margotta, commander of U.S. Army Garrison Hawai’i, told the group.

Margotta admitted that the Army might have been heavy-handed in the past in dealing with cultural issues, but he said that is changing. Makua is a special place in the heart of Native Hawaiians and “the Army, all of us, recognize that,” Margotta said.

cultural adviser

Margotta brought on Annelle Amaral in February as a Native Hawaiian cultural adviser.

A Native Hawaiian Advisory Council was created within the garrison with the president of Kamehameha Schools among its members.

The Army has earmarked between $15 million and $16 million from $75 million in federal stimulus funding to go to Native Hawaiian businesses. “Were we doing this a few years ago? No,” Margotta said.

The Army’s new public-relations effort coincides with the completion of an eight-year environmental study required under a 2001 court settlement agreement.

Malama Makua, the community group that brought the suit, said it will fight on in court because the study is flawed.

No live fire has been allowed since 2004 in the 4,190-acre valley because the Army had not finished the study. This week, the approximately 6,000-page document was completed. Now, the Army is seeking a return to combined-arms live-fire exercises involving helicopters, artillery, mortars and 150 soldiers, as well as convoy live-fire training.

The Army would like to conduct up to 32 Combined Arms Live-Fire Exercises, or CALFEXes, a year, or up to 150 convoy exercises.

Margotta said those exercises won’t start any earlier than Aug. 31, which is the target for short-term fixes to internal roads that sustained storm damage in December. The Army received $6.9 million for road repairs.

Margotta also made a case for training in Makua by saying that without it, soldiers have to make it up at 133,000-acre Pohakuloa Training Area on the Big Island or on the Mainland – keeping them away from families for weeks or months more.

The required training takes about a week at Makua. When soldiers go to Pohakuloa, larger units usually are sent, and that requires the use of ships for equipment deliveries, air transport for troops, and more time overall.

‘Something is missing’

Margotta said the Army’s four main training areas in Hawai’i – Schofield, Makua, Pohakuloa and Kahuku Training Area – are like an interlocking puzzle.

Schofield is considered too small and would have training conflicts as a combined-arms training facility, the Army said. No live fire is allowed in Kahuku.

“You’ve got four pieces in the puzzle and you take Makua out, you’ve only got three pieces,” Margotta said. “Something is missing. What will end up being in that gap are soldiers and their families away from each other.”

U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawai’i, in 2007 strongly advocated that the Army give up Makua, saying the service had spent millions to unsuccessfully defend in court the use of a training range that could be replaced at Pohakuloa and was ill-suited in particular to training using eight-wheeled Stryker armored vehicles.

Margotta said the Army can balance training needs with cultural resource protection in Makua.

paying a visit

Last year, Schofield received $1 million to clear Makua sites of old unexploded ordnance for cultural access, and for next year it’s expected to receive the same amount.

The Army also said nearly $6 million is spent annually in Makua on natural and cultural resources management.

Kahu Kaleo Patterson, one of those who made the trip, said Makua is very special to his family, who had kuleana, or responsibility, in the valley in the old days.

“It’s very encouraging to see how much you folks have done as caretakers of the valley,” Patterson told Margotta.

Christopher Dawson, a Native Hawaiian business leader, and Leimomi Khan, with the Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs, also visited Makua.

But Wai’anae resident William Aila Jr., a member of a Hawaiian group that has butted heads with the Army before over training and access, said the group doesn’t have a thorough understanding of the issues faced in the valley.

His group, Hui Malama O Makua, was not invited yesterday.

“If we were able to give some historical context, the thought processes of those (invited) Hawaiians would be a lot more balanced,” Aila said.

Illegal Wai'anae dump being investigated

Posted on: Saturday, July 18, 2009

Illegal dumping at Waianae landfill being investigated

State investigating how illegal dump was allowed to operate secretly for years

By Will Hoover
Advertiser Wai’anae Coast Writer

The state Departments of Health and Hawaiian Home Lands have begun investigating a large illegal landfill in a remote region of Wai’anae Valley in which hundreds of tons of construction demolition waste has apparently been systematically hauled, dumped and buried for years.

Steven Chang, DOH Solid and Hazardous Waste Branch chief, said yesterday that investigators from his office are also gathering information that will be turned over to the state Attorney General’s office for possible prosecution.

“There are a lot of allegations of criminal action,” Chang said. “I’m putting together things to send to them.”

Kaulana Park, deputy director of DHHL, who was among those who inspected the illegal landfill on Tuesday, said DHHL is launching an internal investigation into the matter.

Meanwhile, the owner of a Wai’anae trucking company linked to the site said his company has for years hauled waste materials to and from the landfill with the knowledge and authorization of DHHL officials.

Jay Foster, owner of Fosters Trucking LLC, said he decided to come forward because he suspects DHHL is trying to distance itself from an agreement the agency had with him and leave him holding the bag for unlawful dumping at the landfill.

He said since the illegal landfill story broke last week, his phone calls to DHHL have gone unanswered.

“When things like this come out, then everybody is looking at me like I’m the bad guy,” he said. “Especially, when I’m not running to my defense. Why do I have to run to my defense when I didn’t do anything wrong?”

Foster says he established an agreement with a DHHL land agent in early 2005 to collect rubbish on Hawaiian Home Lands property in Wai’anae Valley and move it to the area of the illegal dump site. Foster, who has documents that appear to support his claim, says he did the work for free in his off hours as a way of helping rid the community of unsightly rubbish.

A document dated Jan. 21, 2009, and signed by a DHHL representative states that Foster has permission to take “illegally dumped material” from an address on Haleahi Road – the location of the illegal dump – to the PVT Landfill, and indicates to the landfill operators that the bill for any charges should be submitted to the “State of Hawaii DHHL.”

Stephen Joseph, vice president of PVT, said yesterday that the DHHL clearance for the Wai’anae Valley landfill location has been canceled pending the results of the state investigation.

moving trash

Foster said he was told by the DHHL land agent that what he was doing wasn’t against the law because he was simply moving trash from one location to another on DHHL property until enough waste had been gathered to take it to the PVT construction waste landfill to be properly disposed of.

“From the back to the front – no, there is nothing illegal,” Foster said. “Because it’s going from Hawaiian Homes to Hawaiian Homes.”

Tons of waste debris had been dumped in the valley long before he and the DHHL ever reached their agreement, Foster said. And he said a locked gate with a “No Trespassing” sign he erected at the entrance to the dump site had been broken open on numerous occasions by people illegally hauling trash to the canyon.

The DHHL would not comment on Foster’s claims.

DHHL spokesman Lloyd Yonenaka said the department’s internal investigation will focus on how procedures may or may not have been followed.

“What we’re going to be trying to find out is did we follow a certain process?” he said. “We’re going to be saying what happened, why did it happen and were there things that were not done correctly? And then we’re going to have to make some corrections.”

site used secretly

Although unlawful trash heaps have long plagued the Wai’anae Coast, this site is exceptional in that it seems to have functioned secretly for years as an active landfill for the disposal of commercial construction materials.

“It’s obviously an illegal dump,” said Todd Nichols, environmental health specialist with DOH Solid Waste Section, who also visited the site on Tuesday. “There were new stockpiles of material. And then there was stuff that had been buried.”

The materials – which are both piled high in mounds of debris, and buried in the ground and covered with dirt – include asphalt, concrete blocks, old painted wood, hollow tile bricks, rebar, cast iron, roofing materials and green matter.

The landfill is on the mountain side of Highway 782 about a quarter-mile town-bound of where the highway intersects Wai’anae Valley Road.

Nichols said some testing for contaminants will probably be ordered by DOH. On Wednesday, large rocks and boulders were placed around the access areas so nothing could be removed.

“We still have to sort out what all is going to be required for the cleanup,” Nichols said. “There are a lot of rumors flying around.”

Trucking firms are charged fees of $32 to $90 a ton to dispose demolition debris and contaminated waste at the PVT Land Co. in Nanakuli, the only landfill on O’ahu that can legally accept construction materials.

Such fees can be substantial, considering they often involve many tons of waste.

The illegal landfill came to light after a community group that included Lucy Gay, director of Continuing Education & Training at Leeward Community College in Wai’anae; Hawaiian activist Alice Greenwood; and environmental watchdog Carroll Cox inspected and photographed the dump site earlier this month along with a group of adult LCC students.

According to Cox, president of EnviroWatch, the Wai’anae Valley site is “the most substantial and multi-faceted illegal landfill I’ve seen in the state.”

Among the chunks of concrete and twisted metal, Cox and the others found documents they believe might lead to the origins of the unlawful operation. But others had complained about the dumping activities months earlier.
Written notice

Former Wai’anae Coast Neighborhood Board member David Lawrence Brown sent a written notice via e-mail to numerous agencies and leaders on Sept. 18, citing “potentially illegal dumping activities on … DHHL lands” in the vicinity of the dump site off Highway 782.

Four days later, DOH solid waste inspectors visited the site. On Oct. 7, the department’s Solid and Hazardous Waste Branch sent a warning letter by certified mail to DHHL. In addition to scrap metal, tires, asphalt, concrete slabs and miscellaneous rubbish, the letter said the department had received an additional complaint that contaminated soil had been dumped in the area.

The letter gave DHHL 60 days to remove all solid waste from the area, take it to a DOH-permitted disposal facility, and submit disposal receipts to DOH – or face a penalty of up to “$10,000 for each separate offense, for each day of the offense, in accordance with Hawaii Revised Statutes 342H-9.”

Park said DHHL acted on that warning and cleaned up the site, which is near a cul-de-sac at the end of Haleahi Road, about a quarter-mile from the site the Wai’anae community group inspected on July 9.

Before that incident, illegal dumping had occurred on a two-acre parcel of DHHL land at 87-1670 Haleahi Road, according to Tait “Bo” Bright, who holds the lease to the property. Bright said the dumping had been going on since at least August 2007, around the time he was trying to establish an agribusiness on the property.

After months of complaining to DHHL officials, Bright said the materials were eventually removed from his land. But he said they were merely bulldozed to and buried at a site next to land leased by his sister. Since he lives with his sister, Bright said he saw heavy equipment bury the debris.

“I was watching them open up the ground and start dumping in truck loads,” he said.

That site is also within walking distance of the illegal dump site the Wai’anae community group inspected on July 9, Bright said.

Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com.

Source: http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20090718/NEWS01/907180344/Illegal+dumping+at+Waianae+landfill+being+investigated

Army "scales back" plans for Makua?

The Army proposed an extraordinary expansion, then scaled back to a more “reasonable” level of training, which is still more than before.  In fact, they are way overdue to clean up and return the land.   What’s a more reasonable level of theft, assault, desecration?

Posted on: Friday, July 17, 2009

Army scales back plans for Makua

Earthjustice attorney not satisfied, calls latest move ‘a common trick’

By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer

Eight years after agreeing to do so, the Army yesterday completed an environmental examination of military training in Makua Valley by saying it wants to conduct up to 32 combined-arms live-fire exercises and 150 convoy live-fire exercises annually in the 4,190-acre Wai’anae Coast valley.

The “record of decision” by the Army scales back from the 50 combined arms and 200 convoy exercises the Army selected in June as a “preferred” alternative.

“This (Makua) environmental impact statement was a very thorough and publicly open process,” said Maj. Gen. Raymond V. Mason, commander of the Army in Hawai’i and the deciding official. “We’ve reached the best decision that allows our soldiers and small units to train locally and reduces their time away from families, all while ensuring the Army continues to protect the precious environment entrusted to us.”

To reduce the risk of range fires and threats to endangered species and cultural sites, the Army said it would not use tracer ammunition, TOW or Javelin missiles, anti-tank and 2.75-caliber rockets, or illumination rounds.

Additionally, the proposed use of added training lands at Ka’ena Point and what’s known as the “C-Ridge” in Makua are off the table, the Army said.

But Earthjustice attorney David Henkin, who has represented community group Malama Makua in a nearly nine-year lawsuit against the Army, said the level of training proposed still far exceeds anything conducted by the Army before 2004.

Under the terms of a 2001 settlement, live fire with helicopters, mortars, artillery and a company of about 150 soldiers was halted in 2004 because the Army hadn’t completed the agreed-upon environmental impact statement.

“This is a common trick, which is, let’s propose something totally horrendous … and then compromise with something that’s just awful, and people will be thankful, and that’s sort of the (Army’s) approach,” Henkin said of the Army’s record of decision issued yesterday.

Henkin said the Army proposes to do at Makua essentially the same training and use the types of weapons “that time and time again in the past have caused wildfires that have killed endangered species.”

A succession of fires from training in the valley was used as legal justification to seek the environmental study. More than 50 endangered plant and animal species, and more than 100 archaeological features, are in the valley area.

One of many delays to the study’s completion was a fire that was intentionally set by the Army in 2003 to manage grasses but got out of control and charred half the valley.

The approximately 6,000-page report follows numerous setbacks and court filings, and millions of dollars spent on studies and legal fees by the Army, which has seen the loss elsewhere of live-fire training ranges.

The Army discounted building a company combined-arms facility at roomier Pohakuloa Training Area on the Big Island, saying it would cost an “exorbitant” $271 million, and keep soldiers away from families longer.

The Army wants 10 of the exercises annually at Makua for the 3,500-soldier 3rd Brigade, but Henkin said the brigade until now has been able to accomplish its training at Pohakuloa, on the Mainland or abroad.

“This is not additional training. This is not additional separation from the family,” Henkin said. “This is part of their normal training routine.”

Henkin said people should not think the Army will return to live fire in the valley anytime soon if for no other reason than the “burn index,” or grass dryness factor, is too conducive to fire over the summer. Henkin also said the Army failed to complete some agreed-upon studies, something the Army disputes.

“They didn’t do it, so we will see them back in court,” Henkin said.

Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com.

Source: http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20090717/NEWS08/907170327/Army+scales+back+plans+for+Makua

Army to resume assault on Makua

Updated at 12:04 p.m., Thursday, July 16, 2009

Army to resume Makua Valley exercises, but restrict weapons

Advertiser Staff

The Army said today it will resume live-fire exercises in Makua Valley but reduce the number of drills and restrict use of certain munitions.

The Army said an environmental impact statement had suggested 50 company-sized combined arms live-fire exercises and 200 convoy live-fire exercises.

The Army said it will conduct 32 combined arms live-fire exercises 150 convoy live-fire exercises with minimal weapons restrictions.

The Army said the exercises would be conducted without use of tracer ammunition, TOW missiles, anti-tank and 2.75-caliber rockets, shoulder-launched Javelin missiles or illumination munitions of any kind.

The elimination of these weapon systems greatly reduces the risk of range fires and environmental threats to endangered species and cultural sites, yet allows Hawaii-based units to train locally without the costly burden of additional deployments, the Army said.

“This MMR Environmental Impact Statement was a very thorough and publicly open process,” said Maj. Gen. Raymond V. Mason, commander, Army Hawaii and the deciding official.

“We’ve reached the best decision that allows our soldiers and small units to train locally and reduces their time away from families, all while ensuring the Army continues to protect the precious environment entrusted to us.”

The Makua record of decision is available online at: http:/www.garrison.hawaii.army.mil/makuaeis

Source: http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20090716/BREAKING01/90716059/-1/RSS01?source=rss_breaking

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