Category: O’ahu

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Prototype mini-sub shelved

Posted on: Saturday, July 25, 2009

Prototype mini-sub shelved

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Repairing fire damage would cost more than entire program’s budget

By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer

A one-of-a-kind SEAL mini-sub based at Pearl City Peninsula that has been plagued by years of development problems and cost overruns won’t be repaired after a November fire because the work would cost $237 million and take nearly three years, U.S. Special Operations Command said yesterday.

The decision could be a final blow to a program that once envisioned a fleet of the 65-foot mini subs, designed to ride piggyback on much larger attack submarines and deliver SEALs dry and rested to an insertion point.

The Advanced SEAL Delivery System, or ASDS, originally was expected to cost about $80 million per sub. But the Northrop Grumman program spiraled to more than $885 million, with only one sub built, according to a 2007 U.S. Government Accountability Office report. Delivery of ASDS-1 was accepted in 2003.

One of Special Operations Command’s biggest investments was beset by battery, noise and propulsion problems, and in April 2006, the Defense Department canceled plans for follow-on ASDS boats and directed the Navy and Special Operations Command to set up an ASDS-1 improvement program.

The $237 million repair estimate from the Nov. 9 fire is $180 million more than the entire budget for the ASDS program, according to Special Operations Command, based at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida.

The command said “competing funding priorities” for current and projected special operations budgets prevent it from repairing ASDS-1.

The fire broke out while the submersible’s batteries were recharging at its Pearl City home port. The 8:30 p.m. fire occurred during routine maintenance, which included the battery recharging, the Navy said in a news release.

The fire damaged the ASDS’ operations compartment, which affected all the boat’s operating systems, Special Operations Command said.

The battery system, sonar, motors and controllers, anchor assembly and hull were also damaged.

The “root cause analysis” – being done to determine the fire’s origin – is not complete, the command said.

new sub emerging

Lt. Cmdr. Fred Kuebler, a Special Operations Command spokesman, yesterday said the final disposition of ASDS-1 has not been determined. He did not rule out the possibility of repair.

Kuebler had no information about possible manning changes at the Pearl City facility.

The command also has requested funding for the Joint Multi-Mission Submersible program to develop an alternative SEAL insertion craft.

The online publication Inside the Navy reported in June that $43.4 million was being sought for pre-design work on the mini-sub that would provide “improved performance” over the ASDS.

The ASDS was heralded as a “transformational leap ahead” design and was intended to deliver commandos dry and rested to a point of departure. The current SEAL Delivery Vehicles are open to bone-chilling cold water and require the use of scuba gear.

Big plans faltered

Designed to ride piggyback on the Los Angeles-class submarines Greeneville and Charlotte, both based at Pearl Harbor, as well as on new Virginia-class submarines and former ballistic missile subs converted to carry conventional missiles and commandos, the boxy, 8-foot-diameter ASDS was designed to sneak up close to shore with two crew and up to 16 SEALs.

Its skin is the material used on stealth fighters, it could take and transmit pictures almost in real time, and its design allowed for long-range operations.

The Navy in 2004 celebrated the completion of a $47 million waterfront home for SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team 1 on 22 acres at Pearl City Peninsula that included a 326,000-gallon freshwater test tank.

At the time, the team had 45 officers and 230 enlisted personnel – 93 of them SEALs.

The GAO said in 2007 that the ASDS had “encountered a difficult, long and costly development since the initial contract was awarded in 1994.”

Despite those problems, the Navy in July 2003 took delivery of the first ASDS.

The craft rode piggyback on the submarine Greeneville during a deployment to the Persian Gulf by Expeditionary Strike Group 1.

The ASDS was supposed to deploy with the USS Michigan, a former ballistic missile submarine converted to carry conventional missiles and commandos, shortly after the fire.

The entire program, including six mini-subs and facilities in Hawai’i and Little Creek, Va., originally was to cost $527 million.

Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com.

Source: http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20090725/NEWS08/907250321/Prototype+mini-sub+shelved

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End the Korean War! Vigil for peace

Light a Candle for PEACE

In Remembrance of the Costs of the Korean War and for a Peaceful Future

Monday July 27, 2009 at 7:15 PM

Candlelight Walk and Vigil

Fifty six years have passed since an armistice agreement was signed to bring a temporary end to the Korean War. A lack of a more formal peace treaty has meant that both Koreas have remained heavily militarized and are ready for hostilities to recommence at any time. As tensions between the United States and North Korea remain high we recognize it is time for a peace treaty to put a final end to the Korean War.

Please join us July 27th for a quiet candlelight walk and vigil for peace. Across the country vigils will be taking place in Hawai’i (Honolulu), California (San Francisco, Los Angeles), New York (New York City) and Washington D.C.

Place and Time: Gather in front of the former Slumberworld (1314 Kapi‘olani Boulevard) at 7:15 PM. We will be walking to Pawaa Park, 1400 South King Street. *You are welcome to bring a poem or a few brief words to share*

National Campaign to End the Korean War: Honolulu
Contact: Soo Sun Choe soosunc@yahoo.com
For more info www.endthekoreanwar.org
and visit the online exhibit http://stillpresentpasts.org

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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

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Swine flu strikes Navy group berthed at Pearl Harbor

Swine flu strikes Navy group berthed at Pearl Harbor

By Gregg K. Kakesako

POSTED: 08:50 a.m. HST, Jul 21, 2009

At least 69 sailors and Marines assigned to Navy assault helicopter carrier now berthed at Pearl Harbor on its way home to San Diego have tested positive for H1N1 swine flu and have been confined to the ship.

The Marines and sailors are part of the 4,000-member contingent assigned to the USS Boxer which arrived here on Thursday and will leave tomorrow for San Diego.

Lt. Cmdr. Sarah Self-Kyler, spokesman for the San Diego-based 3rd Fleet, said that there are no Marines or sailors from USS Boxer Amphibious Ready Group who are on liberty here that have flulike symptoms.

The other ships at Pearl Harbor as part of the Boxer group are the dock landing ship USS Comstock, cruiser USS Lake Champlain, and the amphibious Transport dock ship USS New Orleans, Self-Kyler added. The cruiser USS Chung Hoon also is part of the Boxer group and pulled to its home berth at Pearl Harbor yesterday.

Self-Kyler said all sailors and Marines going on liberty here must pass through a heat sensor. If they have a temperature of more than 100 degrees, they are checked again, she added.

The quarantine sailors and Marines are being held in the Boxer’s infirmary and have been treated with Tamiflu. They will be kept there until their symptoms subside, Self-Kyler added.

So far, the swine flu outbreak has only been detected on the Boxer, she said.

The Boxer group stopped at Pearl Harbor on its last leg of a seven-month deployment.

Source: http://www.starbulletin.com/news/breaking/51330187.html

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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.

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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

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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

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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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Wai’anae Community Forum on Environmental Justice

Why is everyone dumping their ‘opala on Wai’anae?

What is being done to address these problems?

What can we do as a community?

Please come to our

Community Forum on Environmental Justice

Friday July 17
Thursday, 2009

Wai’anae Library

(85-625 Farrington Highway)

6 to 8 p.m.

Ka Makani Kaiaulu o Wai’anae will be sharing and discussing their findings with the community.

This forum is sponsored by: Ka Makani Kaiaulu o Wai’anae & The Wai’anae Environmental Justice Working Group.

For more information contact: Lucy Gay (808) 696-6378 or Kyle Kajihiro (808) 542-3668

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Illegal landfill yields clues

July 12, 2009

Illegal landfill yields clues

Years-old dump in Wai’anae filled with hazardous waste

By Will Hoover
Advertiser Wai’anae Coast Writer

The state Department of Health is trying unravel the mystery of who’s behind a large illegal landfill in a remote region in Wai’anae. For years, the site has been the end point of hundreds of tons of buried hazardous waste materials, officials suspect.

On Thursday, the state got an assist from a group of educators, students and residents who inspected the dump site on their own and uncovered documents that could lead to those who’ve been getting rid of commercial waste on the sly.

One member of the group phoned in a complaint from the scene. But it wasn’t the first time state officials had heard complaints about the landfill.

Steven Chang, chief of the Solid and Hazardous Waste Branch for the DOH, said the materials appear to be construction demolition debris dumped illegally on Department of Hawaiian Home Lands property.

He said his branch had previously sent letters to DHHL alerting them to the situation.

“We are going to be meeting with Hawaiian Home Lands people next week at the site, probably, to take a look at what’s going on,” Chang said. “Apparently, this has been going on a long time.”

Chang said investigators would be trying to determine who’s responsible. He said the massive amount of waste dwarfs the state’s definition for illegal dumping – which is anything more than one cubic yard.

The previously secret landfill is on the north side of of Highway 782 about a quarter of a mile east of where it intersects Wai’anae Valley Road. Access to the dirt road leading to the dump site is blocked by a pipe fence latched with a combination paddle lock and a “No Trespassing” sign.

Carroll Cox, an environmental activist and president of EnviroWatch Inc., was with the group that inspected and photographed the landfill on Thursday.

He described the site as a years-old “active landfill” about two acres in size and filled with “hundreds and hundreds of tons of hazardous solid waste and potentially toxic materials” dumped inside a gated and locked setting.

The materials include concrete blocks, old painted wood, asphalt, rebar, cast iron, hollow tile bricks, roofing materials and green matter. While much of the debris is covered with dirt, several recent mountains of rubble also decorate the canyon landscape.

“What’s happened is that they buried the stuff and spread the dirt over it,” Cox said.

“You can see where they’ve graded this. I mean, whoever’s doing this is pretty bold. They are going in there with heavy equipment after they’ve dumped, and then bury it – smash it down and spread it out and put dirt on it.”

Lucy Gay, director of Continuing Education & Training at Leeward Community College in Wai’anae, learned about the landfill from a colleague who hiked the isolated area over the July Fourth weekend and stumbled across huge debris piles.

Gay and area Hawaiian activist Alice Greenwood investigated the site on their own and contacted Cox. The three returned on Thursday, along with the students.

“We want to know who are the guys who are dumping all this stuff on the land,” Gay said. “This is a big dump.”

Gay, Greenwood and Cox uncovered documents among the materials that they think will help investigators locate the trash haulers.

“This is one of those difficult-to-find dumps that the Wai’anae Coast has been plagued with for years,” Cox said. “Every canyon has played host to illegal dumping of this type. But this is one of the most clandestine examples I’ve ever seen.”

Source: http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009907120363

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