CALL TO ACTION - Pōhakuloa is not your training ground

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CALL TO ACTION - PŌHAKULOA IS NOT YOUR TRAINING GROUND - JUNE 7TH DEADLINE FOR COMMENTS

Mahalo to all who have already submitted comments on the Army’s environmental impact disclosure for their proposal to retain approximately 19,700 acres of seized, or “ceded” Hawaiian lands. The Army’s 65-year leases end in 2029 and we now have a rare opportunity to call for a life-affirming future for these Pōhakuloa lands. Pōhakuloa remains a piko for Kānaka Maoli peoples and a critical habitat for native species, designated as conservation lands for these purposes.

Join the chorus of testifiers demanding a real assessment of impacts, should the Army continue their decades-long bombing of these lands. Let us also call for a full accounting of what it would mean to restore these lands to a properly healthy condition. Get inspired by watching the powerful testimony shared at public scoping meetings held on May 6th and May 7th.

Comments are due Friday, June 7th. We helped get you started below with some sample testimony that you can adapt and personalize.

The Army has had 65 years to show us what kind of stewards they are to our cherished ʻāina -- click here to see the toxic legacy of the US military in Hawaiʻi. For decades, the army (and other branches of the military) have been conducting live-fire training on ʻāina without cleaning up munitions “for safety reasons”. See (Lt. Kevin Cronin, PTA Commander at 2:40). The Army admits it does not know the extent of the contamination and whether it can be required to clean it up. We do not want this pattern of harmful behavior to continue. Instead of pouring millions of dollars into cleaning up after the fact, letʻs say no more to polluting ‘āina in the first place. Rather than allow the Army to retain leases on seized Hawaiian crown lands, it is time for the Army to meaningfully engage the community on a clean-up plan that sets us on a path to return these lands to those who love and properly care for them. Now those are some hearings weʻd love to attend!

What's going on?

Pōhakuloa Training Area (PTA) is 132,000 acres, 23,000 of which are state lands (also known as seized or “ceded” lands) under a lease set to expire in 2029. The army proposes retaining 22,750 of these lands. Remarkably, the other 250 acres are owned by the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands and the army has been using them without any permission!
The army is currently receiving comments on it's draft environmental impact statement (DEIS). Through this process, the army is required to respond to your comments, explore reasonable alternatives to proposed actions, disclose significant impacts of proposed actions, and include mitigation measures for disclosed impacts.

What are we saying about the Army's proposal?

In this DEIS, the Army only looks at impacts on 23,000 acres of state lands, as if what they’re doing on the other 110,000 acres doesn’t have a cumulative impact. It seems clear that any assessment should consider actions on all 132,000 acres. While the Army writes: “State-owned land does not contain active, permanent liquid fuel storage tanks”, we might ask are these storage tanks located on federal lands?
We ask how the Army can say it considered meaningful alternatives - like diplomacy, demilitarization, or even virtual reality simulations - in preparing the 2024 DEIS. These alternatives are said to be listed in a 2017 document, but we cannot find that document and havenʻt been provided access to it, even after we asked.
The Army’s use of conservation district lands for live-fire training is not allowed. Therefore the Army is proposing to change the conservation district rules themselves. We are worried about the impacts of creating a “live-fire training” conservation district.
The Army proposes to further pollute and contaminate these lands for an unknown number of years. They also presume they will clean up and restore the lands later even though their lease limits clean up to existing technologies and costs that “would not exceed the fair market value of the land”. This means that they may not even have a budget to clean up and restore the land. So how will the Army fully clear and restore the lands after their use?
Four native bird species have been decimated in PTA areas. The Army’s “management measures” for native wildlife aren’t working and the Army must recognize this.
- For instance, the Army optimistically speculates native wildlife are “habituated” to sudden explosions and noise. Another US federal body, the National Park Service, recognizes that chronic stressors, like noise, damages wildlife.
- Thousands of acres of native plants were burned in an uncontrolled fire in 2018, due to live-firing training on federal lands. How will the Army restore these thousands of acres and prevent infiltration by invasive species?
The Army, like other militaries worldwide, does not disclose their greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs), stating: “Because there is limited opportunity for locally generated air pollutants to accumulate, additive effects on regional air quality and from GHGs are unlikely[.]” This statement fundamentally misunderstands climate change.
Hawaiian cultural practitioners are concerned that resources they gather are contaminated; the Army installed physical barriers blocking religious sites; and requiring case-by-case approvals and Army escorts for practitioners curtails the latter’s access. The new Cultural Impact Assessment (CIA) recommends “the Army formalize a cultural access request process…” We propose that the Army clean up these areas immediately and allow free access. Permission slips are not an answer for this situation.

Sign below to submit a comment -- weʻve drafted sample testimony for you that you can edit to make your own! If you are able, please add your name and connection to the issue for added impact. Or if you’d prefer to craft your own message from scratch, submit your comments via the army website: https://atlrptaeis.commentinput.com?id=AZ5WkUQaCby Friday, June 7, 2024.

Stay tuned for future comment opportunities on this issue!

A hui hou,
KAHEA Board + Staff

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Your message will be sent to:
Matthew Fowler: matthew.b.foster3.civ@army.mil
Jeff Overton/G70: ATLR-PTA-EIS@g70.design

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Army contacts reviewing public comment on PTS Second Draft EIS

Subject: ATLR PTA EIS Comments: Pōhakuloa is not your training ground

Message:

To whom it may concern: As a person who loves Hawaiʻi and her people, I am firmly opposed to the Armyʻs retention of any of the “State” lands at Pōhakuloa. I support the “No Action Alternative” that would allow the lease to expire and require the Army to comply with all lease terms that include the clean-up of these lands. The other alternatives preserve a status quo in which Hawaiian land is bombed, burned, littered and polluted. The status quo is precisely what needs to be changed. Scores of concerned citizens have taken time to express to you the impact of the long-term occupation of these lands and the presence of the US military in our islands. Your study should follow the parameters set by true experts on the impacts of your proposal. Our comments have raised the impacts of the occupation of these parcels, spanning time and space, and your EIS should follow suit. You should evaluate historical harms that would continue should you retain these lands. You should also evaluate the growing cumulative impact that would compound should you continue misusing these lands. Alternative futures that your retention of these lands would foreclose should also be considered. Please add to the "Alternatives" section, alternatives that include: 1) Diplomacy with those the military perceives as potentially requiring a combat response and disclosing disputes for civil remediation. This would eliminate the need for combat mission training exercises in places like Pōhakulua. 2) Reprioritization of food security and resilient communities as a counterattack strategy. Rather than meet an attack in the theater of U.S. Pacific operations through armed forces, a counter-measure would focus on rebuilding the capacity of communities to rebuild and sustain themselves. This alternative would meet purpose and need through the long term goal of securing Hawai`i against the depredations of state enemies. 3) Retention of lands to ensure appropriate stewardship and ecological preservation, including wildlife fighting capacity, for the duration of a planning period for transition to a public land trust and/or organizations or associations of communities that will properly steward the land. This would augment your "No Action" alternative and allow for immediate questions of landowner liability to be addressed to the U.S. military. The Army should take a hard look at alternatives to live fire training, including those that havenʻt been examined since 2017 according to your Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS). Instead of insisting on the current path of retaining these lands, switch gears and genuinely engage the community on a clean-up plan that sets us on a path to return these lands to those who love them. This return of ʻāina is long overdue. The time is now to give the #landback.

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