Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 14, Number 12, 1 Kekemapa 1997 — KAHULUI AIRPORT: [ARTICLE]

KAHULUI AIRPORT:

Programmatic Agreement Guarantees 0HA's Involvement until 2016

By Paula Durbin AT ITS Nov. 25 meeting in Līhu'e, the Board of Trustees voted to join in a programmatic agreement among the Federal Aviation Authority, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation and the Hawai'i State Historic Preservation Officer. This guarantees the Office of Hawaiian Affairs will review and approve all measures taken to protect and preserve historical properties and archaeological sites at the Kahului Airport during the construction of improvements projected in three phases through the year 2016. As originally proposed, the agreement provided for OHA to sign off without any further participation. However, administrator Randall Ogata and Lynn Lee, then acting Land and Natural Resources officer, informed the FAA that OHA wanted to be consulted over the lifetime of the proposed project "We strongly feel that the high number of identified archaeological and cultural resources at the

Kahului Airport require that OHA be included in the development process," their original letter said. Ongoing studies have uncovered one burial site in the airport area and might reveal sub-surface, pre-contact artifact.s and remnant walls. The Kanahā Pond, a historic fishpond within the airport boundaries, is on the National Register of Historic Places, whieh triggered the consultation process under the National Historic Preservation Act. Ihe FAA has agreed to include OHA as a "eoncurring" party through all three phases of the project. Under the revised agreement, OHA will review and submit comments on all future archaeology reports and on mitigation plans whieh outline procedures to be followed upon the discovery of burials or culturally significant deposits during eonstruction. Other concurring parties are the Department of Transportation and the Maui Lāna'i Islands Burial Council. "This is the first progrmmatic agreement OHA has entered into and we look forward to being at the table with the FAA for the next 20 years," said Lee. ■