Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 18, Number 2, 1 Pepeluali 2001 — Manaʻo on Mākua [ARTICLE]

Manaʻo on Mākua

Military use of Mākua dates to the 1920s. Forcible use, martial law, and a Presidential executive order caused evictions, unreimbursed condemnation of kuleana lands, and wholesale environmental/cultural/archaeological destruction as a result of intensive naval and air bombardment. helicopter strafing. mortar and artillery fire, mustard gas, napalm, open burning and open detonation of old ammunition and other wastes. Lead and various cancer-causing toxins have been introduced into the air, land and water where thousands of residents live on the Leeward Coast (Marion Kelly, Nancy Aleek 1997). For stark eontrast, compare this horror with the extreme care being shown by the Legislature to another part of the island - Mānoa. Commercial operators conducting hiking tours on Mānoa Falls Trail are being given the boot Feb. 15 because the state has decided it cannot enforce new laws effective 1999 whieh protect the trail from overuse by large groups. Why such disparate treatment for the two valleys?

Senator Inouye worries that Wahiawā might become a "ghost town" if training is discontinued in Mākua. Waikāne became a "ghost valley" after the Marine Corps leased it from the Kamaka family for live ammunition training during WWII. The Marine Corps claimed the valley was now too hazardous for human use and too costly to elean up. The eondemned land was made off-limits to the public and the Kamaka family forever. In 1955 the Army said Mākua Valley was so contaminated that returning it to civilian use was impractical due to excessive cost. Consider, too, the Kaho'olawe Island fiasco where costs jumped from $120 million to the current $400 million with the Navy still saying a total elean-up is unrealistic. Senator Inouye feels it is his duty to prioritize the activities of a transient military population over the heahh and welfare of permanent residents of the Leeward Coast and sees fit to disregard endangered species and important Hawaiian land and cultural

issues in Mākua. State Senate President Robert Bunda (Wahiawā, Waialua, Sunset Beach) should support an EIS. Fred Dodge, Wai'anae physician and member of Mālama Mākua, says a majority of Leeward Coast residents feel the valley is an inappropriate plaee for training, other altematives are not being considered, and residents favor a thorough EIS be conducted in Mākua Valley. He says the community is very together on this issue. Who ean blame them? Mihtary readiness is important but it is not the most important factor in this issue and should not be used as a club. If military readiness adversely impacts the life of the land, who says it shall always be so? It is not up to the Army and Sen. Inouye to decide this issue. Responsibility for and care of our land and people belongs to all of Hawai'i's citizens. Marisa M. Plemer Hale'iwa

Leka Kalele: KWO focus letter