Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 23, Number 3, 1 Malaki 2006 — Drawing blanks [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Drawing blanks

Judqe denies Armvs live-fire traininq request for Mūkua

By Sterling Kini Wong Publicatiūns Editor The Army has been forced to scale back its plans for exercises in Mākua Valley after a federal judge in early February denied its request to resume live-fire training in the valley. The military is still moving ahead with limited training, and is pushing to complete a long-overdue environmental study of the 4,190-acre military reservation. On Feb. 2, U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway ruled that the Army could not amend its 2001 settlement agreement with the eommunity group Mālama Mākua. The settlement prohibited live-fire exercises in Mākua if the Army did not complete an environmental impact statement (EIS)

of military training in the valley by October 2004. The Army wanted to eonduct 30 combined live-fire and maneuver exercises in Mākua to prepare 7,000 Schofield Barracks soldiers for their scheduled deployment to Iraq this summer. Mollway noted in her 35page decision that soldiers are able to conduct live-fire exercises at two alternate locations in California and at Pōhakuloa on Eiawai'i island, and that the EIS is late in part because the Army chose to complete a separate EIS for the Stryker Brigade first. "The Army, at this point, only speculates that live-fire training at Mākua is necessary," she wrote. "The court concludes that the threat to the public's interest in national well-being

and security is outweighed by the likelihood that such training will cause the extinction of endangered species, the loss of cultural resources, the denial of Native Eiawaiian rights and other adverse effects on the environment." Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon, commander of the 25 th Infantry Division, said in a written statement that the ruling "makes the task of training our soldiers to fight and survive on the battlefield more difficult." Fiowever, David Eienkin, an attorney with the environmental law firm Earthjustice who represents Mālama Mākua, eommended Mollway for seeing past the Army's "rhetoric." "All the Army has proven is that it's inconvenient to not be able to See MĀKUA on page II

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Soldiers training at Mōkua will have to stick to using dummy ammunihon at least until the Army completes its environmental impact statement. - Photo: KW0 archive

MĀKUA

Cūntinued fram page 9 use Mākua for live-fire training," he said. "Mere inconvenienee does not justify failing to abide by the law or the terms of a court agreement." Environmental and Native Hawaiian groups have opposed live-fire training in the valley because they believe it threatens the 40 endangered species and more than 100 archaeological sites in Mākua. Since military operations began in the valley in 1920, live-fire training has caused hundreds of fires. About a week after the ruling was issued, approximately 300 Schofield Barracks soldiers, using only hlank ammunition, conducted the first ground exercises in Mākua since August 2004. In February, the Army announced that it is planning an unspecified number of eontrolled burns to clear brush in Mākua. Army spokesperson Kendrick Washington said that

the controlled burns will be used to access and study archaeologieal and cultural sites in the valley, whieh is a requirement of the Mākua EIS. However, the controlled burns have been a point of contention between the Army and eommunity groups. In July 2003, the Army lost control of one of these planned fires, and it scorched half of the valley, including 156 acres of critical habitat for endangered native animals and plants. Washington said the dates for the burns have not yet been chosen. The Army Corps of Engineers has also set an April 6 deadline for public comment on its marine resources study of Mākua, whieh is another required component of the EIS. The original deadline for public comment on the marine study was Feb. 20, and the final report was due six months later. Washington said that despite the delay in the marine study and the unconfirmed dates for the controlled burns, the Army still expects the EIS to be completed in the spring. E3