Kaohi: Paying attention to Pohakuloa modernization and their expansion--needs written comments on the Enironmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact are due January 24, 2011

Aloha mai kakou e na hoa aina,
 Mahalo nui to all those that came out to the public scoping meetings, in Hilo and Waimea, on the proposed expansion of training at Pohakuloa.
- Jim Albertini of Malu Aina attended the meeting in Hilo and reports back, “testimony went for 2 hours. Not one person spoke in support of the military expansion plans”.
- Here's a piece from Big Island Video News
- Read here about the Waimea meeting in an article from West Hawai`i Today. Uncle Isaac Harp is quoted as saying, “What percentage of people need to oppose your project before you stop? The public doesn't want it.”
We’ve also received many e-mails this week from people who were unable to attend, but want to express opposition, here’s your chance!  Written comments on the Environmental Assessment and Finding Of No Significant Impact are due January 24, 2011.
Email to: William.Rogers5@us.army.mil , or mailed to: Directorate of Public Works, Environmental Division (IMPC-HI-PWE), Attn: Mr. William Rogers, 947 Wright Avenue, Wheeler Army Airfield, Schofield Barracks, 96857-5013.   
Here’s a link to the EA and Draft FONSI if you’d like to read them for yourself.   
The Army is proposing a modernization and expansion of military activities at Pohakuloa, of which we are particularly concerned about High Altitude Mountainous Environment Training (HAMET). This type of training would involve helicopter landings on the slopes of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa.
The last time this training was done in 2003, there was a hard landing in the Mauna Kea Ice Age Natural Area Reserve, which contains the Keanakako`i adze quarry within it. This area is 3.5 miles east of the landing zone! This type of training in this area necessarily means inexpert pilots flying and landing in irreplaceable areas of natural and cultural value. Similar crashes, some of them deadly, have occurred in decidedly less treacherous conditions at Schofield in 2009 and 1996, as well as over Kahuku in 2001.   
So, given the public opposition, and the proven high-risk of this training, why is the Army pushing forward without performing a full Environmental Impact Statement? How can they file a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) when there are known natural and cultural resources in the area? Has the safety of recreational users and cultural practitioners been considered? Questions like these (and others burning in your heart and mind) need to be asked!   Here’s a link to an awesome sample letter submitted by Aunty Cory Harden! Big Mahalo, Aunty!
E holomua kakou,  
Shelley

Having contested the clean up and their continuation of spreading DU in the Hawaiian Islands on Jan 13, 2010, I find the process short sighted. It was a difficult and trying process to address DU spreading or aggregating in my community Waianae to meet the Nuclear Regulatory Commission rules and definiton. The Pentagon engaged in illegal activity of removing fire range soil from Schofield and trucked 900 tons of it into Waianae, Makua for over six months in Oct 2009 to May 2010, was a sad moment. Truckers trucked these poison dust along the Farrignton Hwy where children caught their school buses. A single nano particle induced into ones lungs is a fatal moment--over time that single nano particle kills! You see the 'maka to maka' argument is that cleaning up to the military means to aggregate the evidence on land, in people and our ocean currents, just as they have been doing since the testing of Nuclear bombs in the Pacific. A 'broke mask' full view of the military here in Hawaii is to kill all people in Hawaii. Before the AEC and NRC, I asked for an Exit Plan in my contention for our people, we simply cannot afford modernization 'Hopper Homes' that will filter the US military spread of depleted uranium. Pele flows throughout the entire Pacific Ocean, she has no boundaries and neither does the spread of DU. Depleted Uranium is NOT low, weak or safe--it cannot be burned or return to it's natural state. A lie is a lie is a lie!

Replies

Kaohi January 20, 2011 at 5:40pm

Amelia,

Please send in a letter to oppose the continuation of distruction to our aina. As Paul Neves said, the Moku of Keawe will be modernized as a military base for more violent wars.
- Kaohi > Kaohi January 20, 2011 at 6:02pm
  
  Having contested the clean up and their continuation of spreading DU in the Hawaiian Islands on Jan 13, 2010, I find the process short sighted. It was a difficult and trying process to address DU spreading or aggregating in my community Waianae to meet the Nuclear Regulatory Commission rules and definiton. The Pentagon engaged in illegal activity of removing fire range soil from Schofield and trucked 900 tons of it into Waianae, Makua for over six months in Oct 2009 to May 2010, was a sad moment. Truckers trucked these poison dust along the Farrignton Hwy where children caught their school buses. A single nano particle induced into ones lungs is a fatal moment--over time that single nano particle kills! You see the 'maka to maka' argument is that cleaning up to the military means to aggregate the evidence on land, in people and our ocean currents, just as they have been doing since the testing of Nuclear bombs in the Pacific. A 'broke mask' full view of the military here in Hawaii is to kill all people in Hawaii. Before the AEC and NRC, I asked for an Exit Plan in my contention for our people, we simply cannot afford modernization 'Hopper Homes' that will filter the US military spread of depleted uranium. Pele flows throughout the entire Pacific Ocean, she has no boundaries and neither does the spread of DU. Depleted Uranium is NOT low, weak or safe--it cannot be burned or return to it's natural state. A lie is a lie is a lie!

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