Comments for Keaukaha Military Reervation Draft Environmental Assessment

Comments for Keaukaha Military Reservation, Hilo, Hawaii Draft Environmental Assessment.

 

I believe a full Environmental Impact Statement is warranted based on the size, dollar spending and impacts of this project.  AMEC, the preparer of the Keaukaha EA, is the same company that did the plan to cover up high levels of arsenic at a site on Shipman land in Keaau where a hotel is due to be built.

 

Issues of concern:

1. Housing for 300 troops is no small matter.  Why is this being built?  How was the number decided upon?

Does this site have the potential to be utilized for a Homeland Security detention facility?

Are there contingency plans to utilize the facility for such purposes?

2.  There should be a full clean up of all unexploded ordnance not only at this site but all the present and former military sites on the island.  I am aware of at least 57 former military sites on Hawaii island in need of clean up yet there is always funds for military expansion, but never enough funds for clean up.  CLEAN UP NOT BUILD UP  is what's needed.  Possible impacts to the Hilo aquafir need to be addressed.

3.  Cumulative military impacts need to be addressed in a full EIS.  Recently there has been a 24,000 acre military expansion at Pohakuloa, C-17s landing at Kona, Saddle Rd military impact, helicopters being added to Stryker Brigade after the fact.  Now Keaukaha military expansion.

4.  Illegal Taking of the Puna trail --public right of way under the 1892 Highways Act of the Kingdom.  This trail needs to be preserved in full.  It is an important, though currently underutilized, resource for residents and visitors alike.

5.  Economic justice issues:  Keaukaha military reservation is next to Hawaiian Home lands.  So is the airport, dump, fuel storage, sewage plant, chemical plants, etc.  Why do the Hawaiians always get the burden?

Address the illegal U.S. occupation of Hawaii continuing since the U.S. Marines assisted U.S. business interests in the illegal overthrow of the lawful government of the nation of Hawaii in 1893.  No treaty of annexation of Hawaii was ever ratified by a 2/3 vote of the U..S. Senate, therefore Hawaii never formally became a territory of the U.S., nor a state.  Therefore the U.S., and the State of Hawaii, have no legal jurisdiction in Hawaii to have any military installations.

We need a process to de-militarize Hawaii and restore the independent nation of Hawaii whose sovereignty was never extinguished by more than 100 years of U.S. occupation.  Enough already.

 

April 18, 2007

Jim Albertini
Malu `Aina Center For Non-violent Education & Action
P.O. Box AB
`Ola`a (Kurtistown), Hawaii 96760
Phone 808-966-7622
email ja@interpac.net
www.malu-aina.org