The Army is seeking public comment on a court-ordered environmental study that represents one of the last major hurdles before it can consider resuming controversial live-fire training in Makua Valley.

The study, ordered by a federal judge to address unanswered questions in a 2009 marine resources report, focused on whether military activities at Makua Military Reservation pose a health risk to area residents who rely on marine resources for food or other purposes.

The verdict: Military activities are expected to have little or no influence on contaminant levels within the nearshore area, according to the study.

Foes of military use in Makua Valley don’t see it that way.

"The study provides yet another reason to stop using Makua as a training facility and to return it to culturally appropriate, civilian use," said Earthjustice attorney David Henkin, who represents the community group Malama Makua.

The Army is taking community input during a two-month period ending April 3. Additionally, there will be a public meeting about the study from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. March 5 at Waianae High School.

This is one of two studies the Army still needs to complete in order to satisfy court requirements, according to Stefanie Gardin, Army public affairs officer. The other is an archaeological subsurface study for which public input was sought last summer.

Following this comment period, the Army will determine whether applicable law and the results of the archaeological and marine resources studies require a new final environmental impact statement and record of decision, or whether those documents require any modification, Gardin said.

Once the litigation is resolved, the Army will "review its training options," Gardin said in an emailed statement.

Presumably, one of those options is the live-fire training that ended in 2004 after Malama Makua filed suit. A year and a half ago, environmental documents for the construction of the $29 million Infantry Platoon Battle Course at the Poha­ku­loa Training Area on Hawaii island indicated that Makua was still needed for that kind of training.

For its latest Makua study, the Army collected 144 samples of seaweed, octopus and sea cucumber at Makua and two other locations — Mokuleia and Kaena Point — during the dry and wet seasons. The samples were analyzed for the same 42 compounds analyzed in the original 2009 Marine Resources Study.

Using some "very conservative assumptions," the study concluded that the cumulative risks and hazards from eating a combination of all three species fell within acceptable risk and hazard levels of concern for "average" consumers.

In an evaluation of individual species, there was no unacceptable risk when eating sea cucumber and octopus at either the "average" or "high-end" consumption rate, but that was not the case for seaweed, or limu kohu, which exceeded "regulatory levels of concern" at those rates.

However, to put the risk into perspective, according to the study, "an individual would have to consume approximately two grams of limu kohu collected only from Makua Beach every day for 30 years in order to reach the regulatory level of concern."

Studies of fish, shellfish and limu have identified a number of substances that could be byproducts of military training, including RDX — an explosive compound, perchlorate, arsenic, chromium, cobalt, nitroglycerin and manganese.

While Earthjustice experts are still looking at the report, an initial review suggests the Army is downplaying the results, Henkin said, and concerns about contaminated marine species are justified in the community.

The Army’s study concludes that "average" consumption of octopus, sea cucumbers and limu from Makua results in an additional cancer risk of 1 in 100,000. For individuals who consume greater quantities of food from the ocean off Makua — an average of less than 9 ounces per day — the additional cancer risk jumps to 8 in 100,000, with the non-carcinogenic risk likewise elevated, Henkin said.

"To face an increased risk of cancer, area residents need to eat only about 2 ounces of limu from Makua per month," he said.

Henkin added: "Pollutants from Army activities at Makua wash into the ocean, causing profound, harmful effects on marine resources on which Waianae Coast families rely for subsistence and put on their dinner tables."

Use of Makua Valley by American troops dates back to the 1920s. But after the bombing attack of Pearl Harbor in 1941, the Army invoked its authority under martial law to take over the entire Makua-Kaena Point area for security and training.

In 1943, the territorial government granted a revocable permit for the military to use 6,600 acres "to assist in the present war effort extending for the duration of the present war and six months thereafter," and the area saw extensive bombing and infantry training. Makua has remained under Army control ever since.

Five and a half decades later, Malama Makua first sued the Army in 1998 and that led to a court order in 2001 allowing cultural access to the valley twice a month, plus the requirement for an environmental impact statement. The Army agreed to stop using the 4,190-acre Makua Military Reservation for live-fire training in 2004 while working on the document.

"For decades the Waianae Coast community has sought information about whether Army activities at Makua Military Reservation threaten the health of local families who gather food from the ocean off Makua. It took three lawsuits over more than a decade to compel the Army to provide this information," Henkin said.

Malama Makua’s position, he said, is that the Army cannot even consider resuming live-fire training until it revises its environmental impact statement based on the results of the supplemental marine and archaeological surveys.

What’s more, he said, the court’s June 2012 order expressly states: "No live-fire training shall be conducted at MMR until this court orders that it be allowed or the parties so stipulate."

"Given the numerous threats to the local community, to cultural sites and to critically endangered species, and in light of the fact that the Army has done without Makua Military Reservation for over a decade — during which time it successfully trained for combat elsewhere — we would hope the Army will not seek to resume live-fire exercises at Makua," Henkin said.