Editorial: Input on military use of Pohakuloa

History has left so many marks since 1964 when the Army began its current, 65-year lease of the state-owned land at Pohakuloa Training Area on Hawaii island. The importance of Hawaii’s military to national defense has never been clearer, but any subsequent lease, assuming there is one, would need to reflect those marked changes.

The issue arises now because Army officials have released a draft environmental impact statement on its planning to seek a lease renewal, well in advance of the lease expiration in August 2029. Comments on that document will be taken through June 7 (see information box).

The changes certainly include the raising of the bar for state oversight of military activities on state land, exemplified by a 2019 high court ruling that Hawaii officials have lapsed in maintaining trust duties for public resources at Pohakuloa. Improving on that should be seen as imperative for the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.

Further, there is a much more nuanced relationship overall between the military and the Hawaii public than existed in those early days of statehood.

Back then, far fewer questions were asked about military use of public land, both the acreage under its own control and what it uses for typically nominal rents. The Army paid $1 to lease the 23,000 acres at the training area, which lies between Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea.

The current reality is different. Conflicts over resource management and protection at Oahu’s Makua Valley have weakened the Army relationship with the community, for example, and the military more broadly has lost much public trust in the recent controversy over water contamination at the Navy’s Red Hill fuel storage facility.

Further, the flash points with the Native Hawaiian community in particular have intensified over the decades of its cultural renaissance. When the Army acknowledges in its draft EIS that “cultural resources were analyzed to have significant, adverse cumulative impacts” from the proposed continuation of training, that is no small matter in 2022.

Helping to draw new boundaries to redefine what should happen at Pohakuloa now becomes the role of the public, weighing in remotely and in person. At 6 p.m. Monday and Tuesday, Big Island residents can attend public meetings, respectively, at ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center and at Waimea District Park.

Beyond the large numbers of Big Islanders who should turn out for such a consequential decisionmaking process, the public can watch live online (youtube.com/ usaghawaii/live).

The scale and scope of the activities at the training area should come under careful scrutiny over the next few months of information-gathering. Pohakuloa comprises about 132,000 acres in all. Of the portion leased from the state, how much of those 23,000 acres is mission-critical? The Army will have to make a solid case that this much land is needed.

According to the draft EIS, the Hawaii location “is a strategic one for national defense and rapid deployment of military forces.” Additionally, it can accommodate live-fire and maneuver training for units above the company level, such as battalions and brigades, according to the document.

The question should be whether it provides a close fit for the current needs of national defense, given the changing nature of warfare, along with its evolving technologies, over the decades.

Can some of this function be fulfilled in traning elsewhere, with international partners? Cope North 22, just to cite one example, was a joint exercise with units from the U.S., Japan and Australia converging on Guam in January.

The counterargument is likely to be that with the Army moving away from live-fire training in Makua, Pohakuloa is needed more urgently for training Hawaii troops. But the public should expect the Army to define and defend the particular use of the lands. Hawaii residents have their own interest in using and protecting the resource.

To that point, DLNR must do its due diligence as well, advocating for the island’s natural and cultural resources throughout the EIS process. It bears repeating that in 2019 the Hawaii Supreme Court found that the state agency had not provided stewardship for ceded lands — the former Hawaiian crown and government lands ceded to the U.S. The court ordered that the department draw up a plan for getting training-damaged acreage cleaned up.

With nearly six decades of hindsight, the state now knows it has not done right by Pohakuloa. Hawaii’s officials, and its residents, must take the opportunity now to press for a course correction.

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HOW TO COMMENT:

>> Read an overview of the proposal, “Army Training Land Retention at Pohakuloa Training Area,” at: home.army.mil/hawaii/index.php/ptaeis/project-home. A link to the documents are at upper right.

>> Send comments by mail: ATLR PTA EIS Comments, P.O. Box 3444, Honolulu, HI 96801-3444

>> Or email: atlr-pta-eis@g70. design

>> For assistance: (808) 656-3160