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Home My WebLink AboutCOM 0377.001 2024-2026Testimony in support of Resolution 234-25 re: Pohakuloa, for Policy Committee on Environmental and Natural Resource Management 2 PM Tuesday, July 22, 2025, Hilo On behalf of our organization — Malu `Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action I strongly support Resolution 234-25. But I would suggest deleting "unless stipulations are established" in point #2 of the resolved Let's be clear" The military needs to Stop Bombing and Shelling Pohakuloa, Clean up its unexploded ordnance and toxic mess created from 80 years of live fire, do a comprehensive Ka Pa'akai analysis, and return the stolen land to the Hawaiian people. The Hawaii County Council passed Resolution 639-08 seventeen years ago which called for 8 actions by the military, including stopping all live fire and cleaning up its DU mess, none of which have been done. Hawaii is the most densely militarized state in the US and one of the most militarized places in the world. According to the State of Hawaii 2023 Data book (hh :Hdbedt.hawaii.gov/, the current number of military installations in Hawaii is 129. A Civil Beat article of June 18, 2025, htips://www.civilbeat.org/2025/06/hawaii-needs- new-tech-to-clean-up-old-bombs/ says MORE THAN 300 "Formerly Used Defense Sites" (FUDS) are scattered across the Hawaiian Islands. That only includes sites before 1986 so Kaho'olawe and possibly other sites are NOT included in this list of more than 300 total FUDS. In 2003, Malu `Aina prepared a map of Hawaii island with a list of 57 present or former military sites.(htips:.//malu-aina.orgl?p�11342_.) A 58t' sate is Popoki Target Area near HPP between Kea'au and Pahoa. There may be more sites that are still unknown. Watch where you step! The military currently controls more than 221,000 acres of land in Hawaii. Pohakuloa totals nearly 133,000 acres, more than half of all military lands in Hawaii. Now the military wants more lands to create `Buffer Zones" around key military installations called "Sentinel Landscapes." It wants to create a control buffer zone of more than 66,000 acres around the entire PTA base according to the Hawaii Military Land Use Master Plan (HMLUMP). These "Buffer Zones" will be used to co-opt environmental groups and farmers from criticizing the military if they want to keep access to lands around bases. Please tell me who would want to eat vegetables or a hamburger from. crops or animals grown net to the Pohakuloa Toxic Area? In summary, Pohakuloa is the 133,000 toxic elephant in the center of Hawaii Island. Continued bombing and shelling re suspend toxins into the air that can be carried long distances in the wind. Military toxins have the potential to contaminate major aquifers beneath Pohakuloa. Pohakuloa is a zoned a. State Conservation District. The highest protected land status. Bombing and shelling anre not compatible land uses in a Comm r,,qf. To: 7ef. Date_ 2 2 2024--- conservation district. How much more basic can you get. The final EIS on the PTA lease renewal states that since 1975, 1261 wildfires have been started at Pohakuloa. The EIS further states that records prior to 2012 are incomplete so the actual number of wildfires started at PTA could be higher. It also states that due to increasing climate change the number of wildfires is likely to increase. Let me be frank. You need to do more than urge the State to take action. You need to take action. Our organization since 2007 has detected on numerous occasions Radiation blowing in the strong winds off Pohakuloa toward Oilbeert Kahele Park with certified, calibrated radiation monitors. The levels reached 3, 4, even 5 times background levels. When are you going to put proper air filter monitors in that park to determine the toxins coming off PTA? When are you going to do soil testing in that park? Or is your position if we look we may find something, so better not look. I hope, and expect you to do better. Mahalo. n o c-3 � CD C C:. Jim Albertini President of Malu `Aina -' July 22, 2025 _ ___ The Dangers of Nuclear War Have Never Been Higher! By NORMAN SOLOMON "The dangers of nuclear war have never been higher, but political pressure to prevent it is at low ebb. Eighty years after the atomic age began with the Trinity bomb test in New Mexico on July 16, 1945, words can't possibly be adequate to describe the extent of global horrors that today's nuclear arsenals are capable of inflicting. But mainstream US media outlets and partisan politics are routinely oblivious to the threat of oblivion. Despite the efforts of individuals and groups striving for arms control, the national discourse ignores the likely results of nuclear buildups —which continue to boost the actual risks of annihilation. Pronouncements from the nuclear establishment about a need to "maintain deterrence" and "modernize" usually go unquestioned as to the underlying assumptions. Senators and representatives praise nuclear systems with components produced in their state or district... Meanwhile, for the corporate beneficiaries of a trillion -dollar Pentagon budget and an out -of -control nuclear weapons program, the more hostility toward Russia and China the better. And the country that first brought atomic weapons into the world is continuing to lead the way toward thermonuclear destruction. For those of us who have lived in the era of nuclear bombs for many decades, still being alive can seem close to miraculous. Luck and collective efforts for sanity must have been factors. Now, the generations with most of their lives potentially ahead are in a world that could instantly make that impossible. The heightened militarism of American politics is threatening to seal their fate." Read the full article 80 Years After Trinity, the Dangers of Nuclear War Have Never Been Higher: Never Give Up! Peace is a Victory for All! 1. Mourn all victims of violence. 2. Reject violence & war as solutions. 3. Defend civil liberties. 4.Oppose all discrimination: anti -Islamic, anti-Semitic, anti -Hawaiian, anti -Black, anti -Asian, anti -Russian, anti-LGBTQ, etc. 5. Seek peace through peaceful means and work for justice in Hawaii and around the world. Malu `Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action P.O. Box 489 Ola'a (Kurtistown), Hawai'i 96760 Phone (808) 966-7622 Email jaQmalu-aina.org to receive our posts. For more information see htMs://www.malu-aina.arg July 18, 2025, Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet — week 1242— Fridays 3:30-5 PM downtown Post Office • obaM1*11*tary. https://worldbeyondwar.org/military-empires RUSSIA k �TINa r FGHANISTAN iRAN PgKISTA, b L� H await Mi ar i es. Hawaii is the most densely militarized state in the US and one of the most militarized places in the world. According to the The State of Hawaii Data Book 2023 hnp:Hdbedt.hawaii.gov/ the current number of military installations in Hawaii is 129. A Civil Beat article of June 18, 2025 says more than 300 "Formerly Used Defense Sites (FUDS) are scattered across the Hawaii Islands." https://www.civilbeat.orp,12025/06/hawaii-needs-new-tech-to-clean- up-old-bombs/ <https://www civilbeat.orp/2025/06/hawaii-needs-new-tech-to-clean-up-old-bombs/> Many of these sites may contain Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) and military toxins. Malu `Aina in 2003 prepared a map of Hawaii island with a list of 57 present or former military sites. (https://malu-aina.org/?p=11342) A 581h site is Popoki Target Area near HPP between Kea'au and Pahoa. There will be a public meeting about Popoki by the Army Corps of Engineers 7/20/25 Sunday 11-2 at the Maku'u Farmers Market. The actual number of present or former military sites on Hawaii Island could be many more. If you know of any, please contact us. Malu `Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action P.O. Box 489 Ola'a (Kurtistown), Hawai'i 96760 Phone (808) 966-7622 Email jaOmalu-aina.orto receive our posts. For more information see hops://www.malu-aina.org