Posted at 11:25 a.m., Monday, July 9, 2001

Makua activists fill court

By Mike Gordon
Advertiser Staff Writer

Bearing ti leaves and a Hawaiian flag, opponents of the Army's plan to resume live-fire training in Makua Valley filled a federal courtroom today in hopes that U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway will halt the use of explosives until a lawsuit can be resolved.

About 80 people came, nearly all part of a group that had chanted on the courthouse steps to support a lawsuit against the Army by Malama Makua and the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund in December.

Army supporters also came, in a solemn minority.

The Army has not used the 4,190-acre valley for nearly three years. On May 15 it released a supplemental environmental assessment finding "no signficant impact" to resumed training, noting that it has a plan to deal with the brushfires that plagued the valley.

Malama Makua wants the Army to prepare an environmental impact statement, a more comprehensive study that requires greater public participation.

Officers at Schofield Barracks had hoped to send troops back in for training as early as this month. They have maintained for months that it is vital to save lives.

"That is crucial to the Army, to the success of these people," Army attorney Col. David Howlett told Mollway. "In this supplemental environmental assessment the Army took a hard look at Makua." Decisions were not based on guesswork, he said.

David Henkin, an attorney for Earthjustice, argued that the Army could annihilate the valley's 45 endangered species. He said fires easily spread upslope from the training area to where endangered species are found, and noted that the Army's own experts have said fires are inevitable and that the Army plan to prevent them is experimental.

"We're here today with a strong message," said Wai-

'anae resident William Aila Jr., one of the group that gathered early outside the courthouse today as military officers briefly watched.

"The fire is burning in us."