Federal money flow to Kaho'olawe to cease in '03
By Timothy Hurley
Advertiser Maui County Bureau
First, there was the long and courageous struggle by Hawaiians to stop the bombing. Then, there was the battle over how much ordnance would be removed.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
Now, as the federally paid-for cleanup of Kaho'olawe approaches its less-than-perfect conclusion, a new challenge faces those responsible for the fate of Hawai'i's eighth largest island: What now?
Hokulani Holt-Padilla arranges a ho'okupu during a recent ceremony on Kaho'olawe to bless a new water catchment system, one of many projects under way to restore vitality to the bomb-devastated island.
It's a simple question but one complicated by the fact that money for the Kaho'olawe Island Reserve Commission stops as soon as the cleanup ends Nov. 11, 2003.
What that means is that the agency responsible for the island's environmental restoration, administrative control and access could be left without an ongoing source of money.
While the commission has $25 million in its trust fund, that may not go far considering that it spends $5 million annually and figures an additional $40 million is needed for infrastructure improvements.
The commission faces some difficult decisions about its future as it prepares to take administrative control from the Navy.
"We always said stopping the bombing was easier than managing the island," said Dr. Noa Emmett Aluli, commission chairman, a founder of Protect Kaho'olawe 'Ohana and one of the first protesters to occupy the island in 1976.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
Commissioners recently indicated that they want to continue the current level of environmental and cultural activity on Kaho'olawe, and have instructed staff to look into the possibility of obtaining outside money.
Keoni Fairbanks kneels on sacks that have been placed around the Lua Makika area of Kaho'olawe to help control erosion. Some have estimated that the island loses as much as 2 million tons of soil annually as a result of erosion.
Up to now, the agency with fewer than 20 employees has been operating with money from only one source: 10 percent of the $400 million appropriated by Congress for the cleanup.
Keoni Fairbanks, executive director of the Kaho'olawe Island Reserve Commission, said there are a number of promising sources of new money, many of them involving scientific research, but none guaranteed. If no money is obtained, the commission's $25 million trust fund would last only until 2009, he said.
"We're looking forward to the end of the cleanup, to having that out of our hair. The problem is there goes our (financial) life-blood,'' he said.
State taxpayers are under no obligation to pay for the ongoing restoration of the island. State law says only that the resources and waters of Kaho'olawe shall be held in trust and transferred to a sovereign Hawaiian entity upon its recognition by the federal government and the state.
One answer may be to evolve into a nonprofit for fund-raising purposes. Either way, Fairbanks said, the agency may want to create a stand-alone foundation — or at least to work in conjunction with one — to handle fund-raising.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
The commission is going to need the money to pay for some of the roughly $40 million in capital improvements it has identified to help support its vision of Kaho'olawe as a Hawaiian cultural reserve.
Kaho'olawe's new water catchment system is perhaps the most significant project completed by the Kaho'olawe Island Reserve Commission in recent years. It is designed to collect rainwater to fight erosion and help make the dry, windswept island green again.
Proposals include construction of a pier capable of handling supply barges and other vessels for transportation to and from the island. (The pier also needs a road.)
The Navy's contractor spent $100 million, or 25 percent of its budget, on helicopters to transport workers and equipment.
"We can't afford that," Fairbanks said.
Another expenditure the commission can't afford is the base camp at Honokanai'a, which operates on a budget of more than $2 million a year. Commissioner Burt Sakata said the panel is hoping to scale back base camp operations to perhaps $500,000 a year.
Also on the commission's capital improvement list is construction of an education center and administrative office on Maui. The land, already given to the commission by the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, is prime oceanfront property next to the Kihei Boat Ramp, looking across the 'Alalakeiki Channel.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
While the commission grapples with its financial future, its staff is continuing to negotiate issues involved in the upcoming transfer, including the identification of assets on the island now and what stays and what goes.
Burt Sakata and others working at Kaho'olawe see restoration of vegetation as a major project once the Navy leaves on Nov. 11, 2003.
"It's literally down to the plates, knives and forks," Sakata said.
Because of the expense, the Navy isn't interested in hauling everything off the island. There are, for example, a lot of old military trucks that are functional on Kaho'olawe but may not be appropriate for streets and roads elsewhere.
Also under discussion is the protocol for what to do when bombs are discovered in the future. Officials say it's inevitable that erosion will expose previously undiscovered ordnance, and the Navy is obligated to return to the island to dispose of the potential hazard.
The prospect of an incomplete cleanup remains a sore spot.
When the ordnance project concludes in November, the Navy's contractor is expected to have cleared about two-thirds of the island's surface and less than 10 percent of its subsurface. That falls well short of the Navy's 1994 projection of 100 percent surface and 30 percent subsurface clearance.
With the ongoing war on terrorism and a possible conflict with Iraq, President Bush and Congress have not offered any optimism that money for future cleanup efforts is forthcoming, Aluli said.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
It has been suggested that there are legal grounds for demanding a full clearance, such as the 1953 order by President Eisenhower enlisting the island as a bombing range. It said the island would eventually be rendered "reasonably safe for human habitation.'' There's also the Navy's 1994 commitment to 100 percent surface clearance and 30 percent subsurface clearance.
Bringing vegetation to life may be particularly challenging in boulder-strewn parts of Kaho'olawe, such as its barren east end.
But it doesn't appear the commission is going to enter into any legal battle now.
"More important is the greening of the island and the use of the island. We need to concentrate on Nov. 11," Aluli said.
Still, with so many areas embedded with ordnance, it only adds to the ongoing cost of managing the island. According to a risk management plan, groups will be required to file safety and logistics plans. Escorts will be needed for others, and signs will have to be posted in dangerous areas.
Fairbanks said the battle over the military's obligation to clean more of the island is not over.
"But it's a battle for another day,'" he said.
Reach Timothy Hurley at thurley@honoluluadvertiser.com or 244-4480.
