Big Island residents worry about Army expansion

By William Cole
Advertiser Staff Writer

Each year, between 15,000 and 20,000 soldiers and Marines train at the Pohakuloa Training Area — the largest live-fire training range in the Pacific — but with a plan in place to greatly expand its boundaries and the number of vehicles passing through, neighboring residents are wondering about the ill effects of noise, dust, erosion and fire.

Col. Gerald Schmitz, atop Pu'u Pohakuloa, points toward the Waiki'i area, which the Army hopes to add to the training facility. Gladys Suzuki • Special to The Honolulu Advertiser

That would increase the mass of the 108,975-acre training site and bring several thousand more soldiers and hundreds of vehicles making the 30-mile trek to Pohakuloa via a private, crushed-rock road from Kawaihae Harbor. Water and supply trucks would use Saddle Road.

Some of the Army's Strykers, speedy eight-wheeled armored vehicles that are the backbone of the new fast-attack brigade, would be delivered from O'ahu to Bradshaw Army Airfield by C-17 jet-engined cargo carriers.

Not all of this sits well with those who have lived in this wide-open region for years and worry about their peaceful environment.

David Bigelow, who lives at Waiki'i Ranch, said at a public meeting on the project earlier this year that the Keamuku section of Parker Ranch the Army is looking at for maneuvers has a powder-fine volcanic pumice soil that could create massive dust storms.

Waiki'i Ranch, which has minimum 10-acre lots, would be surrounded on three sides by Pohakuloa.

"It's my belief that the Army use of Keamuku will substantially raise the risk of range fires, and probably even worse, over time, the vehicular traffic generated by military training on this fragile land will result in a major loss of topsoil," Bigelow said.

He said he believes resulting dust storms would spread across the western portion of the island.

The Stryker, an eight-wheeled infantry carrier, will be among the new equipment brought to the Big Island. Associated Press

Brian Bott favors the Army plan, saying the Big Island would get construction contracts and jobs.

"That would certainly help our economy. Our tax revenue would rise," Bott said. "I accept the fact that our Armed Forces have to train to keep their proficiency levels up."

But rancher Freddy Nobriga, 78, said recently he was opposed to the expansion. "They have all the land they need up there," said the operator of Pu'u O'o Ranch on the eastern side of Mauna Kea.

On the Big Island, the plan has meant new scrutiny of military training that has gone on for years.

Josephine Keliipio said she grew up in Keaukaha, next to the airport, "so I'm very familiar with the impacts of your training," she told Army officials.

"Those big fat airplanes that carried in all those tanks, we heard them when they came in," she said, adding that she had concerns about noise and road use.

Biologist Sean Gleasan explains work being done at the Pohakuloa Training Area's plant propagation facility. The training ground has the highest concentration of endangered species of any Army installation. Gladys Suzuki • Special to The Honolulu Advertiser

As part of the Army's new fast-strike concept, the 2nd Brigade would be beefed up to 3,580 soldiers and equipped with about 380 of the 19-ton Strykers and 500 to 600 Humvees and trucks.

The Army is conducting an Environmental Impact Statement analysis of the potential impacts of the sweeping plan. June 29 marked the close of the public comment period.

In addition to being the largest live-fire training range in the Pacific, Pohakuloa has the highest concentration of endangered species of any Army installation in the world, with 18 plant and nine bird species endangered. There are also 150 archaeological sites. The Army spends $2 million to $3 million annually at the training area for environmental stewardship.

A draft EIS is due in February, followed by a 45-day comment period and a final impact statement in August.

Sherrie Samuels, a planner with the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, said her agency was notified only recently of the Army's plan, and had not drafted a response.

The closest most residents have come to Pohakuloa has been on the Saddle Road, built in 1942 by the Army and crossing the northeastern section of the installation.

Lt. Col. Gerald J. Schmitz, PTA's commander, said residents are "fairly aware" of the training that goes on there.

"Because of where we are located, we don't get the same visibility that our training does other places," Schmitz said.

Unlike Makua Military Reservation, where a lawsuit prompted increased environmental scrutiny, Pohakuloa has not become the target of the type of organized community opposition that the military calls "encroachment," with homes pushing ever closer to once-isolated installations.

Pohakuloa, by virtue of its size, has remained isolated.

The Pohakuloa training facility is rarely seen by most Big Island residents except from the Saddle Road, which crosses the northeastern section of the installation. Mauna Loa rises to the south. Gladys Suzuki • Special to The Honolulu Advertiser

"Most everyone that I've been in contact with in the year that I've been in command ... has been very supportive and received us very favorably," he said.

As far back as 1942, Pohakuloa was being used for training. Mel Hewett, a trustee with the Parker Ranch Foundation Trust, said the 23,000-acre tract was part of a larger piece of land made available to the Marines for training by then-ranch owner Richard Smart during World War II.

More than 50,000 Marines lived at "Camp Tarawa," where the 28th Regiment trained for Iwo Jima. The unit kept a lion named Roscoe at the camp as a mascot, which Parker Ranch cooks kept well fed.

By 1955, the Army was taking control of the leased and ceded land as an artillery and aircraft firing range.

Today Pohakuloa provides training up through the brigade level, has a 3,700-foot runway, 94 mostly aging quonset huts, and a 51,000-acre central "impact area" for fighter and bomber gunnery. Helicopter rockets, anti-tank missiles, and 105 and 155mm howitzers also are fired within the impact area.

"The value behind (Pohakuloa) now is it gives us the capability to train with all of the weapons systems that are organic to the division," said Ron Borne, the Army's transformation manager. "Some of these weapons systems we can't train anywhere but Pohakuloa with."

The 25th Division and Marines from Kane'ohe Bay use Pohakuloa the most, but the Air Force, National Guard and Reserve units also train there. Pohakuloa is used for training 60 to 70 percent of the time, Schmitz said.

Borne said, based on training doctrine for large exercises, a Stryker brigade could go to the site twice a year for training — or it could go once a year, being divided the rest of the year into smaller battalion deployments.

Several thousand soldiers and as many as 900 vehicles would deploy to Pohakuloa at full-brigade strength.

The "Pohakuloa West" land, which the Army already occasionally leases, would be used for Stryker maneuver terrain, blank-fire exercises and a paratrooper drop zone, because much of the existing 108,975 acres is environmentally sensitive or inhospitable lava field, officials said.

For environmental reasons, Borne said, "you may see more Makua-like considerations — temperature, wind, last rainfall (before training is allowed) — and that wouldn't be just for fire, it would also be for dust and erosion."

Parker Ranch's Hewett said no decision had been made to sell or enter into a long-term lease for the land.

"We'd have to look at the results of the EIS — so for us to say anything would be premature," Hewett said. "We don't know who would be impacted. We want to be responsible in our conduct of our management of the ranch."

No one lives at Pohakuloa, and 21 active-duty service personnel are stationed on the Big Island, Schmitz said. Approximately 100 civilian employees work there.

"We're looking now at — with the new ranges and new facilities — what would that do to our permanent work force? Will it increase the permanent military presence on the island?" Schmitz said. "If it does, it would be a very minimal increase, we think, overall."

Staff writer Hugh Clark contributed to this report. Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-5459.

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