Lawmakers wary of liability burden on Kaho'olawe
By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer
Leaders of a state panel assured lawmakers yesterday that they are making extensive preparations to take over management of Kaho'olawe in November, but politicians remain uneasy over the liability burden inherent in allowing people on the former "target island" still bristling with unexploded ordnance.
"It doesn't matter what credentials you have: One accident, and it's all over," said state Sen. Cal Kawamoto, D-18th (Waipahu, Crestview, Pearl City). Kawamoto is chairman of the Senate Committee on Transportation, Military Affairs and Government Operations, which hosted the informational briefing by the state Kaho'olawe Island Reserve Commission.
Under a 10-year-old federal law that established the reserve, the Navy will turn over control of access to the island to the commission on Nov. 11. The state is holding the island in trust until a sovereign Native Hawaiian government is formed that, under the law, would assume permanent control of Kaho'olawe.
Meanwhile, Kawamoto said, the state has to shoulder responsibility for the island, where large expanses remain peppered with unexploded ordnance from decades of military training.
To date, about $380 million in federal money has been spent on the cleanup, said Navy spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. Jane Campbell. As of the end of January, workers had cleared surface ordnance from 17,036 acres, she said.
Even if the Navy meets its goal of clearing the surface of 19,500 acres by Nov. 11, that falls far short of the original plan for a surface sweeping of all 28,800 acres of the island and a more thorough clearing, to a depth of 4 feet, of nearly one-third of the island.
Campbell said the current goal for the deep cleaning covers only about 2,500 acres.
About 11 percent of the money appropriated for the rehabilitation of the island has been placed in a trust fund, said Keoni Fairbanks, the commission's executive director. Upon completion of physical improvements — including an operations center on the island — and other final preparations, the commission expects about $25 million to remain in the fund to help finance a program of educational and cultural visits to the island, Fairbanks said.
One point under negotiation between the Navy and the state is who would remove any ordnance discovered after Nov. 11, said Stanton Enomoto, the commission's senior policy adviser.
Sen. Rosalyn Baker, D-5th (W. Maui, S. Maui), asked Enomoto about waivers that visitors would sign. Kawamoto probed commissioners about the liability threat from trespassers who might be injured.
"You've got a big island, and you've got to protect all the shores," Kawamoto said. "Somebody's going to be in trouble."
Meanwhile, the Protect Kaho'olawe 'Ohana, the group that has served as civilian steward of the island since 1980, is still trying to work out lingering disagreements with the Navy over access by youths under 15. Campbell said the Navy "is willing to discuss" the matter but underscored the Navy's current intent to ban visits by those under 15.
Davianna McGregor, the 'Ohana access coordinator, said the group wants to "meet the Navy halfway" by agreeing to bar access for minors under age 12, since a 12-year-old is the youngest child on the list of those seeking permission to visit the island between now and November.
Reach Vicki Viotti at vviotti@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8053.
