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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Tuesday, January 28, 2003

ISLAND VOICES
The real story on Kaho'olawe

By Rear Adm. R.T. Conway Jr.
Commander, Navy Region Hawai'i

I read with interest the Dec. 29 article entitled "Federal money flow to Kaho'olawe to cease this year." While reporter Timothy Hurley captured the complexity of the "island's environmental restoration, administrative control and access," I feel obligated to provide factual data to correct several inaccuracies in the article.

At the outset, the article states that the Kaho'olawe Island Reserve Commission receives 10 percent of the money appropriated by Congress. The actual percentage is 11 percent of the nearly $400 million. In this situation, with such a large appropriation, a simple percentage point variance constitutes a nearly $4 million difference.

The article also stated that our contractor has spent $100 million "on helicopters to transport workers and equipment." The reality is that the decision to use helicopters as the primary means of logistics support will result in an overall savings of more than $12 million over any other feasible support option.

Without a doubt, taking 350 workers to an island without any infrastructure is a costly requirement. The actual costs reflect that less than $70 million has been spent on transportation. The decision to rely on helicopters as the primary means of logistics support was based on a study conducted in 1998 that determined that helicopter operations would be the most cost-effective transportation option and would have the least impact on the island.

Additionally, Hurley's article stated that the commission "can't afford the base camp at Honokanai'a, which operates on a budget of more than $2 million a year." While the cost of the operation is accurate, the comparison is inappropriate. The Navy's base camp currently supports an on-island workforce of more than 350 people who are conducting the world's largest Department of Defense ordnance-removal project.

There is also a reference to an undocumented 1994 commitment to "100 percent surface clearance and 30 percent subsurface clearance." Those figures form the basis of a plan that was developed with those goals in mind.

Implementation of that plan has been based on the availability of funding from the U.S. Congress. The clearance operations accomplished to date have fully used the nearly $400 million of federal tax dollars set aside by Congress for Kaho'olawe, reduced by the 11 percent provided to the commission.

As the Navy and our dedicated team of contractors enter into the final months of clearance operations, we are proud of our accomplishments. The stated objectives of the special federal legislation for Kaho'olawe, which called for "assuring meaningful, safe use of the island of Kaho'olawe for appropriate cultural, historical, archaeological and educational purposes as determined by the State of Hawai'i and to provide for the clearance or removal of unexploded ordnance and for the environmental restoration of the island for such purposes," have been met.

Anyone who has had the opportunity to learn about this rigorous project quickly recognizes that the areas on Kaho'olawe of most interest to the commission have been the focus of this remarkable undertaking.

I would be remiss not to discuss the island's contribution to our nation's history from a national defense perspective. In the early days, as a military training range, Kaho'olawe served as the naval gunfire rehearsal location for the battles at Saipan and Guadalcanal. According to military historians, by September 1945, 532 major ships had trained at Kaho'olawe. Three hundred fifty Navy, Marine and Army shore fire control officers had receiving training there. More than 150 Navy pilots had practiced air spotting there. Another 730 were trained in joint signal operations.

Over the past few years, we have annually approved access requests for more than 700 people to visit Kaho'olawe for the reasons listed above. Safe, meaningful access to the island is happening today. We hope that record continues as control of access passes to the state in November.