Traditions await further cleanup

By Timothy Hurley
Advertiser Maui County Bureau

The barren east end of Kaho‘olawe contrasts with the green, lush west end of Maui, in the background. The island’s transfer will mark the first time since statehood that Hawai‘i will control access to all its territory. Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

On Nov. 11, the island's journey from conscripted bombing range to cultural preserve will hit yet another milestone: the Navy officially hands over access control to the state.

The date marks 10 years since Congress authorized the $400 million cleanup of the island and represents the first time since statehood that Hawai'i will control access to all its territory.

"I honestly don't know where the 10 years went," said Dr. Noa Emmett Aluli, chairman of the Kahoolawe Island Reserve Commission and president of the Protect Kaho'olawe 'Ohana, the group that carried out a series of occupations of the island beginning in 1976 and continued the fight in the years since.

The battle to wrest control of Kaho'olawe from the Navy, which had been using the island for target practice since the start of World War II, was an early model for the Native Hawaiian rights movement, a catalyst for activism and cultural resurgence throughout the Islands.

A ceremony marking the transfer to the state will be held Nov. 12 at 'Iolani Palace. The noon program will be preceded by a cultural ceremony at the 'ahu on the palace grounds at 11:30 a.m.

'New territory'

Protesters showed their disapproval of the Navy's bombing of Kaho'olawe by holding banners along a Maui highway in 1982. The Navy stopped using the island for target practice in 1990, after 50 years. Advertiser library photo • Oct. 11, 1982

"It's not as though we're going to fling the doors open and say, 'Come one, come all,' " said Stanton Enomoto, acting executive director of the Kaho'olawe Island Reserve Commission.

For one thing, the Navy's contractor will continue working on the island for an additional four months, thanks to an unexpected $18.4 million allocation obtained with the help of U.S. Sen. Dan Inouye, D-Hawai'i.

For another, the commission appears to be moving toward a gradual opening of access as it faces a future of uncertain finances and the burden of liability linked to the unexploded ordnance that remain embedded in vast sections of Kaho'olawe.

"The commission is stepping into new territory," Enomoto said. "We've got to understand what's going on there, set up shop and make sure everything is in place."

For the time being, nothing's going to change on the island. Nov. 11 is planned as just another work day for the nearly 400 employees of Kaho'olawe contractor Parsons-UXB and its subcontractors, and the project will continue until March 12.

To Aluli, one of the first protesters to occupy the island in 1976, March 12 is the real transfer date.

"That to me is the party," he said. "To me, Nov. 11 is just a paper transfer of the access control."

According to the Navy, nearly 70 percent of the surface of the 28,800-acre island will be cleared of ordnance by the end of the year. Of that area, only 9 percent will be cleared to a level 4 feet below ground.

Those numbers are irksome to commissioners and others involved in the Kaho'olawe movement. They continue to hold up a 1994 memorandum of understanding between the Navy and the state that called for 100 percent surface clearance and 30 percent subsurface clearance.

"They have failed us time and time again," said Colette Machado, commissioner from Moloka'i.

Navy officials say they did the best they could given the money and time limitations set by Congress. Kaho'olawe was the first unexploded-ordnance removal project ever undertaken by the Navy. It took five years of planning and preparation just to begin work.

But while efficiency increased as the project went along, the operation endured some problems in its final months as 20 percent of the ordnance experts quit to work in Iraq, lured by salaries in the $200,000-a-year range.

What's more, nearly 16 acres on the western side of the island failed quality-assurance checks, causing their clearance category to be downgraded to an unusable level.

Navy proud of work

Ceremonial offerings were left on a Kaho'olawe rain shrine in 2002 in conjunction with the dedication of a new water catchment system. Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

"This is the most studied, most assessed piece of terra firma in the world," Campbell said.

The bottom line, she said, is that the state will inherit an island that will provide safe and meaningful use.

Before the Navy starts demobilizing its equipment and hauls off the remaining bombs and range scrap, the island workforce will spend most of its time engaged in "risk reduction" work, a new class of clearance created in the final months of the project to maximize the use of work teams.

The Navy aims to put 1,845 acres in the risk-reduction category, which means that surface-exposed ordnance will be cleared but the scrap metal and other junk normally hauled away will be left behind.

While Campbell said the risk-reduction territory will provide an added measure of safety to the island, Aluli called it "a waste of money" because the area won't be certified for safe use.

Aluli and other commissioners, who toured the island by air earlier this month, complained that a great deal of scrap still remains on the island. They expressed anxiousness over whether the Navy will be able to finish its job without leaving problems behind.

James Putnam, the project's civilian director, said the scrap will be cleared and all other aspects of the operation will be completed on time.

Trails, campsites in future

"It would have been nice to have it all cleared. But it's not," said commissioner Burt Sakata of Maui. "It took 20 years to stop the bombing, so it's just going to take longer (for the clearance)."

In the meantime, the commission is working toward an agreement that will compel the Navy to return to the island to remove any ordnance that becomes exposed by erosion or other means.

As for the future, the commission is planning trails, campsites and education centers for visitors to the cultural preserve. Among the major projects being planned is construction of a pier to serve the vessels that will transport most of the people to and from the island. Also planned is an administrative office and visitor center on the South Maui coast at Kihei.

But for now, those facilities aren't ready and access will remain at its current restricted level, which includes fishing in Kaho'olawe waters only two weekends per month.

Even after access is opened up, activities will be limited to cleared areas, and many regions will require an escort to accompany visitors.

And not just anyone will be allowed onto the island. Visitation, Aluli said, will be reserved for those who want to advance the mission of the reserve, including those who want to practice Native Hawaiian traditions, volunteer for environmental work or engage in preservation or archaeological activities.

Access is also clouded by the money issue. With the end of the federal contract comes the end of the commission's source of money. While the commission has $30 million in a trust fund, it will take more than interest from that amount to pay for the proposed capital improvements, the ongoing restoration activities and island oversight.

Enomoto said the commission will pursue other avenues of financial support, including grants, donations and government sources. The commission has snagged a $400,000 state Department of Health watershed grant to pay for a couple of years of reforestation efforts.

"It's not just a barren island," Sakata said. "It has a lot of life, really. We just have to nurture it."

Reach Timothy Hurley at (808) 244-4880 or thurley@honoluluadvertiser.com.