Army outlines Stryker impacts

By Kevin Dayton
Advertiser Big Island Bureau

Eight-wheeled Stryker personnel carriers would roll over parts of O'ahu and the Big Island as part of the Stryker brigade conversion project being proposed. Advertiser library photo

HILO, Hawai'i — The Army has outlined plans to deal with dust, noise, endangered species and other issues surrounding its $1.5 billion plan to create a Stryker brigade combat team at Schofield Barracks, expected to be operational by 2007.

The five-volume, 2,000-page final environmental impact statement for the project will be available online today at www.sbcteis.com.

No estimates are available on how much the mitigation measures outlined in the study will cost, but they likely will be expensive.

To reduce the dust kicked up by the massive Stryker vehicles in training on O'ahu and the Big Island, the military is proposing to lay gravel and to spray "environmentally friendly" binding materials on trails to create a "crunchy" surface. The study also outlines monitoring and training rotation plans to limit environmental damage from maneuvers by the 20-ton, eight-wheeled vehicles.

New buildings at Schofield Barracks will be insulated to reduce the noise from artillery practice, according to the environmental impact statement, and 1,000-foot buffer zones will be created around the Waiki'i Ranch subdivision and the Kilohana Girl Scout Camp next to a proposed new maneuver area on the Big Island.

The Stryker training will result in significant erosion at the Pohakuloa and Kahuku training areas, but the Army plans to keep the problem "within the acceptable ranges" through monitoring and management measures.

Threatened, endangered or "sensitive" plant species would be fenced or flagged "where practicable," and the Army will instruct soldiers and take other steps to limit the spread of invasive species, according to the study.

Public affairs officer Lt. Col. John Williams yesterday called the document one of the most comprehensive environmental impact statements the Army has ever produced.

The Stryker conversion of a Schofield Barracks brigade would involve 28 construction projects on O'ahu and the Big Island that are expected to cost $693 million.

To provide additional training areas for the Stryker crews, the Army has proposed buying 1,400 acres on O'ahu and 23,000 acres on the Big Island, and building 49 miles of trails for the vehicles. It also would involve six new ranges, upgrades at two airfields and a variety of support facilities.

The environmental impact statement is expected to be studied closely by critics of the program, including David Henkin, staff attorney with Earthjustice, an environmental law firm. Henkin said he will review the document to see if the Army seriously considered alternatives such as putting the Stryker brigade in another state.

Given the scarcity of land and the number of endangered species and culturally significant sites in Hawai'i, it may be unwise to place what is essentially a mechanized brigade here, Henkin said. He said Army officials and the draft impact statement ignored that possibility.

"The law simply does not allow them to limit their analysis in that way," he said. "The law wants an informed decision. An informed decision includes the range of reasonable alternatives, and when you spend hundred of millions or billions of dollars to fundamentally change the 25th Infantry Division, you expect a broader treatment of the subject than the draft (impact statement) had."

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is expected to publish an official notice today or next week announcing that the impact statement is available. That notice marks the beginning of a 30-day waiting period in which the Army considers the project, and thereafter publishes a record of decision on whether it intends to proceed.

Henkin argued the Army should allow more than 30 days for decision-makers and the public to digest the 2,000-page study. Making a decision in 30 days amounts to "trying to skate by on the bare minimum necessary," he said. "They're dealing with a decision that will have profound ramifications for the people of this state."

Reach Kevin Dayton at kdayton@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 935-3916.