BREAKING NEWS!

Posted 1/17/2025

Department of the Navy
Captain Brett A. Stevenson
Commander United States Pacific Fleet
Pacific Missile Range Facility Barking Sands
Kauai, Hawaii Aloha Captain Stevenson,

On behalf of Friends of Maha`ulepu please accept this addition public comment in response to the proposed increase in the Navy’s bombing exercises on target Ka`ula Island. We just were informed today of the public meeting at the Veteran’s Center in Lihue and were advised that comment could be made today as well. Regretfully, despite our earlier comment, copy below, we did not receive Notice of a further public meeting on the Ka`ula Island bombing proposed increases. We were unable to inform our members, many of whom are Hawaiian who engage in traditional and customary fishing and gathering practices on or close to Ka`ula, the 10th largest of the Hawaiian Islands.

Unfortunately, I am committed to attending to a meeting that starts at 6:00 pm today but do appreciate the Navy’s offer to accept additional public testimony.

In addition to the Testimony filed below, we would like to request that the Navy consider limiting its disturbance of the Ka`ula Island ecosystems by limiting any exercise to the additional 12 acre parcel that was previously the subject of the bombing training exercises when the Navy’s permit was issued by the Coast Guard. While we recognize that the Navy’s need to maintain readiness standards and we understand the bombing will primarily include non-explosive 500 lb bombs, there will still be a significant disruption to the wild life anywhere near where the dropped bombs fall. Because Ka`ula is such a critical migratory bird sanctuary and habit for the reproduction of many protected migratory bird species, limiting the exercises to a 10-12 acre area rather than the proposed 114 acres would no doubt be far less disruptive to the species and the traditional and cultural practitioners. The migratory birds would soon learn to nest away from the 10-12 acre section as they no doubt did with the earlier bombing exercises in the 1960s. Such a modification to the proposed increased bombing exercises would also be less destructive to the traditional and cultural practitioners who currently rely on sustenance fishing and Limu gathering on or near Ka`ula.

Your anticipated response is appreciated. If there are any further public hearings, we would appreciate notification in time to notify our members.

Mahalo nui,

Bridget Hammerquist, President
Friends of Maha`ulepu, a 501(c)(3)
Kia`i Wai o Wai`ale`ale, Co-founder
PO Box 1654
Koloa, HI 96756
friendsofmahaulepu.org
[email protected]
(808) 742-1037 home
(808) 346-1973 cell

On 9/30/2024 6:37 PM, Bridget Hammerquist wrote:

Friends of Maha’ulepu           friendsofmahaulepu.org            9/30/2024
Department of the Navy
Commander United States Pacific Fleet
Pacific Missile Range Facility Barking Sands
Kauai, Hawaii

Comment – Expansion of Pacific Missile Range Facility Land-Based Training and Testing Activities on Kauai – Draft Environmental Assessment August 2024

Aloha,

Geographically and biologically, Kaʻula could be considered to be part of the Northwest Hawaiian Islands. However, it is the westernmost of the Main Hawaiian Islands and is not included in the Northwestern Hawaiian Island section – it is part of Kauaʻi County. It is Hawaiʻi’s second largest offshore islet (after Lehua,) making it the tenth largest island in the Main Hawaiian Island chain.

Kaʻula Island is around 20 miles west of Niʻihau. Kaʻula Island is designated as a state seabird sanctuary, providing a nesting ground for migratory birds. Hawaiian monk seals, sea turtles, and humpback whales can also be spotted along the shoreline.

Kaʻula is a sacred site. It is named in one of the most popular oli used across Hawaiʻi, Ke Lei Maila, is a traditional place to harvest wildlife, and is a place of spiritual significance in the birth of the islands. It is desecration to attack it and bomb it.

It has been more than 30 years since there was any environmental impact study actually done for the increased bombing and continued bombing and military exercises proposed by the Navy to be conducted on Kaʻula. A public hearing should be held, properly and timely noticed so the public may attend and the Navy be made aware of the true impact to Hawaiian cultural and traditional fishing practices in the near shore waters of Kaʻula.
Please accept this Comment filed on behalf of Friends of Maha`ulepu, a community organization whose members reside on all parts of Kauai from its northern to its western most shores. Our nation is currently encouraging a cease fire in several parts of the world with the development of satellite to ground positioning, electronic and computer aided targeting, any exercise that involves actual bombing of an area of land, particularly a part of Hawaii that has been identified as a bird sanctuary, one vital to the reproductive cycle of more than a hundred migratory bird species, is absurd!

Is it the Navyʻs intent that while its government advocates against the use of weapons, bombs and proclaims the need for a cease fire elsewhere in the world but it somehow makes sense to bomb a migratory birds sanctuary in abject violation of the Migratory Birds Treaty Act (MBTA). Yes, there is an exemption that the government carved out for readiness exercises but what that really means is that the government has used self serving circular reasoning to abandon the treaty protections that were deemed absolutely necessary for the survival of these species.

In 1978, the State of Hawaii designated Kaʻula island a migratory bird sanctuary, recognizing that more than 100 species rely on this resting spot, free of predators for the laying of eggs and their very existence. So how is the goal of procreating and sustaining of the species satisfied if the Navy not only continues but increases the bombing, training exercises and land craft exercises. How is any of this of benefit to the endangered and indigenous Hawaiian monk seal and to the protected Hawaiian green sea turtle? Are there no simulated exercises that could be carried out without actual destruction?

The Navy’s Environmental Assessment lists a number of NEPA specialist but there is no clear indication that NEPA was actually consulted or made a determination of the cumulative impact and long term impact to the endangered and protected species over time. While the EA gives the impression that the species were considered, when one drills down into the EA, one learns that there is an exemption for any consideration of what is really being done to the species that rely on this island for their protection and procreation.

Similarly, the EA is deficient and makes little or no assessment to the actual impact to marine life based on any effort to collect date from years past or any effort to project that into the future the likely harm caused when the readiness exercises fail to hit the intended target.

Rather than the barbaric determination that a Treaty designed to assure the sustainability of ecologically valued migratory sea birds has somehow been a consideration, the Navy is relying on a blanket exemption because the proposed activities are considered valid readiness training exercises. In so doing, the purpose of the Treaty is completely defeated. Do we really need to have such training exercises with today’s technology?

Please, at a minimum, hold a public meeting and help the community understand why hawaiian culture, valued flora and fauna are being so totally disregarded. The links that follow contain the MBTA and more than 118 species intended for protection and preservation. The Navy’s EA will definitely have a significant impact. How can the proposed exercise not significantly impact these species, particularly where Kaʻula is a protected sanctuary that is without predators but for the Navy’s proposal.

Migratory Birds Treaty

Protected migratory sea birds

Mahalo nui,

Bridget Hammerquist, President
Friends of Maha`ulepu, a 501(c)(3)
Kia`i Wai o Wai`ale`ale, Co-founder
PO Box 1654
Koloa, HI 96756
friendsofmahaulepu.org
[email protected]
(808) 742-1037 home
(808) 346-1973 cell

Posted 12/17/2024

Aloha All,

Happy Holidays. Greetings from the FOM Board of Directors. We are pleased to share that we have had another success that may lead to a really large success. When Governor Josh Green was elected, one of his largest campaign contributors was Pacific Resource Partnership (PRP), an organization that represents the Hawaii Regional Council of Carpenters and more than 240 of Hawaii’s top contractors. Shortly after his election, he began work on an Emergency Proclamation to fast track the construction of homes in Hawaii. The proclamation was packaged as something that would more rapidly and effectively address the housing shortage for Hawaii’s residents. When we read the Proclamation, however, there were no controls over the value or sale price of the housing and condos that would be rapidly permitted, by the Governor’s Order which gave developers an exemption from the normal permit application process. FOM challenged the Proclamation on behalf of our members because we understood that absent some curtailment on the price point, the developers would build luxury homes and condos, further compounding the housing shortage for the workforce and average local residents. We challenged the order on the grounds that the housing shortage had been developing in this state for the past 30 years because our public officials have not effectively limited luxury development and required the construction of much needed affordable housing for the workforce. Hawaii is a very beautiful place. Kauai the Garden Island is right now suffering from the siege of developers with the effort to construct a new 350 room luxury resort at the site of the former Coco Palms. On the south shore, developer Gary Pinkston and his company Meridian Pacific have nearly 400 units, all luxury, planned with construction underway. FOM’s challenge to the Proclamation was dismissed by the lower court who found against our strong belief that affected residents have the right to challenge such Proclamations. We appealed to the Interim Court of Appeals and then filed a Brief with the Hawaii State Supreme Court asking the Court to interrupt the normal appellant process because the issue was of significant public interest. If we had had to wait for the Interim Court of Appeal to decide the issue, that would have taken another two years. The high court agreed with our Petition to transfer the matter, thereby cutting short the appellant process as we are now right before the Supreme Court of the State of Hawaii. All five justices unanimously signed the Order transferring the matter to their docket. Our legal team needs to be congratulated and hopefully we will defeat the Emergency Proclamation which is nothing more that a veiled attempt to encourage large scale development of visitor industry accommodations.