The Maui News
February 09, 2003
By ILIMA LOOMIS
Staff Writer
WAILUKU -- U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye remembers his visit to Kahoolawe more than a decade ago, when he was one of the few people to walk on the island before cleanup operations began.
"You could see the shells lying all over the place," he said. "It looked like a war zone -- much more dangerous than the ones I've been through. You could see the shells, and no one could tell you what was under your feet."
Now Inouye is looking forward to another milestone in the island's history. Ten years of federal cleanup ends on Nov. 11, 2003, and Kahoolawe will be returned to state administrative control for the first time since the U.S. Navy took it over as a bombing range in 1941.
"I'm glad it turned out this way," Inouye said, calling the project a success.
But while the transition marks the close of one chapter, the future of the island is far from decided.
Unexploded bombs, shells and incendiary devices remain a hazard on the island, even after 10 years of clearance -- and environmental protection, historic preservation, reforestation, education and other programs currently underway face an uncertain future.
That's because federal funding for Kahoolawe operations is expected to dry up on transition day, and the state isn't likely to add the project to its budget.
The state is mandated to hold the island until it can be handed over to a "sovereign Native Hawaiian entity," a body that has yet to be formally created or recognized.
Kahoolawe Island Reserve Commission Chairman Dr. Noa Emmett Aluli said the future of access, plant restoration, historic preservation, cleanup and other programs on the island are still being worked out.
Of the $400 million set aside by Congress in 1993 for a cleanup project to last 10 years, KIRC has received 11 percent along the way, making the federal government its sole source of funding to date.
Executive Director Keoni Fairbanks said the commission currently has a reserve of about $25 million, or enough money to continue current activities for another five years.
Aluli said he didn't expect any more money to come from Congress or the Legislature, at least for now.
"The commission is not looking for additional funding," he said. "Everything is just really tight."
But he said he would like to see "core functions" maintained, perhaps with money from grants or capital improvement funds offered by state or federal agencies, and with plenty of volunteer support.
"Core functions," according to Aluli, include managed access and restoration programs. Other operations currently under way, including educational and scientific projects, could be suspended if additional funding isn't available.
Another question facing the island is the matter of the remaining unexploded bombs and ammunition.
A 1994 Memorandum of Understanding between the Navy and the State of Hawaii stated that the surface of Kahoolawe would be 100 percent cleared of ordnance, and that 30 percent of the island would be cleared at the subsurface level.
But the cleanup is not expected to meet those goals. With less than a year to go, a little under 60 percent of the island's surface and less than 7 percent of the subsurface has been cleaned. At the same time, erosion is expected to uncover ordnance still buried on the island.
With the terms of transition still being negotiated between the state's KIRC and Navy officials in Hawaii and Washington, a key topic of discussion appears to be the ordnance that remains.
Aluli said one question is the Navy's responsibility for dealing with ordnance discovered or exposed on the island after the Navy leaves. But whether the state will seek to enforce the 1994 cleanup goals with legal action, Aluli said he didn't expect it to happen anytime soon.
"I think the commission is just going to say, 'Aloha, Navy,' " he said.
In a telephone interview, Inouye said he was satisfied that the Navy had done as good a job as could be expected on the project, given the fact that the massive cleanup was the first of its kind.
"With the challenges they faced, I take my hat off to the Navy and to the commission," he said.
Inouye did not expect additional federal funds would be readily available to extend the cleanup, although he planned to ask Congress to approve the $29 million that remains of the original funding to take the clearance project up to Nov. 11.
"I would say at this point it would be extremely difficult to go back to Congress and say we need another $100 million," he said.
While only part of the island had been cleared, Inouye felt enough had been done to make it usable for cultural, religious and environmental activities.
"At this point, we've cleaned it up to a point where the Kahoolawe Ohana will be able to use it as intended," he said. "We haven't cleaned every square foot of it, but those places of significance and importance can be utilized."
He said the project should be looked on as a success story.
"I've served long enough in the Congress and the Senate to realize these things don't happen every day," he said. "These things are unusual. It did happen, and it turned out well. But if you ask 100 people you'll have some that will say it's not enough. And some will say it's too much."
With the transfer, the state will incur full liability for the island. Aluli said the liability issue would be an obstacle to access, but he would not rule out access altogether.
"I don't think it would be that bad," he said. "It would mean access to cleared areas, and to uncleared areas with escorts. That's my current reading of our management plan."
In the future, improved technologies might make further cleanup cheaper and easier, he said.
Protect Kahoolawe Ohana member Davianna McGreggor said that the cleanup process should be looked at in stages, and that for now enough had been done to accommodate native plant restoration and cultural activities.
"There are enough areas cleared to do significant work on the island," she said.
She said the state commission should partner with the Ohana to manage access to Kahoolawe, pointing out that Ohana-sponsored trips have brought about 16,000 people to the island over the years.
The Ohana raises funds to support its access operations, and McGreggor suggested seeking federal grants to fund the management of the natural, historical and cultural resources on the island.
She said the transition would give a "marvelous resource" back to the state.
"Hopefully there'll be expanded opportunities to have escorted access to the island," she said.
Fellow Ohana member Les Kuloloio said he was waiting to see how much of the island would be pronounced clean and safe at the time of the transition and wanted to know what KIRC's "vision" for the future of the island would be.
But he said it was important that the state not wait long to give control of the island to Native Hawaiians, in accordance with the terms of the transition.
"I want a quick turnover to a sovereign entity. That's the bottom line. That was the mandate of the island," he said. "If you're going to wait for the next 110 years for the process, then I think Native Hawaiians should be prepared to express our issues and concerns."
State Sen. J. Kalani English had a similar goal, saying the transition of the island was intrinsically tied to the issue of federal recognition for Native Hawaiians.
"I see the island being returned to Hawaiian jurisdiction sooner rather than later. It has to be with federal recognition, because that's how the deed is laid out. And the sooner the state gets out of the administrative affairs of that island the better," he said.
English said it was unlikely the Legislature would fund Kahoolawe operations after the November transition.
"We're looking at huge budgetary shortfalls this year," he said. "The transfer of this agency may have to rest with OHA or other branches to fund it."
He said KIRC has served its purpose as the liaison between the federal government and the state, but that it would need to redefine its role after the transition.
"I guess the threshold issue for the Legislature is what happens if KIRC disappears?" he said. "What do they do? Do we need it?"
English said he believed there wasn't much the state could do to get additional money from Congress for Kahoolawe.
"But the federal government still has a responsibility to clean up the island," he added.
State Rep. Kika Bukoski said he was dissatisfied that the cleanup project would be ending without the original goals having been met.
"They're not even near it," he said. "They're so far off, it's disappointing."
He said KIRC members briefed legislators on the situation and discussed different ideas for raising funds to continue work on the island. State money should be supplied, Bukoski said.
"I think the state should look into continuing the operation," he said. "We may not be able to fund enough to continue it at the scale that it is now, but I think we should continue to fund operations after the federal government pulls out."
But Inouye hoped the public would look on the transition as a happy milestone in a story that had sad beginnings, recalling that some protestors spent time in prison and others lost their lives in the struggle to stop bombing and effect the return of the island to the State of Hawaii.
"There are a lot of heroes there, and there are some that are not around to celebrate on the transition day," he said. "I look forward to it."