[CPEO-MEF] The Navy cleanup’s end will bring the loss of lu

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Hawai'i
HONOLULU STAR-BULLETIN
The Navy cleanup’s end will bring the loss of lucrative civilian jobs
By Gregg K. Kakesako, gkakesako@starbulletin.com
November 10, 2003

KAHOOLAWE -- Tomorrow, the Navy will close another chapter of its
history in the Pacific when it officially turns over access to the
target island of Kahoolawe to the state.

It will join a growing list of areas that the military has been forced
to abandon, such as Vieques in Puerto Rico, because of political and
other pressures.

The cleanup has meant jobs at a time when jobs were scarce on Maui and
Molokai. It has furthered the development of the science of
environmental restoration. For the past five years, nearly 500 people
were employed at annual payroll of $50 million.

But the turnover also has not silenced critics who feel that the Navy
has not done enough to rid the island of unexploded ordnance.

This 11-mile-long island, six miles southwest of Maui, has been a source
of historical, cultural and religious significance for native Hawaiians.
Since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, it also was
significant for the military, adding to the successes of the invasion of
Guadalcanal in 1942 and then Saipan two years later.

As a post-World War II target range, Kahoolawe was fired upon by every
military service until 1990, when President George Bush, under political
pressure from island activists and other quarters, ordered the halt of
its use.

Since July 1998 the Navy argues that it has been at work following the
edicts of a 1993 federal law ordering "the clearance of unexploded
ordnance and environmental restoration to provide meaningful and safe
use for appropriate cultural, historical, archeological and educational
purposes as determined by the state of Hawaii."

On Thursday, Rear Adm. Barry McCullough, who oversees the final stages
of the Kahoolawe cleanup as commander of Navy Region Hawaii, went to the
island to thank the nearly 400 civilian workers for their effort.

 The Navy maintains that nearly 70 percent of Kahoolawe's 28,788 acres
will be cleared when it finally leaves this dusty island next March.
Much of what was untouched was remote and treacherous ravines and
gullies, McCullough told reporters last week. It has also recorded 2,550
historic properties, including more than 630 new properties since the
cleanup began.

McCullough said the Navy believes it has lived up to its commitments
under the federal law authorizing $460 million for the restoration and
cleanup and the agreement it signed with the state nine years ago.

This article can be viewed at:
http://starbulletin.com/2003/11/10/news/story1.html

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