Hawai`i Congressman Supports Blumenauer Amendments

[Aimee Houghton <aimeeh@cpeo.org>]

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The following statement, by Representative Case from the 2nd district of 
Hawai`i, in support of Congressman Blumenauer, was entered into official 
congressional record.

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/F?r108:1:./temp/~r108gEMHLt:e158481:


Mr. CASE. Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of the amendments offered 
by my distinguished colleague, the gentleman from Oregon, Mr. Blumenauer, 
relative to unexploded ordnance. I completely agree with the underlying 
assertion of his amendments that our country is failing its obligation to 
clean up unexploded ordnance (UXO) throughout our states and in fact, 
throughout the world.

My own Hawai`i is a classic example. Our military has made extensive use of 
my state for military training and preparedness for at least a century, and 
we in Hawai`i accept that use as an obligation that we owe to our country.

However, according to the Department of Defense's FY2002 Defense 
Environmental Restoration Program Annual Report to Congress, today there 
remain throughout Hawai`i over fifty Department of Defense-registered 
locations that have not been cleaned up, presenting ongoing public safety 
risks. These include 10 separate sites at Lualualei Naval Magazine on the 
Waianae Coast, one ten acre site at the Pacific Missile Range Facility at 
Barking Sands on the island of Kaua`i, five sites at Marine Corps Base 
Hawai`i at Kaneohe Bay, four sites on the island of Lana`i, and many 
smaller locations throughout the state. I can only believe that there are a 
number of other states in the same situation.

Let me take the specific example of the military's past use of a large 
portion of the Island of Hawai`i in and around the current residential 
communities of Waimea and Waikoloa. During and after World War II, the 
United States military, primarily the Navy and Marine Corps, utilized an 
area of approximately 123,000 acres on the western side of the Island of 
Hawai`i as an artillery range, military training cap, and general military 
grounds. This former Waikoloa Maneuver/Nansay Combat Range lies in and 
around the Coast resort area, and remains littered with related debris 
including UXO. This UXO has already resulted in civilian deaths and 
injuries and represents a continuing threat to residents and visitors and 
renders large portions of the area effectively unusable.

In 1992, the United States Army Corps of Engineers determined that the site
was eligible for the Defense Environmental Restoration Program for 
designation as a Formerly Used Defense Site (FUDS). In 2002, the Corps 
completed an engineering evaluation/cost analysis which designated the 
entire site for potential ordnance health and safety risk and estimated 
total cleanup at an excess of $600,000,000.

Of that amount, the Corps analysis estimated cleanup costs for the three 
highest areas of potential risk, in and immediately adjacent to existing 
and pending residential communities at $250,000,000. A comprehensive plan 
for utilization of such funds to those purposes requested by the Senate 
Armed Services Committee (SASC Report 107-151), completed, and submitted to 
the Secretary of the Army. Same amounts have been expended and other have 
been allocated in effectuation of that plan, but much less of the 
$250,000,000 estimate and far short then the estimated costs of total 
cleanup in excess of $600,000,000.

On April 12, 2004, I met with official from the United States Army Corps of 
Engineers on the Big Island of Hawai`i. At that meeting, I was given an 
update on the Corps of Engineers' ongoing efforts to clear high priority 
sites within the Waikoloa Maneuver Area. A small project now underway has 
begun to clear UXO around Waikoloa Village and Waimea Town--two relatively 
populated areas on the Big Island. This cleanup project is located in an 
area that was once used as a military training cap and artillery range.

Both on and off the record, I have heard many excuses about the reasons we 
cannot fund UXO: the war, the deficit, the President's tax cuts. But, these 
excuses and past Congressional and Executive mishandling of the UXO issue 
are no excuse for the country--for this Congress--to ignore a concept 
espoused by parents, coaches and camp counselors alike: Leave any place you 
visited cleaner than when you arrived. The Army Corps of Engineers is ready 
and willing to begin the process of cleanup; it is now up to all of us in 
Congress to appropriate the funds for this much-needed action.

Mr. Chairman, our military needs places where they can train fully to 
protect our country, but when they've completed their mission it's only 
right that they clean up and assure that those of us that come after them 
can use the land safely. These amendments offered by the gentleman from 
Oregon are an essential first step towards cleaning up the many communities 
which are littered with UXO. I urge their adoption by the House.



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Aimee R. Houghton
Associate Director, CPEO
1101 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1000
Washington, DC  20036
tel: 202-452-8039; fax: 202-452-8095
Email: aimeeh@cpeo.org
www.cpeo.org
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