Military maneuvers : citizen groups and military skirmish over military expansion in Hawaii

Author:

Panzer, Caren

Title:

Military maneuvers : citizen groups and military skirmish over military expansion in Hawaii

Periodical:

Hawaii Island Journal

Year:

2003

Pages:

n/a

Subject:

Pohakuloa Training Area (PTA) Military training camps environmental aspects Pohakuloa Palila

Summary:

This document describes how the military and activists battled over the use of the Pohakuloa Training Area, (PTA), that is located on the island of Hawaii, as the U.S. Military planned to extend the training area for Stryker Brigade Combat Teams, a division of lightweight, high-speed armored vehicles that the Army intended to bring to Hawaii. As plants and animals of the island were not the only beings that would be endangered by the military activities that occurred at the PTA, an Environmental Impact Statement found that high levels of aluminum, arsenic, beryllium, and lead that was found in the soil at Pohakuloa as well as human excrements that leaked from six large cesspools as the lead had the potential to harm soldiers who lived on the base as well as residents who lived downstream and downwind of the facility. In addition, since Pohakuloa is also home to ten plant and nine animal endangered species -- most notably the Palila bird where their critical habitat exists, this document describes how environmentalists, native Hawaiians, and others struggled to make their views heard with regard to the military expansion of the area.

Label:

Pohakuloa

Date:

July 16-31, 2003

Collection:

Periodicals