Army News, news from Iraq, - Army Times

Army to resume live-fire training at Makua

HONOLULU — The Army announced Thursday that it plans to resume live-firing training in Makua Valley on Oahu after being legally blocked from conducting such exercises for five years.

The decision by Maj. Gen. Raymond V. Mason, commander Army Hawaii, comes after the June release of a court-mandated environmental impact statement that opposes the training in the valley considered sacred by many Native Hawaiians. The community group Malama Makua had demanded the release of the report, which is the final version of a study prepared by the Army in response to a lawsuit filed a decade ago.

David Henkin, an Earthjustice attorney representing the group, said Thursday that he will return to court in an effort to stop the Army from resuming the live-fire exercises.

Henkin said he had already notified the Army that the environmental impact statement failed to include two court-imposed requirements: studies of potential contamination associated with military training and archaeological surveys to document the types of resources that would be imperiled by the training.

The Army said the number of exercises will be less than called for in the report. It decided to conduct 32 combined arms live-fire exercises per year, down from the recommended 50, and 150 convoy live-fire exercises, 50 less than called for.

The Army also said it won't use certain munitions — such as tracer ammunition, TOW missiles and anti-tank rockets — that could spark fires in the valley.

"We've reached the best decision that allows our soldiers and small units to train locally and reduces their time away from families, all while ensuring the Army continues to protect the precious environment entrusted to us," Mason said.

Henkin said the valley "is simply too fragile, too precious for live-fire training."

"The type of training, the type of weapons systems that the Army is proposing to conduct at Makua is precisely the type of training and weapons that in the past have destroyed cultural sites, have killed and injured species, and there is no reason to believe that it won't do the exact same thing in the future," he said.

There are other locations, such as the Pohakuloa Training Area on the Big Island, where the training could be done, he said.

"Makua, with its hundreds of cultural sites and its nearly 50 endangered species imperiled by training, is just the wrong place to do it," Henkin said.

The valley has been beset by fires over the year. A blaze broke out in Makua during Marine training in 1998. In 2003, a planned burn of brush by the Army raged out of control, scorching more than half of the more than 7-square-mile valley and destroying endangered plants.