The past few days (months) have been upside-down crazy. My own strategy for staying sane and not being totally stressed out is to keep showing up — virtually in writing and online, and in person when possible.

Today, I’m asking you to please join with me yet again.

It’s important. No, it’s CRUCIAL — which is why I’m up at 4:30am on a Wednesday morning putting this email together, urging you to submit testimony calling for the BLNR’s rejection of the U.S. Armyʻs Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for the Mākua Military Reservation, Kahuku Training Area, and Poamoho.

Regardless of where you live, please email testimony TODAY (tomorrow Thursday at the latest) to the Board of Land and Natural Resources at blnr.testimony@hawaii.gov

If you live on O‘ahu, please show up in person on Friday morning.

One of the various hats I’ve worn over my past 25 years of public service is Director of the State Office of Environmental Quality Control (OEQC) – responsible at the time for administering HRS Chapter 343, Hawaii’s environmental review law.

Rarely if ever, have I reviewed an FEIS document as poorly prepared as THIS one, submitted by the U.S. Army. It is woefully inadequate and should be rejected.

This FEIS is so replete with deficiencies that the staff of the Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) itself have declared it insufficient – read the staff report and background information here.

The public trust doctrine requires the BLNR to exercise due diligence and prudence in managing our natural and cultural resources. The BLNR’s core responsibility is to protect the interests of the present and future generations of beneficiaries of that trust.

Again: E-mail testimony to blnr.testimony@hawaii.gov with “Agenda item D-1” in the subject line and ask the BLNR to hold the Army accountable to the law, and to REJECT this flawed FEIS.

Your testimony can be brief and to the point, but I encourage you to review the staff report which provides a solid summary of the FEIS deficiencies.

SHOW UP IN PERSON IF YOU CAN: Friday June 27th at the Kalanimoku Building, 1151 Punchbowl Street, room 132. The hearing begins at 9am.

Oral testimony can be provided virtually via zoom – request a link using the same e-mail blnr.testimony@hawaii.gov

For additional context…In Hawaii the U.S. military presence includes, but is not limited to:

Air Station Barbers Point
Barking Sands Missile Range
Camp H.M. Smith
Fort Shafter
Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam
Marine Corps Base Hawaii (Kaneohe Bay)
Pohakuloa Training Area
Schofield Barracks
Tripler Army Medical Center
USCG Sector Honolulu
Wheeler Army Airfield

In addition to the leakage from the Red Hill Underground Fuel Storage Facility that’s irreversibly damaged the drinking water supply for O‘ahu,, decades of bombing, live fire exercises, and military training exercises have damaged beyond repair the natural landscape and once pristine environments of thousands of acres on multiple islands.

The military’s constant reassurances that they will “clean up” and “restore” the lands they desecrate have been hollow promises.

It’s time we say NO to the renewing of land leases at Pohakuloa, Kahuku, Kawailoa-Poamoho, and Makua. We must also refuse expansion at Barking Sands and the bombing of Kaʻula Island.

Support for American troops, belief in the importance of national security, rejection of the endless expansion of the U.S. war machine, and protection of our natural environment, cultural resources, and endangered species: are values that can and DO, co-exist.

The U.S. is by far, already the largest exporter of weapons worldwide. We have more military bases in more countries than any other.

It’s time.

Let’s say it together…

ENOUGH ALREADY.

Gary Hooser