An Oahu judge will hear arguments on the lawsuit filed against the state regarding Pohakuloa Training Area Thursday.
The Native Hawaiian Legal Corp. filed the complaint in April on behalf of Hawaiians Clarence Ching and Mary Maxine Kahaulelio, who claim the military’s presence is impacting their cultural rights.
Attorney David Kimo Frankel said Ching and Kahaulelio had a few reasons to file the lawsuit when they did. For one, “there’s a lot of new activity planned at Pohakuloa,” Frankel said.
The lawsuit names the Department of Land and Natural Resources as the defendants, as the agency responsible for administering the lease to the Army. The hearing is scheduled for 3 p.m. today. Typically, judges hear arguments from all parties in the case and take the arguments under advisement, to issue a decision at a later date.
Two, federal and state officials were already in discussions about extending the Army’s lease of the land, on the saddle between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, beyond the 2029 expiration date. The Native Hawaiian Legal Corp. is asking Judge Gary W.B. Chang not to allow the lease to be extended and to prohibit any new lease, because Army officials are not complying with the lease terms, as they pertain to taking care of the land, which is part of the lands ceded to the state and which are supposed to be held as a trust to benefit Hawaiians.
The lease requires the federal government to “make every reasonable effort to … remove or deactivate all live or blank ammunition upon completion of a training exercise or prior to entry by the said public, whichever is sooner,” the lawsuit said, quoting the lease agreement.
“Despite these requirements, defendants admit that they ‘are aware that there is a possibility that unexploded ordnance and munitions and explosives of concern are present on the state-owned ceded land that is leased,’” the motion for summary judgment said. “Decades of using PTA as a training area have introduced a significant risk of encountering (munitions or ordnance). (Munitions and ordnance are) known to exist in the impact area and (are) expected to be encountered during range construction activities; but there is also a medium risk” of finding it outside the impact area.
Other causes for concern include past soil contamination.
“Nevertheless, the defendants have not taken any steps to ensure compliance with lease provisions on state owned land at Pohakuloa,” the motion said.
Messages left with the U.S. Army Garrison in Hawaii and DLNR were not immediately returned on Wednesday.
