Letters — Your voice — for October 17

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Pohakuloa and the Red Flag Warning

The 133,000-acre Pohakuloa Training Area in the center of Hawaii Island was under a Red Flag Warning (on Wednesday), yet troops from 10 nations are presently doing war training there and have been for several weeks.

The latest draft EIS released by PTA said 892 wild fires have been started at PTA since 1975. One in 2022, a year before the deadly Lahaina fire, burned over 17,000 acres, including more than 12,000 acres off the base in endangered species habitat.

PTA is Hawaii Island’s Lahaina fire in-the-making. Millions of live rounds are fired annually at Pohakuloa, an area contaminated with many military toxins, including depleted uranium radiation from 80 years of bombing and shelling.

These toxins blow in the strong winds that frequent the area and can re-suspended by high explosives and in the smoke from fires at Pohakuloa.

PTA, at 6,500 feet elevation, is located above the island’s main aquifer. Is PTA also Hawaii Island’s Red Hill water contamination in process?

PTA spends millions of dollars a year hauling water to the base. Yet, they drilled two wells on base more than 10 years ago and hit water at a shallow depth — 750 feet and 1,200 feet below surface, but they are still not using the water from those wells. How come? What’s in the water below PTA?

News media and elected officials: Raise questions about the in the center of Hawaii Island — The Pohakuloa Area!

Jim Albertini

Kurtistown

‘None of the above’ option needed?

The founders of our nation must be turning in their graves at the current presidential contention theatrics displayed by MAGA-Moneybags and Cackle-Pants.

It puts further credence in the desirability of a “None of the above” voter ballot choice.

Richard Hoeflinger

Keaau