Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 15, Number 5, 1 May 1998 — Cleaning Kahoʻolawe [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Cleaning Kahoʻolawe

By Jayson Harper fOUR MONTHS after a ceremony inaugurating the restoration of Kaho'olawe, the island is in the news again. Since 1996, $20 million of the $400 million in federal fimds appropriated for the eleanup of Kahoolawe has been spent on a test eleanup of 200 acres, an access road and a base eamp. Now, according to Jim Putnam, Pacific Division director of the Naval Facilities Engineering command, it appears $400 million will only cover restoration of 38 percent of the island or 1 1.000 acres. This comes as a surprise to the Kahoolawe Island Reserve Commission (KIRC) and the eleanup contractor, Parsons Inftastructure Group, who both agree that the money allocated should be sufficient to elean the entire island. KIRC is charged with facilitating the restoration of Kahoolawe and acts as the state's liaison with the Navy. It provides oversight on behalf of the state, Maui County and the community and has developed a land-use plan for the island onee the restoration is completed. KJRC executive director Keoni Fairbanks insists the entire island must be restored. However, at issue between the Navy and KIRC is a basic assumption whieh impacts cost. The Navy's original model had assumed that Kahoolawe was uniformly contaminated throughout. Based on that, the Navy designated a default "clearance depth" or depth that the contractor would need to excavate in order to remove unexploded ordnance. The deeper the clearance depth, the greater the elean-up costs. But KIRC and the contractor do not agree that contamination is evenly distributed over the island's surface. Consequently. they do not want to use a single clearance depth for the whole island. Under the proposed model, KIRC would determine clearance depths according to the type of military activity previously conducted on eaeh tract of land. Onee that is known, the extent of bombing in that area ean be assessed and, from that the best clearance depth ean be calculated for eaeh tract. According to KIRC staff, only one-third of the island was used for target practice. Throughout May KIRC will sponsor meetings statewide to update the public on the progress of Kaho'olawe and to receive community input. For a detailed listing of dates, times and venues, eall Kaho'olawe Island Reservation Commission at (808)586-0761. ■

South end of Keoneulu Beach.

PHOTO COURTESY KIRC STAFF