State to get
580 acres
from Navy

The Barbers Point site transfer
will settle a dispute over Lualualei

By Gregg K. Kakesako
Star-Bulletin

The state will sign an agreement with the federal government Monday involving the transfer of 580 acres of Barbers Point Naval Air Station land next year.

The agreement, believed to be worth $70 million to $90 million, stems from the Hawaiian Home Lands Recovery Act, which was authored by Sen. Daniel Akaka and passed by Congress in 1995.

Francis Apoliona, spokesman for the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, said the agreement will resolve DHHL's demands of compensation for the Navy's use of Hawaiian Home Lands for the Naval Magazine at Lualualei on Oahu's Leeward Coast.

In the agreement, the Navy will keep Lualualei, and in exchange the Hawaiian Homes will get land at Barbers Point, including the headquarters building when the 3,700-acre naval facility closes July 2, 1999, as well as other surplus federal lands at Upolu Point on the Big Island and a portion of the closed Omega station at Haiku, in Windward Oahu under the H-3 freeway, Apoliona said.

Both are owned by the Coast Guard.

Bill Erwin, Barbers Point spokesman, said the land is adjacent to the Campbell Industrial Park.

The settlement means Hawaiian Homes will be reimbursed for the use of Lualualei for the past six decades.

An executive order signed while Hawaii was a territory removed 1,350 acres at Lualualei from control of the Hawaiian Home Lands and turned them over to the Navy.

The Navy now uses 9,196 acres for its ammunition storage and communication at Lualualei.

Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and Gov. Ben Cayetano will sign the memorandum of agreement Monday at Washington Place.

Also attending the signing at Washington Place will be Deputy Assistant Navy Secretary William Cassidy.

Apoliona said the department wants to develop the Barbers Point land for commercial uses to help native Hawaiians seek new business opportunities as well as establish a training center.

Currently, more than 29,000 people are on DHHL waiting lists for residential or agricultural lots.

Other state agencies that will be using Barbers Point after the Navy vacates will be the Hawaii National Guard, the federal department of veterans affairs, the University of Hawaii and the city parks department, Erwin said.

Congress created the Hawaiian Home Lands program in 1920, which involved 200,000 acres in the islands to be used as homestead land by Native Hawaiians.

Babbit said the "the signing of the agreement follows through on a commitment made by President Clinton."

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Navy warns against
eating Pearl Harbor catches

'Unacceptable levels of herbicides,
pesticides and PCBs' are found in
the harbor's fish and shellfish

By Gregg K. Kakesako
Star-Bulletin

The Navy is warning fishermen that crabs, clams and fish caught in Pearl Harbor should not be eaten.

An ongoing two-year study on Pearl Harbor sediment indicates "low but unacceptable levels of herbicides, pesticides and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) can be found in the sediment and in the tissues of fish and shellfish that feed off the bottom of the harbor."

According to the preliminary data, consumption of more than one-half a meal a month of a whole fish or one meal a month of fish fillets could present a health risk.

In addition, the study showed that consumption of more than one-half a meal a month of whole crabs could be a health risk.

Based on the recommendations of the preliminary study, signs will be posted around the harbor's shoreline, advising the public against eating whatever is caught at Pearl Harbor.

However, state and Environmental Protection Agency toxologists said the preliminary data does not warrant a ban on fishing in the 5,000-acre naval base.

The manufacture of PCBs, once widely used as coolants and lubricants in transformers and other electrical equipment, was stopped in 1977 because they may contain carcinogens.

Aldrin and dieldrin pesticides, also found in low levels in the fish samples, were popular pesticides used for agricultural purposes, but their use was banned in 1987.

In 1992 the EPA placed Pearl Harbor on the National Priorities List, and the Navy four years later initiated the study working with the state health department, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the state land department.

Samples were collected from 219 random locations, and tissue samples also were collected from fish and shellfish caught at 15 different locations where people frequently fished.