Kahoolawe rite asks
for smooth cleanup

By Gary Kubota
Star-Bulletin

WAILUKU -- Hawaiian cultural ceremonies were performed on Kahoolawe yesterday, marking a new phase in the cleanup of ordnance left after more than 50 years of military use.

But at least one of the state Kahoolawe Island Reserve Commission members was not at the ceremony because of dissatisfaction with those in charge of ordnance removal.

"I did not attend the ceremony as a protest to ongoing misunderstandings with the contractors," said Commissioner Colette Machado.

Commission Chairman Dr. Emmett Aluli, who agrees with Machado, said he's worried the Navy won't be able to fulfill an agreement to clear the island of ordnance.

Under a memorandum of agreement, authorizing some $400 million in federal funds to be spent for Kahoolawe, the Navy is to clear surface ordnance from the island and subsurface ordnance from a third of it.

Congress has released $120 million in the last four fiscal years.

Aluli points out a model cleanup of 240 acres has cost about $80,000 an acre.

If the cost remains the same, the cleanup for the entire island would total some $700 million.

"We're doubtful they will live up to our initial agreement," Aluli said. "They're spending so much money to learn how to clean and to come up with standard operating procedures on how to clean. Things aren't together."

Navy spokesman Don Rochon said the Navy believes it will be able to fulfill the agreement.

"We're very, very confident that goal will be met," he said.

Rochon said the Navy was still developing an estimate for the cleanup.

"It's too early in the learning process to project specific figures, but it will be a significantly less amount per acre," Rochon said.

Rochon declined to comment on Machado's criticism about the Navy.

The Navy awarded a $280 million contract for the cleanup to Parsons-UXB Joint Venture in July 1997.

The cleanup is expected to take about five years.

After the cleanup, the island will be used as a cultural reserve where native Hawaiians can continue subsistence and spiritual practices.

State law calls for the control and management to be transferred to a native Hawaiian sovereign entity, once one is established and recognized by the state and federal government.

At the ceremonies yesterday, Kahoolawe cultural coordinator Hokulani Holt-Padilla and other native Hawaiians performed a purification and awa ceremony, reaffirming the partnership of the state and Navy.

Holt said one of the purposes of the ceremony was to ask the island and spiritual entities to allow the cleanup to begin without obstruction.