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Army wants later
hearing on live-fire
training

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By Gregg K. Kakesako
Star-Bulletin

Army lawyers were expected to ask a federal judge today to postpone a request by Waianae Coast activists for a temporary restraining order which would have halted the resumption of live ammunition training in Makua Valley in March.

Last month attorneys for Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, representing Malama Makua, a Waianae community group, requested a Feb. 6 court hearing. They wanted the court to require the Army to prepare an environmental impact statement justifying the resumption of training in the 4,100-acre Makua Military Reservation. Training has been suspended since September 1998.

The Army, however, maintains that the Feb. 6 hearing date is premature since it circumvents the 30 days set aside for the public to comment on an environment assessment prepared by the Army and released on Dec. 14, Capt. Cynthia Teramae, Army spokeswoman, said last night.

"We won't have time to respond to all the comments the public will have made on the environmental assessment and the commanding general will have not made a decision by then (the Feb. 6 court date)," Teramae said.

Army lawyers, Teramae added, will ask that Earthjustice's request be heard on Feb. 26.

Teramae pointed out that after a draft of the environmental assessment was released in September and after two hearings were held in Waianae on Sept. 23 and Oct. 11, the Army received 136 comments.

She said the Army released its final copy of the environmental assessment on Dec. 14. That assessment said resumption of training under a modified plan that will limit the number of soldiers in the valley and ban missiles and rockets would have "no significant impact" on the environment or cultural sites there.

Yesterday, Brig. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, 25th Infantry Division deputy commander, said there has been a certain degradation in the Army's readiness here because it has been unable to train at Makua for two years.

Sen. Daniel K. Inouye predicted Wahiawa would turn into a ghost town if the 25th Infantry Division was ever relocated to the mainland because the soldiers could no longer train in Waianae.