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Kahoolawe panel:
Law should allow
cleanup donations

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By Pat Omandam
Star-Bulletin

The Kahoolawe Island Reserve Commission plans to ask the state Legislature this session to change state law to allow it to solicit and accept grants, donations and contributions before its federal funding ends in 2003.

Keoni Fairbanks, commission executive director, said state law doesn't allow the commission to accept or deposit contributions into a trust fund set aside for the rehabilitation of the former target island.

He said federal contributions to the fund are at $10 million, but the funding will end in November 2003, when the U.S. Navy fulfills its minimum obligation to clean up Kahoolawe, following a 1993 agreement between it and the state of Hawaii.

At that time, the Navy will relinquish Kahoolawe to the state and the commission.

The commission receives 11 percent of whatever the federal government authorizes for the removal of unexploded ordnance on the island. Fairbanks said the plan is to spend the entire trust on the island's rehabilitation.

The federal government in 1993 authorized $400 million over 10 years to clean up the 29,000-acre island.

So far, $124 million has been appropriated for the cleanup.

"It is a tough, tough project," Fairbanks said. "The Navy has spent a lot of money but hasn't done a lot."

Meanwhile, the Navy now estimates it can clear about 50 percent of the island by 2003, prompting some state lawmakers to say that is not enough. At a legislative briefing yesterday, the Navy told legislators its goal is to clear 100 percent of the unexploded ordnance on the surface and 30 percent found underground, but it will be difficult to do it by 2003.

So far, about 20 percent of the island has been cleared of ordnance and debris.

House Public Safety Chairman Nestor Garcia (D, Waipio) said he's not happy with the Navy's pace and wants it to speed up. He suggested the state and the Navy amend their 1994 memorandum of understanding so the state isn't left with an uninhabitable island in 2003.

"I would not take this place right now, knowing what I know," Garcia said.

Senate Hawaiian Affairs Chairman Jonathan Chun (D, Kauai-Niihau) believes the Navy needs to use more of its appropriation and suggested roads and a harbor landing at Kahoolawe may quicken the effort.

Stanford Yuen, executive assistant to the Navy admiral in charge of the cleanup, said the Navy is doing the best it can to remove the ordnance, but it is a slow process.

Navy Master Chief Eric Treibel, the Navy's ordnance specialist, said 324 people were working on the project as of Dec. 22.