Army needs to justify further use of Makua Valley

THE ISSUE Congress has enacted a defense authorization bill that asks the Pentagon to plan to end the use of Makua Valley as a training area.

CONGRESSIONAL pressure has been added to a federal judge's rulings that the Army justify its continued use of live ammunition in field exercises in Makua Valley along the Leeward Coast. A defense authorization bill enacted last week includes a provision authored by Rep. Neil Abercrombie that should force the Army to explain the need for such training in the valley or look elsewhere.

The Army was supposed to have completed an environmental impact statement about live-fire training in Makua Valley two years ago but has yet to complete it. U.S. District Judge Susan Mollway ruled in February that the Army had failed to show that the 25th Infantry Division soldiers would be "inadequately trained" for Iraq if they were not allowed to use live ammunition in the valley.

Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon, commander of the 25th Infantry Division, called Mollway's ruling a "temporary setback" and said the Army would continue seeking the return of live-fire training. The Schofield Barracks soldiers have continued to use blank ammunition in the 4,190-acre valley. They underwent nearly a month of training in California before being deployed to Iraq in July.

Use of live-fire ammunition in the valley was suspended in 1998 after it ignited fires that posed a threat to more than 30 endangered species of plants and animals in the valley. Environmentalists and Hawaiian activists filed a federal lawsuit to end live-fire training in the valley, but live-fire exercises were allowed after the 9/11 attacks for three years, at which point the environmental statement was to be completed.

The authorization bill requires the Army to report to Congress by March 1 on its future training range plans in Hawaii, including alternatives to Makua Valley. The only other place in Hawaii where live-fire training can be conducted is at the Pohakuloa training area on the Big Island.

In a written statement, Abercrombie said, "Eventually the land must be returned, so the Army needs to look beyond its current use to the eventual return of this historic and environmentally sensitive treasure."

Sen. Dan Inouye has warned that transporting troops to the Big Island would be costly and that some military planners might consider moving Hawaii's bases to the mainland. Inclusion of the Abercrombie provision in the authorization bill indicates Inouye has softened his concern about the military reaction to placing the valley off-limits. Inouye is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee and was one of the Senate's lead conferees on the bill.