PTA is the largest contiguous live-fire range and maneuver training area in Hawaii. He said it provides "that large-scale crew and collective training that they need to get that they can't get on Oahu (and) really can't get anywhere else in the Pacific Basin region other than here." "The team is absolutely reviewing and going through each of those comments."Ĭronin said it's his job to balance environmental and cultural concerns with the need to keep PTA open for troop training. Kevin Cronin, the garrison commander at PTA who oversees day-to-day operations. "The comments are welcome, they're part of the process," said Lt. In its comments on the draft EIS, the state Office of Conservation and Coastal Lands wrote that "it appears that military training is in direct conflict of the Conservation District designation." The draft EIS states that training "may have impacts on soils within the confines of the State-owned land however, potential impacts to water resources could reach beyond the State-owned land to include the regional aquifers and watersheds." The report also concluded that "the contaminants detected in site soils have a low likelihood to become mobilized off-site due to the low rainfall in the area, lack of streams and absence of a developed drainage system across the State-owned land." Kurt Fevella, (R, Ewa Beach-Iroquois Point), wrote in an April letter to Army leaders that while he understands national security interests, "we also need to consider the health and safety of our people, land, air, and water quality that has continuously been negatively impacted by military training" and that "it would be detrimental for Native Hawaiians, like myself, to stand idly by and relinquish claims to public lands … which we believe were taken without consent or proper compensation." State lawmakers and agencies responded to the draft EIS with scathing assessments, accusing the Army of data gaps regarding the effects of its activities on endangered species, a lack of clarity on ordnance cleanup plans and other concerns. Army officials call the leased land "the connective tissue" of PTA.Īs part of the required environmental review process to renew the lease, the Army issued a draft environmental impact statement regarding its future plans earlier this year and requested feedback. The state parcel sits between two federally owned pieces of land that make up the training area. The lease expires in 2029 and the Army is making its pitch to keep it. Over the years the Army has faced lawsuits and investigations over its management of the vast area it controls there. The state has since designated the leased land as a conservation district. The training range includes 23,000 acres of former Hawaiian crown lands, also known as ceded lands, that the state leased to the military in 1964 for just $1.
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