WATCHING THE RIVER FLOW: Our old J-school prof's blue pencil used to wear thin on students' submissions in writing "sez who?" in the margins when their articles contained fully unattributed "facts." It's become one of our pet peeves too- at least add a "reportedly" or the all-inclusive "according to critics."
So it should be too much of a surprise that steam came shooting out of our ears once again this morning when another "according to who?" bit of bull-dinky appeared in a local newspaper article about KIUC's reaction to the FERC decision to "dismiss" two of their preliminary permits and ban future ones in the islands.
In the second paragraph of an article penned by Business Editor Vanessa Van Voorhis, apropos of nothing she writes:
Free Flow Power (FFP) of Massachusetts filed preliminary permit applications with the federal agency earlier this year for projects located on Koke‘e and Kekaha Ditch Irrigation systems. The permits, once issued, were to be turned over to KIUC, under a paid contract agreement with the co-op for an undisclosed amount (emphasis added).
Of course our readers know that that timeline is straight from the Kaua`i Island Utilities Coop's party line and has never been substantiated. As a matter of fact it appears that KIUC was presented with a "deal they couldn't refuse" after FFP obtained preliminary permits from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).
No one really knows for sure whether in fact KIUC actually approached FFP or the other way around because the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA)- the contract between FFP and KIUC- has been declared "proprietary information" by the supposedly member owned and run co-op.
But, as we wrote last July 6 just before the "vote" to invalidate the MOA was closed:
According to documents uncovered by reporter Joan Conrow and information that has been dragged out of KIUC CEO David Bissell and their attorney David Proudfoot, the MOAs came about after FFP filed for six- and already received at least three- FERC preliminary permits that allow the holder to exclusively investigate the possibility of constructing hydroelectric systems for the named areas, potentially leading to FERC licensing of the projects.
But those permits are non-transferable so FFP set up shell corporation to file for the permits and after they were granted they "sold" the shell corporations to KIUC under those MOAs.
There's a reason why we put sold in quotes. Because, according to the information repeated over and over by Bissell and Proudfoot, should the members vote no, the MOAs say that the permits would have to be turned over to FFP- AND we would have to pay them $325,000 to take them back to boot.
We also noted that:
People might be interested to know that the person who approached KIUC for FFP to set up the "offer they couldn't refuse" is said to be investment banker Bill Collett, the same person who set up the whole purchase of Kaua`i Electric from Citizen's Electric for an exorbitant amount of money that was still way more than the book value even after it was decreased by $50 million by the PUC.
But the local newspaper hasn't exactly been in the forefront of investigating the claims of its biggest advertiser, KIUC.
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
And it seems they're not about to start now.
The article also again raises the question of whether there is indeed a Hawai`i state process for permitting hydroelectric systems. As we first reported last week, in the FERC's dismissal of two of the permits they cited an established state process, one that had been used in developing 13 other hydroelectric projects in the state.
But while, according to the article, KIUC board member Ben Sullivan still questions whether there is an actual state process State Aquatic Biologist Don Heacock explained to us last week that the state process is the same one used for any other stream diversions.
He told us that, as he and Adam Asqueth- who led the effort to get KIUC to abandon federal oversight- said over and over during the membership vote in July, any hydropower effort must use the state standards for water flow and deal with them in light of the effects on the whole watershed and include effects on water use and diversion on the watershed as a whole.
According to the article Sullivan cited problems with the state process in the same breath as questioning whether there is one. But KIUC CEO David Bissell and Sullivan himself had claimed during the voting process that using FERC would never usurp any state regulations.
The article quotes Sullivan as saying:
“One of the (the problems) is the cumbersome nature of the state process —and perhaps even the non-existence of a state process — and that’s an important issue we’ve discussed... There’s high cost involved in a process that has no timeline for ending, and it’s difficult to know whether it’s in the members’ interest to even engage in such a process. The FERC avenue offers an alternate to that, potentially. It also lays out a process that we can limit, as you have suggested, and I think that it’s something that the staff is constantly working with the state to do.”
So which is it? Are they going to follow the state process or claim there isn't one and do a little as they can get away with?
The article also quotes Sullivan as saying "I do believe that we made some mistakes in the early going, but I do believe we’re doing our best in the interest of the community and continue on with an open mind and open options is the way to go,"
If that's at all true it's about time for him and the board to come clean about all the alleged FFP/FERC shenanigans, release the MOA, abandon the other permits and follow the state processes, as they promised during the vote.
Showing posts with label Don Heacock. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Don Heacock. Show all posts
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Friday, June 26, 2009
(PNN) REPORT: DAM DITCH INTAKE AND RETURN WATER TO MOLOA`A STREAM
REPORT: DAM DITCH INTAKE AND RETURN WATER TO MOLOA`A STREAM
(PNN) -- Moloa`a Stream's flow will be “restored to it’s natural state” if a consultant’s recommendation are followed, the county council was told Wednesday.
But although Moloa`a water activist Hope Kallai, who has pushed for the return of water to Moloa`a residents and farmers, was pleased, she also said not so fast there. She explained that the point of diversion is on conservation land and any effort at all would need permissions and permits to work on the current stream alteration that diverts river water into Moloa`a Ditch.
In addition, although Kallai did not mention it, water course alterations also usually need federal permits.
In a presentation of the final draft of the “Kilauea Irrigation Water Engineering Monitoring Study”, Andy Hood of “Sustainable Resources Group International Inc.” told council members that the water that flows into the Ka Loko Ditch system from the Kalua`a tributary of Moloa`a Stream is “not needed” to sustain agriculture in the area and “recommend(ed) at the point of diversion at Kalua`a stream, the intake to Moloa`a ditch be dammed up and restored to its natural state”.
Hood said that although “Moloa`a Ditch had never been registered to receive a stream works diversion permit nor was the ditch permitted” there was “nothing sinister” in that and there was “no malfeasance”. Rather he theorized that Brewer Inc, who owned the land prior to 1987, “just didn’t need the water” and the permitting “slipped through the cracks”.
He did not mention the part of the original draft report that says that the current condition of the intake dam was apparently the result of work done only about 10 ago, as PNN reported in its series on the Moloa`a Water theft (see left “rail” for links to prior reports).
Hood said that the Mary Lucas Trust (MLT)- which according to a 1987 “allocation” shares the water equally with the Kilauea Irrigation company (KICO) and owns land abutting Ka Loko Reservoir- has agreed to pay for restoring the flow to farmers and residents in Moloa`a Valley who say they have noticed a marked decrease in water flow and area wells ever since the late 90’s around the time the work was allegedly done.
According to that 1987 water rights agreement to serve the 105 acre “Kilauea Farms Subdivision” below the reservoir, KICO and MLT are to share the water “50-50”, Hood told the council.
But State Aquatic Resources Kaua`i Manager Don Heacock said that water rights nowadays are subject to the “pubic trust doctrine”- as established in the Wai`ahole Ditch Hawai`i Supreme Court decision- and should be allocated based on need and use by the “State Commission of Water Resources”.
Hood said that he could not determine use by KICO because it’s owner Thomas Hitch has seemingly disappeared and the current users claim “proprietary information” that “their competitors” would like to get their hands on a survey of the users done for the study drew few responses.
In addition due to the massive and complicated litigation surrounding the March 2006 Ka Loko dam break tragedy that killed seven people downstream, no one wants to talk about anything although he said much of the report would not have been possible without the discovery” process as a result of the suits.
He also said MLT only uses the water they receive to support around a hundred head of cattle.
One discrepancy as stated by Hood is that MLT receives water through a pipe that takes water from the Ka Loko ditch way up valley but also shares a 50-50 use arrangement just above the reservoir implying that MLT may be receiving much more than 50% despite their limited need.
In a power point presentation cut short by the enforcement of the council’s “three minutes” rules, Kallai presented documents showing that prior to the ’87 agreement both the county council in 1979 and the Water Department subsequently, had designs on the water. The council wanted to supply planned “diversified agriculture” in the entire Kilauea area from Kalihiwai to Moloa`a and the Department wanted some for potable water.
As to whether there is sufficient water to serve the Kilauea Farms subdivision- which was the actual subject of the $75,000 study initiated by Councilmembers Jay Furfaro and Darryl Kaneshiro- the answer is “just barely” under the current arrangement and condition of Ka Loko reservoir.
Hood provided a few options for increasing the flow including a limited repair of the breach at the bottom of the reservoir where overflow currently runs down valley into the ocean when the three big pipes that remove the water for irrigation are fully supplied.
Kallai claimed that the overflow is a huge mess that was never investigated by the EPA, and never cleaned up making the damage downstream and to the reef and ocean something that would “make Pila`a look manini.”
Some councilmembers wanted to know if and how the system might serve the entire Kilauea area since it is just barely sufficient in its current state to serve the Kilauea Farms Subdivision. But it was determined that historically there were other components of the entire Kilauea Sugar Company operations irrigation system, including the Kalihiwai reservoir which originally served some lands in that area until sugar production was shut down in the early 70’s.
That area would include the new Kilauea Agricultural Park that the county has recently obtained after a 30 year battle to acquire and set it up. Present plans are to use the potable county water system for the farm rather than a the old gravity driven cane ditch system.
The council discussed briefly whether funding a wider study to get a comprehensive idea of the water resources and needs- and current flows which were not in the report aside from some guesswork on the Ka Loko system- but Heacock recommended contacting the state Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR), the federal Department of Agriculture’s National Resources Conservation Service and the US Geologic Service in Honolulu to get them to coordinate and possibly fund the study since it was essentially their kuleana.
Heacock said that there are actually 26 streams that feed Ka Loko system, something Hood intimated when saying that the flow intake at the head end of the Ka Loko system was less than the amount flowing at the end, guessing that there were areas where streams fed the ditch at lower elevation although his staff did not observe them.
And of course that net gain includes the previously mentioned “pipe” at higher elevations that removes water for MLT’s cows
Heacock said there needs to be a full disclosure on “what’s being serviced- what crops are being grown” implying that some farms’ claim to “proprietary information” was not going to get them water if the “public trust” involved in water rights is enforced.
Kallai was denied permission by Economic Development and Housing Committee Chair Dickie Chang to use the testimony time of the roomful of KNA members present and was cut off without being able to finish her whole presentation which included documents not in the county report, many from a 1984 federal study of ag in the Kilauea area and water usage stakeholders at that time that were excluded in the ’87 agreement between KICO and MLT.
But as she was being given the bums rush she did mange to blurt out that the intake was on state conservation land and therefore no activity may take place without the DLNR’s permission and no changes to water flow may be effectuated without the OK of the DLNR’s “Commission of Water Resources” which determine water usage based on the Wai`ahole pubic trust doctrine.
Despite the testimony by Hood regarding Moloa`a Ditch, previous to and in anticipation of Kallai’s testimony Councilperson Darryl Kaneshiro and Council Chair Kaipo Asing attempted to limit her testimony because the specific subject of Moloa`a Ditch wasn’t on the council’s official agenda. But councilperson Jay Furfaro countered that under the state sunshine law the public was permitted to speak “off agenda” at the discretion of Committee Chair Chang.
The 155 page PDF file of the report is available on-line. It was funded through the county’s Office of Economic Development.
(PNN) -- Moloa`a Stream's flow will be “restored to it’s natural state” if a consultant’s recommendation are followed, the county council was told Wednesday.
But although Moloa`a water activist Hope Kallai, who has pushed for the return of water to Moloa`a residents and farmers, was pleased, she also said not so fast there. She explained that the point of diversion is on conservation land and any effort at all would need permissions and permits to work on the current stream alteration that diverts river water into Moloa`a Ditch.
In addition, although Kallai did not mention it, water course alterations also usually need federal permits.
In a presentation of the final draft of the “Kilauea Irrigation Water Engineering Monitoring Study”, Andy Hood of “Sustainable Resources Group International Inc.” told council members that the water that flows into the Ka Loko Ditch system from the Kalua`a tributary of Moloa`a Stream is “not needed” to sustain agriculture in the area and “recommend(ed) at the point of diversion at Kalua`a stream, the intake to Moloa`a ditch be dammed up and restored to its natural state”.
Hood said that although “Moloa`a Ditch had never been registered to receive a stream works diversion permit nor was the ditch permitted” there was “nothing sinister” in that and there was “no malfeasance”. Rather he theorized that Brewer Inc, who owned the land prior to 1987, “just didn’t need the water” and the permitting “slipped through the cracks”.
He did not mention the part of the original draft report that says that the current condition of the intake dam was apparently the result of work done only about 10 ago, as PNN reported in its series on the Moloa`a Water theft (see left “rail” for links to prior reports).
Hood said that the Mary Lucas Trust (MLT)- which according to a 1987 “allocation” shares the water equally with the Kilauea Irrigation company (KICO) and owns land abutting Ka Loko Reservoir- has agreed to pay for restoring the flow to farmers and residents in Moloa`a Valley who say they have noticed a marked decrease in water flow and area wells ever since the late 90’s around the time the work was allegedly done.
According to that 1987 water rights agreement to serve the 105 acre “Kilauea Farms Subdivision” below the reservoir, KICO and MLT are to share the water “50-50”, Hood told the council.
But State Aquatic Resources Kaua`i Manager Don Heacock said that water rights nowadays are subject to the “pubic trust doctrine”- as established in the Wai`ahole Ditch Hawai`i Supreme Court decision- and should be allocated based on need and use by the “State Commission of Water Resources”.
Hood said that he could not determine use by KICO because it’s owner Thomas Hitch has seemingly disappeared and the current users claim “proprietary information” that “their competitors” would like to get their hands on a survey of the users done for the study drew few responses.
In addition due to the massive and complicated litigation surrounding the March 2006 Ka Loko dam break tragedy that killed seven people downstream, no one wants to talk about anything although he said much of the report would not have been possible without the discovery” process as a result of the suits.
He also said MLT only uses the water they receive to support around a hundred head of cattle.
One discrepancy as stated by Hood is that MLT receives water through a pipe that takes water from the Ka Loko ditch way up valley but also shares a 50-50 use arrangement just above the reservoir implying that MLT may be receiving much more than 50% despite their limited need.
In a power point presentation cut short by the enforcement of the council’s “three minutes” rules, Kallai presented documents showing that prior to the ’87 agreement both the county council in 1979 and the Water Department subsequently, had designs on the water. The council wanted to supply planned “diversified agriculture” in the entire Kilauea area from Kalihiwai to Moloa`a and the Department wanted some for potable water.
As to whether there is sufficient water to serve the Kilauea Farms subdivision- which was the actual subject of the $75,000 study initiated by Councilmembers Jay Furfaro and Darryl Kaneshiro- the answer is “just barely” under the current arrangement and condition of Ka Loko reservoir.
Hood provided a few options for increasing the flow including a limited repair of the breach at the bottom of the reservoir where overflow currently runs down valley into the ocean when the three big pipes that remove the water for irrigation are fully supplied.
Kallai claimed that the overflow is a huge mess that was never investigated by the EPA, and never cleaned up making the damage downstream and to the reef and ocean something that would “make Pila`a look manini.”
Some councilmembers wanted to know if and how the system might serve the entire Kilauea area since it is just barely sufficient in its current state to serve the Kilauea Farms Subdivision. But it was determined that historically there were other components of the entire Kilauea Sugar Company operations irrigation system, including the Kalihiwai reservoir which originally served some lands in that area until sugar production was shut down in the early 70’s.
That area would include the new Kilauea Agricultural Park that the county has recently obtained after a 30 year battle to acquire and set it up. Present plans are to use the potable county water system for the farm rather than a the old gravity driven cane ditch system.
The council discussed briefly whether funding a wider study to get a comprehensive idea of the water resources and needs- and current flows which were not in the report aside from some guesswork on the Ka Loko system- but Heacock recommended contacting the state Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR), the federal Department of Agriculture’s National Resources Conservation Service and the US Geologic Service in Honolulu to get them to coordinate and possibly fund the study since it was essentially their kuleana.
Heacock said that there are actually 26 streams that feed Ka Loko system, something Hood intimated when saying that the flow intake at the head end of the Ka Loko system was less than the amount flowing at the end, guessing that there were areas where streams fed the ditch at lower elevation although his staff did not observe them.
And of course that net gain includes the previously mentioned “pipe” at higher elevations that removes water for MLT’s cows
Heacock said there needs to be a full disclosure on “what’s being serviced- what crops are being grown” implying that some farms’ claim to “proprietary information” was not going to get them water if the “public trust” involved in water rights is enforced.
Kallai was denied permission by Economic Development and Housing Committee Chair Dickie Chang to use the testimony time of the roomful of KNA members present and was cut off without being able to finish her whole presentation which included documents not in the county report, many from a 1984 federal study of ag in the Kilauea area and water usage stakeholders at that time that were excluded in the ’87 agreement between KICO and MLT.
But as she was being given the bums rush she did mange to blurt out that the intake was on state conservation land and therefore no activity may take place without the DLNR’s permission and no changes to water flow may be effectuated without the OK of the DLNR’s “Commission of Water Resources” which determine water usage based on the Wai`ahole pubic trust doctrine.
Despite the testimony by Hood regarding Moloa`a Ditch, previous to and in anticipation of Kallai’s testimony Councilperson Darryl Kaneshiro and Council Chair Kaipo Asing attempted to limit her testimony because the specific subject of Moloa`a Ditch wasn’t on the council’s official agenda. But councilperson Jay Furfaro countered that under the state sunshine law the public was permitted to speak “off agenda” at the discretion of Committee Chair Chang.
The 155 page PDF file of the report is available on-line. It was funded through the county’s Office of Economic Development.
Monday, March 16, 2009
BESTEST FRIENDS
BESTEST FRIENDS: With the death of newspapers like tomorrow’s closing of the Seattle Post Intelligencer many trained as journalists are turning to public relations work, attempting to turn sows ears into silk purses.
But sometimes there’s little they can do to repair the images of the morally bankrupt, especially these days when even the biggest polluters and environmental criminals are trying to show their green credentials.
So it should have come as no shock when the local paper, desperate for “free content”, rewrote a piece of PR absurdity last Saturday, telling us that “PMRF (Pacific Missile Range Facility) wins Navy Cultural Resource Management Award”
A reading of the lead shows that the award was of course not from the Sierra Club or Friends of the Earth or some environmental organization but from the Navy itself.
The article says that
The Chief of Naval Operations recently announced the Pacific Missile Range Facility, Barking Sands, Kaua`i as the one of the winners of the 2008 CNO Environmental Award for the Cultural Resources Management Installation category, a PMRF news release said this week.
It blathers on about some invasive eradication program- i.e. trying to kill of some off the keawe on the base- and some “cultural/natural resources display” about the “significance of these components to the Native Hawaiian culture prior to Westernization — food, shelter, construction, medicine and cultural practices.”
For those who have followed the exploits of PMRF over the last 20- or ever 40- years it’s a real stomach churning experience to read thorough all the platitudes regarding how caring and concerned- not to mention beloved- the Navy base is about that “significance”.
But the end of the article pushed the button that for many no doubt opened the ear-valve, allowing the emission of a stream of steam.
It quotes one particular “coconut” (brown on the outside white on the inside), Kunane Aipoalani who works on the base as a “transportation buyer” and is a member of the Kaua`i Burial Council.
Ignoring historical desecration and environmental despoilage in Mana, he uses the magic words the rest of the article avoided.
“As a descendent of Nohili and the surrounding area of Barking Sands, I’ve felt PMRF has always been a good neighbor in their established relationship of being sensitive and respectful to the ‘aina (land), its people, and the cultural history of this place. I appreciate the importance of this relationship which is vital to the preservation of a legacy that was left by our ancestors.” (emphasis added)
Good Neighbor, eh. Do good neighbors turn pristine accessible beaches- the longest and widest stretch of beach in the islands- into a restricted, often closed-off cog in the war machine, while spewing rocket fuel, dumping their rockets and waste on the ocean floor in the Ni`ihau channel and, in it’s latest land grab, closing down existing local farms (and preventing new ones) on well-irrigated, prime ag land?
We don’t know if Aipoalani is too young to remember or is exhibiting intentionally selective memory but other do remember the phrase “Good Neighbors” from the base’s PR campaign back in the 90’s when base Commander Robert Mullins repeated it ad nauseum during the infamous “Star Wars” battles when the Navy set brother against brother inland-wide so they could fire off 40 dilapidated old Polaris missiles in an early test of Ronald Regan’s sci-fi movie fantasy.
(Parenthetically Mullins eventually landed a job as former Mayor Maryanne Kusaka’s Administrative Assistant where his first act was to steal the economic development money slated for the Hanapepe Economic Alliance’s efforts to revitalize the town’s economy and spent it on the “High Tech” center for PMRF defense contractors in Waimea. He then took a job with contractor Textron and opened an office in the building he built, as PNN reported on “The Parxist Conspiracy” TV newsmagazine in the 90’s.)
When people hear the phrase “Good Neighbors” many also remember a film called “Good Neighbor?” by local videographer Ed Coll depicting Mullins repeatedly and defensively stating “we ARE good neighbors” while defending the main gate of the base before his soldier goon squad beat and arrested a group of Hawaiian religious and cultural practitioners who attempted to access those beloved sacred Nohili burial dunes that Aipoalani mentioned, for a religious ceremony.
The film hadn’t been seen publicly for many years but recently it has been resurrected by Coll and is now posted on line.
It shows a goon squad of camouflage-clad soldiers using excessive force and injuring the group members, led by Rev Ka Leo Patterson and a group of reverends and pastors from across the island and world and supported by other guests who accompanied them.
For those who haven’t seen it- and even for those who haven’t seen it in a decade and a half- it’s a must see now. It shows how the cultural and religious practitioners went around a fence to get to the dunes only to be clubbed and dragged behind couple of buildings- where they could not be seen by those who waited outside the fence- for some final abuse. Coll followed them in, wearing his press pass around his neck, before a hand over the camera stopped his filming and he was told he would be arrested with the group and have his camera and tape confiscated.
They never did either.
But before they stopped him from taping, the video shows Kanaka Maoli Michael Grace being subdued by six soldiers and beating him and attempting to put him in plastic handcuff with him screaming in pain and the screaming “he’s resisting- he’s resisting” all while Grace is doing his best to submit to their handling despite the rough treatment.
Grace had plastic handcuffs placed on him, according to Coll, so painfully tight they “disappeared into the folds of his skin” until later when an officer came by and cut them off.
One of the guests Fred Dente wasn’t as lucky. Dente was supporting Patterson’s group and came to participate in the ceremony. He was placed in cuffs so tight that his hands started to turn black during the bus trip to be “processed” according to him and others on the bus.
After being released Dente had to go to the emergency room and suffered permanent nerve damage causing him to miss work for six months afterward eventually contributing to ending his career as a master carpenter.
Those arrested were never charged with anything, many think to remove any record of the arrests so that those injured could not sue.
But is that ancient history- and have things changed?.
Just last year apparently they were at it again when local videographer Bob Sato was physical attacked by base security personnel when he legally refused to leave a public area just off the base while making a kids surfing video, as PNN wrote at the time.
Sato posted his video on-line for a while until, he says, some goons from the base came to his home and threatened his family if he kept up his attempts to publicize the event.
And as far as environmental protection just this month questions have been raised regarding whether the fish kill last January off Ni`ihau was cause by concurrent war games in the area, possibly due to use of sonar.
Local reporter Joan Conrow’s March 9 investigative piece in the Hawaii Independent headlined “Fish fears on Kaua`i, Ni`ihau – Is the Navy to blame?” seems to indicate that the PMRF activity is the most likely reason for the kill off- and a couple of dead whales.
Here’s some excerpts of the article
It’s been weeks since a massive fish kill was discovered on Nihau, but those living on the privately-owned island remain afraid to eat the reef fish that are a dietary staple...
(State aquatic biologist on Kauai Don) Heacock said he observed hundreds of dead fish on Ni`ihau and many had distended swim bladders, a phenomenon more typically associated with deepwater fish that are brought up to the surface. Fish use their swim bladders to “sense, hear and feel sounds and vibrations underwater,” he said.
“If there was a very large underwater explosion, for example, fish would feel that, and if it was loud enough, it could kill them,” Heacock said. “It could destroy organs and tissue.”...
Heacock said that (Ni`ihau owner Bruce) Robinson also reported a baby humpback had washed ashore on Ni`ihau on Jan. 21....
A large swell apparently washed the calf away before Heacock and others were able to get to Ni`ihau on Feb. 4, where they collected dead fish and monk seal scat and observed several seals, which appeared healthy.
On Feb. 9, another humpback calf washed ashore on a section of beach between Kekaha and Kauai’s Pacific Missile Range Facility.
“We don’t know if the fish kills and the two baby whales washing ashore are related, but they might be,” Heacock said. “We do not know if there was some kind of sonic experiment or sonar testing going on. We do know there were military activities going on during that period. Several commercial fishermen said they’d seen some large Navy ships, Marine Corps helicopters and even Australian ships around Ni`ihau in that time period.”
Paul Achitoff, an attorney with Earthjustice, said that the Navy’s counsel confirmed that the January 2009 undersea warfare training exercise (USWEX) began at 4 p.m. Jan. 15 and ended at noon Jan. 18.
The Navy did use mid-frequency active sonar during antisubmarine training exercises last year. However, PMRF spokesman Tom Clements refused to confirm whether the Navy had used sonar during this year’s USWEX, or even that military activities had been conducted at all.
“If an anomaly occurred at that time that people are trying to connect to our activities, we’re saying they were no different than the activities that have been done on the range over the past 40 years,” Clement said.
The Navy contends there is no connection between such strandings and sonar use, but has never released any necropsy reports on the dead animals.
In a response to an email posing additional questions, Clements wrote: “As far as ‘loud noises underwater,’ as you know, there are many anthropomorphic sources of sound in the water, including recreational and commercial boat traffic that crosses our range. Our activities that can cause sound in the water are managed and quantified, as expressed in the Hawaii Range Complex EIS completed in 2008.
“And regarding the introduction of toxic or noxious chemicals, if your question refers to operations specifically designed to test or train with or against chemical agents, than the answer is ‘no.’ The PMRF range did not have any spills or accidents resulting in unintended releases. Most human activities on and in the water can potentially introduce chemicals into the ocean, from sunscreen to diesel fuel emissions.”
When asked whether any intended chemical spills or releases occurred, and why the Navy declined to comment on the date or nature of its activities, Clements replied in a second email: “I believe I did respond within the context of the question by distinguishing between intended (operations specifically designed) and unintended (spills or accidents). Not commenting specifically on all-inclusive military operations within a given parameter of dates is not unusual.”
It should be pointed out that the EIS, which underwent years of court battles, was only okayed by the courts, not because it wasn’t dangerous to marine mammals but because “national security” was more important than a few dead whales.
Of course this kind of doubletalk, avoiding the question and attempts at whitewash by Clements are typical of the Navy and PMRF spokespersons over the years. And we’ve come to expect it as they have cut off access to fishing and surfing spots since September 11, 2001 only opening it up after massive community protests threatened to make their claims of being “good neighbors” even more specious than it already was.
Now select local people are occasionally allowed into the area but only with special IDs issued after extensive background checks.
We expect a lack of respect to the local and native culture from the US government and it’s armed forces, and their defending the theft of the kanaka maoli land base at the point of a gun- heck, they’re the ones whose troops backed up the original theft in 1893.
And we expect them to defend the attempt to “steal the land one last time fair and square” via the upcoming U.S. Supreme Court decision on the never-ceded lands and through the Akaka Bill now before the U.S. congress.
That’s because this country was founded on genocide and is supported through it today both domestically and throughout the world. As George Carlin used to say “bombing brown people” is our favorite activity- our very stock-in-trade.
But to try to claim some sort of cultural and environmental bonefides by giving itself an award for being such “good neighbors” and getting one of the poor kanaka house nig... ah, slaves to make a statement on what good neighbors they are is about as galling as it gets.
But sometimes there’s little they can do to repair the images of the morally bankrupt, especially these days when even the biggest polluters and environmental criminals are trying to show their green credentials.
So it should have come as no shock when the local paper, desperate for “free content”, rewrote a piece of PR absurdity last Saturday, telling us that “PMRF (Pacific Missile Range Facility) wins Navy Cultural Resource Management Award”
A reading of the lead shows that the award was of course not from the Sierra Club or Friends of the Earth or some environmental organization but from the Navy itself.
The article says that
The Chief of Naval Operations recently announced the Pacific Missile Range Facility, Barking Sands, Kaua`i as the one of the winners of the 2008 CNO Environmental Award for the Cultural Resources Management Installation category, a PMRF news release said this week.
It blathers on about some invasive eradication program- i.e. trying to kill of some off the keawe on the base- and some “cultural/natural resources display” about the “significance of these components to the Native Hawaiian culture prior to Westernization — food, shelter, construction, medicine and cultural practices.”
For those who have followed the exploits of PMRF over the last 20- or ever 40- years it’s a real stomach churning experience to read thorough all the platitudes regarding how caring and concerned- not to mention beloved- the Navy base is about that “significance”.
But the end of the article pushed the button that for many no doubt opened the ear-valve, allowing the emission of a stream of steam.
It quotes one particular “coconut” (brown on the outside white on the inside), Kunane Aipoalani who works on the base as a “transportation buyer” and is a member of the Kaua`i Burial Council.
Ignoring historical desecration and environmental despoilage in Mana, he uses the magic words the rest of the article avoided.
“As a descendent of Nohili and the surrounding area of Barking Sands, I’ve felt PMRF has always been a good neighbor in their established relationship of being sensitive and respectful to the ‘aina (land), its people, and the cultural history of this place. I appreciate the importance of this relationship which is vital to the preservation of a legacy that was left by our ancestors.” (emphasis added)
Good Neighbor, eh. Do good neighbors turn pristine accessible beaches- the longest and widest stretch of beach in the islands- into a restricted, often closed-off cog in the war machine, while spewing rocket fuel, dumping their rockets and waste on the ocean floor in the Ni`ihau channel and, in it’s latest land grab, closing down existing local farms (and preventing new ones) on well-irrigated, prime ag land?
We don’t know if Aipoalani is too young to remember or is exhibiting intentionally selective memory but other do remember the phrase “Good Neighbors” from the base’s PR campaign back in the 90’s when base Commander Robert Mullins repeated it ad nauseum during the infamous “Star Wars” battles when the Navy set brother against brother inland-wide so they could fire off 40 dilapidated old Polaris missiles in an early test of Ronald Regan’s sci-fi movie fantasy.
(Parenthetically Mullins eventually landed a job as former Mayor Maryanne Kusaka’s Administrative Assistant where his first act was to steal the economic development money slated for the Hanapepe Economic Alliance’s efforts to revitalize the town’s economy and spent it on the “High Tech” center for PMRF defense contractors in Waimea. He then took a job with contractor Textron and opened an office in the building he built, as PNN reported on “The Parxist Conspiracy” TV newsmagazine in the 90’s.)
When people hear the phrase “Good Neighbors” many also remember a film called “Good Neighbor?” by local videographer Ed Coll depicting Mullins repeatedly and defensively stating “we ARE good neighbors” while defending the main gate of the base before his soldier goon squad beat and arrested a group of Hawaiian religious and cultural practitioners who attempted to access those beloved sacred Nohili burial dunes that Aipoalani mentioned, for a religious ceremony.
The film hadn’t been seen publicly for many years but recently it has been resurrected by Coll and is now posted on line.
It shows a goon squad of camouflage-clad soldiers using excessive force and injuring the group members, led by Rev Ka Leo Patterson and a group of reverends and pastors from across the island and world and supported by other guests who accompanied them.
For those who haven’t seen it- and even for those who haven’t seen it in a decade and a half- it’s a must see now. It shows how the cultural and religious practitioners went around a fence to get to the dunes only to be clubbed and dragged behind couple of buildings- where they could not be seen by those who waited outside the fence- for some final abuse. Coll followed them in, wearing his press pass around his neck, before a hand over the camera stopped his filming and he was told he would be arrested with the group and have his camera and tape confiscated.
They never did either.
But before they stopped him from taping, the video shows Kanaka Maoli Michael Grace being subdued by six soldiers and beating him and attempting to put him in plastic handcuff with him screaming in pain and the screaming “he’s resisting- he’s resisting” all while Grace is doing his best to submit to their handling despite the rough treatment.
Grace had plastic handcuffs placed on him, according to Coll, so painfully tight they “disappeared into the folds of his skin” until later when an officer came by and cut them off.
One of the guests Fred Dente wasn’t as lucky. Dente was supporting Patterson’s group and came to participate in the ceremony. He was placed in cuffs so tight that his hands started to turn black during the bus trip to be “processed” according to him and others on the bus.
After being released Dente had to go to the emergency room and suffered permanent nerve damage causing him to miss work for six months afterward eventually contributing to ending his career as a master carpenter.
Those arrested were never charged with anything, many think to remove any record of the arrests so that those injured could not sue.
But is that ancient history- and have things changed?.
Just last year apparently they were at it again when local videographer Bob Sato was physical attacked by base security personnel when he legally refused to leave a public area just off the base while making a kids surfing video, as PNN wrote at the time.
Sato posted his video on-line for a while until, he says, some goons from the base came to his home and threatened his family if he kept up his attempts to publicize the event.
And as far as environmental protection just this month questions have been raised regarding whether the fish kill last January off Ni`ihau was cause by concurrent war games in the area, possibly due to use of sonar.
Local reporter Joan Conrow’s March 9 investigative piece in the Hawaii Independent headlined “Fish fears on Kaua`i, Ni`ihau – Is the Navy to blame?” seems to indicate that the PMRF activity is the most likely reason for the kill off- and a couple of dead whales.
Here’s some excerpts of the article
It’s been weeks since a massive fish kill was discovered on Nihau, but those living on the privately-owned island remain afraid to eat the reef fish that are a dietary staple...
(State aquatic biologist on Kauai Don) Heacock said he observed hundreds of dead fish on Ni`ihau and many had distended swim bladders, a phenomenon more typically associated with deepwater fish that are brought up to the surface. Fish use their swim bladders to “sense, hear and feel sounds and vibrations underwater,” he said.
“If there was a very large underwater explosion, for example, fish would feel that, and if it was loud enough, it could kill them,” Heacock said. “It could destroy organs and tissue.”...
Heacock said that (Ni`ihau owner Bruce) Robinson also reported a baby humpback had washed ashore on Ni`ihau on Jan. 21....
A large swell apparently washed the calf away before Heacock and others were able to get to Ni`ihau on Feb. 4, where they collected dead fish and monk seal scat and observed several seals, which appeared healthy.
On Feb. 9, another humpback calf washed ashore on a section of beach between Kekaha and Kauai’s Pacific Missile Range Facility.
“We don’t know if the fish kills and the two baby whales washing ashore are related, but they might be,” Heacock said. “We do not know if there was some kind of sonic experiment or sonar testing going on. We do know there were military activities going on during that period. Several commercial fishermen said they’d seen some large Navy ships, Marine Corps helicopters and even Australian ships around Ni`ihau in that time period.”
Paul Achitoff, an attorney with Earthjustice, said that the Navy’s counsel confirmed that the January 2009 undersea warfare training exercise (USWEX) began at 4 p.m. Jan. 15 and ended at noon Jan. 18.
The Navy did use mid-frequency active sonar during antisubmarine training exercises last year. However, PMRF spokesman Tom Clements refused to confirm whether the Navy had used sonar during this year’s USWEX, or even that military activities had been conducted at all.
“If an anomaly occurred at that time that people are trying to connect to our activities, we’re saying they were no different than the activities that have been done on the range over the past 40 years,” Clement said.
The Navy contends there is no connection between such strandings and sonar use, but has never released any necropsy reports on the dead animals.
In a response to an email posing additional questions, Clements wrote: “As far as ‘loud noises underwater,’ as you know, there are many anthropomorphic sources of sound in the water, including recreational and commercial boat traffic that crosses our range. Our activities that can cause sound in the water are managed and quantified, as expressed in the Hawaii Range Complex EIS completed in 2008.
“And regarding the introduction of toxic or noxious chemicals, if your question refers to operations specifically designed to test or train with or against chemical agents, than the answer is ‘no.’ The PMRF range did not have any spills or accidents resulting in unintended releases. Most human activities on and in the water can potentially introduce chemicals into the ocean, from sunscreen to diesel fuel emissions.”
When asked whether any intended chemical spills or releases occurred, and why the Navy declined to comment on the date or nature of its activities, Clements replied in a second email: “I believe I did respond within the context of the question by distinguishing between intended (operations specifically designed) and unintended (spills or accidents). Not commenting specifically on all-inclusive military operations within a given parameter of dates is not unusual.”
It should be pointed out that the EIS, which underwent years of court battles, was only okayed by the courts, not because it wasn’t dangerous to marine mammals but because “national security” was more important than a few dead whales.
Of course this kind of doubletalk, avoiding the question and attempts at whitewash by Clements are typical of the Navy and PMRF spokespersons over the years. And we’ve come to expect it as they have cut off access to fishing and surfing spots since September 11, 2001 only opening it up after massive community protests threatened to make their claims of being “good neighbors” even more specious than it already was.
Now select local people are occasionally allowed into the area but only with special IDs issued after extensive background checks.
We expect a lack of respect to the local and native culture from the US government and it’s armed forces, and their defending the theft of the kanaka maoli land base at the point of a gun- heck, they’re the ones whose troops backed up the original theft in 1893.
And we expect them to defend the attempt to “steal the land one last time fair and square” via the upcoming U.S. Supreme Court decision on the never-ceded lands and through the Akaka Bill now before the U.S. congress.
That’s because this country was founded on genocide and is supported through it today both domestically and throughout the world. As George Carlin used to say “bombing brown people” is our favorite activity- our very stock-in-trade.
But to try to claim some sort of cultural and environmental bonefides by giving itself an award for being such “good neighbors” and getting one of the poor kanaka house nig... ah, slaves to make a statement on what good neighbors they are is about as galling as it gets.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
