Makua Valley has been stuck in a tug-of-war between the Wai'anae community and the U.S. Army since 1943. GREEN recently featured the plight of the valley and community [Makua Valley: Challenges of a Sacred Space, volume 2 number 2] as it was locked in a legal battle with the Army over its use of the valley as a weapons training area and the impact on the natural and social environment. Headway was made by the community group Malama Makua as the Hawaii District Court ruled that the Army failed to give the community crucial information on how military training at Makua Military Reservation could damage native Hawaiian cultural sites and contaminate marine resources on which area residents rely for subsistence.
Malama Makua, represented by Earthjustice, filed suit in August 2009 to set aside the Army's environmental impact statement for proposed military training at Makua until it completes key marine contamination studies and archaeological surveys to identify cultural sites that could be damaged or destroyed by military training, which the Army was required to complete due to earlier lawsuits.
The court ordered that the Army "failed to conduct any subsurface survey" in several areas within Makua Military Reservation, which "violated its agreement to survey 'all areas,'" and also "did not comply with its contractual obligation to conduct a meaningful survey...that evaluates the potential that the Army's activities at Makua Military Reservation were contributing to contamination or posting a human health risk to area residents who rely on marine resources for subsistence."
Malama Makua's claim that the Army violated its duty to identify and study the fish, shellfish, limu and other marine resources on which area residents rely for subsistence will need to be resolved at trial, which is scheduled for February 23, 2011.