THE SENATE

S.C.R. NO.

28

TWENTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2003

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 
   


SENATE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

 

urging the audit of the Kaho`olawe Island reserve commission's use of federal funds and requesting that the Kaho`olawe Island reserve commission submit a master plan for the Navy's transfer of administrative control.

 

WHEREAS, Kaho`olawe represents the center of the revitalization of the Native Hawaiian culture; and

WHEREAS, the United States Navy used Kaho`olawe for bombing, target practice, and other training exercises during World War II; and

WHEREAS, a 1953 Executive Order gave jurisdiction of Kaho`olawe to the Secretary of the Navy, with the stipulation that the island would be restored to a "habitable condition" and returned to the State when the Navy no longer required it; and

WHEREAS, the Protect Kaho`olawe `Ohana led a series of protests and occupations of the island beginning in 1976, when the `Ohana also filed a federal civil suit to bring the island under compliance with federal environmental, historic site and religious freedom protection laws; and

WHEREAS, in 1980, the suit was partially settled with a consent decree that provided for access to the island for religious, cultural, educational, and scientific activities, and in 1981 the whole island was included on the National Register of Historic Places; and

WHEREAS, on October 22, 1990, President George Bush directed the Department of Defense to stop all bombing and target practice on the island; and

WHEREAS, in November 1990, Congress created the Kaho`olawe Island Conveyance Commission to identify the terms and conditions for the return of the island to the State of Hawaii, with public hearings during the next three years further confirming Kaho`olawe as a significant and sacred island; and

WHEREAS, under conditions of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Navy and the State of Hawaii, Congress permanently stopped all military training on Kaho`olawe in November 1993; and

WHEREAS, Congress authorized $400,000,000 in total funding for the Navy's required cleanup of unexploded ordnance on the island and for its environmental and cultural restoration over the ten years since the island's conveyance; and

WHEREAS, in 1993, the Legislature established the Kaho`olawe Island Reserve, comprising the island and a two-mile-wide ribbon of ocean surrounding it, stating that the reserve will be used solely and in perpetuity for the preservation and practice of Native Hawaiian cultural, spiritual, and subsistence uses; and

WHEREAS, the Legislature also established the Kaho`olawe Island Reserve Commission, which is administratively attached to the Department of Land and Natural Resources, to manage the reserve while it is held in trust for a future Native Hawaiian sovereign entity; and

WHEREAS, on May 7, 1994, the deed returning Kaho`olawe to the people of Hawaii was signed, making the island a cultural reserve to be held in trust for the sovereign Native Hawaiian entity when it is reestablished and recognized by the state and federal governments; and

WHEREAS, the money for the Kaho`olawe Island Reserve Commission stops as soon as the cleanup ends on November 11, 2003; and

WHEREAS, while the commission is responsible for the island's environmental restoration, administrative control, and access, it could find itself without an ongoing source of money; and

WHEREAS, the commission has $25,000,000 in its trust fund, but it spends $5,000,000 a year and estimates the need for an additional $40,000,000 for required infrastructure maintenance and improvements, such as for a supply barge pier, a road to the pier, helicopters to transport workers and equipment, maintenance of the base camp at Honokanai`a, and construction of an education center and administrative office on Maui, leading to the estimate that current funds will be depleted by 2009; and

WHEREAS, the Navy projected that it would have cleared 100 percent of the surface ordnance and 30 percent of the subsurface ordnance within ten years, it will likely have only cleared about 66 percent of the surface and less than 10 percent of the subsurface ordnance; and

WHEREAS, with so many areas still embedded with ordnance, the ongoing cost of managing the island increases; and

WHEREAS, the restoration of Kaho`olawe will require a strategy to control erosion, re-establish vegetation, recharge the water table, and replace alien plants with native species; and

WHEREAS, in view of the imminent transfer of administrative control of Kaho`olawe from the Navy to the commission, a complete understanding of the commission's past use of its federal funds as well as its plans for taking over control of the island are required; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twenty-Second Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2003, the House of Representatives concurring, that the Auditor audit the Kaho`olawe Island Reserve Commission's use of its federal funds to this point; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Kaho`olawe Island Reserve Commission prepare and submit a detailed master plan for its intended management of Kaho`olawe after the Navy's November 11, 2003, transfer of administrative control to the commission; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the commission submit the plan to the Legislature before July 1, 2003; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Auditor, the Kaho`olawe Island Reserve Commission, the U.S. Navy's Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Command, Hawaii's congressional delegation, and the Governor of the State of Hawaii.

 

 

 

OFFERED BY:

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Report Title:

Kaho`olawe Island Reserve Commission audit; master plan