Letter to the Editor — Sept. 23, 2024
Sept. 23, 2024
Pohakuloa TOXIC Area (PTA)
Our Hawaii County Mayoral candidates, Mitch Roth and Kimo Alameda are a sad case regarding basic facts and awareness of Pohakuloa dangers.
Mitch and Kimo need to know that the current Pohakuloa lease of 23,000 acres from the State is not $1 per year (as they both stated in recent debates). It’s $1 for 65 years –from 1964- to 2029. If you don’t even know that, what do you know about Depleted Uranium radiation, lead, and other military toxins, spreading around our island blowing in the wind from military bombing and shelling? What about the threat of military toxins to our groundwater? Is Pohakuloa our Red Hill water disaster in the making? The military spends over a million dollars a year hauling water to Pohakuloa. More than 10 years ago the military drilled two wells on the base and hit water at shallow depths, but they are still not using the water from those wells. Why? Are military toxins in the water? The military admits to starting 892 fires at Pohakuloa since 1975. One fire started in 2022 burned over 17,000 acres, including over 12,000 acres off the base destroying ENDANGERED SPECIES HABITAT! Is Pohakuloa our Lahaina firestorm in the making? Why are so many elected officials and candidates ignorant about the TOXIC ELEPHANT in the center of Hawaii Island?
The ignorance about what’s happening at Pohakuloa is an indictment of political responsibility. It is also an indictment of our local news media’s lack of reporting about the toxic elephant in the center of our island and the military secrecy that violates the public’s right to know.
It’s time for citizen voices to be heard. Stop Bombing Pohakuloa! Cancel the State Lease! Cancel the 1964 Presidential Executive Order involving PTA that seized more than 84,000 acres at zero cost. Make the Military Clean Up its Toxic Mess, and return all the land at Pohakuloa (132,000 + acres) to the Hawaiian people.
PS. Let’s make sure the military does a better job at clean-up than it did on Kaho’olawe.
Jim Albertini
-- Jim Albertini Malu 'Aina Center For Non-violent Education & Action P.O. Box 489 Ola'a (Kurtistown) Hawai'i 96760 Phone 808-966-7622 Email ja@malu-aina.org Visit us on the web at www.malu-aina.org
