Stop Bombing Pohakuloa!
Celebrate International Peace Day!
EVERYDAY!
Stop Bombing Pohakuloa!
Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022
10:30 – Noon
Pohakuloa Toxic Area (PTA) Main Gate
(Car pools leave Hilo –Komohana and Saddle Rd at 9:30 AM)
Shut Down Pohakuloa!
Clean up the decades of military mess!
Return the land to the Hawaiian people!
All of us on Hawaii island are downhill, downwind, and downstream of PTA’s many toxins from more than 70 years of live-fire! Whatever happens mauka comes makai! PTA is Hawaii Island’s Red Hill!
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 to receive our posts.
For more information http://www.malu-aina.org
Pohakuloa Toxic Area (PTA)
The Military Pohakuloa Toxic (Training) Area, located in the center of Hawaii Island at 6500 feet elevation totals 133,000 acres, or more than 200 square miles in size. That’s as big as the island of Guam. PTA has been used as a live-fire training area since WWII by all branches of the military – Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and foreign troops too. Much of what goes on up at PTA is secret – the training for nuclear war, assassination drone training, B-2 and B-52 bombing runs, the long list of various munitions used over the years, and even the number of live rounds fired annually. The last figure released nearly 2 decades ago was 14.8 million live rounds are fired annually at PTA.
The military leases 23,000 acres of Hawaiian crown and government lands from the State DLNR at Pohakuloa for a total cost of ONE DOLLAR for 65 years. The military is now trying to get that lease renewed. The current lease expires in 2029. 84,000 additional acres at PTA were simply seized in 1964 by the presidential executive order of Lyndon B. Johnson at ZERO cost. The military claims that 84,000 acres are “Federally owned land.” That’s like someone stealing your car and claiming they now own it.
All of us on Hawaii Island, visitors, and residents alike are downhill, downwind, and downstream of the Pohakuloa Toxic Area. In short, PTA is a toxic waste dump. No true inventory has ever been done of all the toxins used at Pohakuloa. But it should be done now. Still, we know enough to be very concerned. Just the amount of lead used in decades of live-fire is enormous. But there is more. Lots more toxins. One of the worst that we know about is Depleted Uranium (DU) radiation. DU is a metal. It is not an external hazard. But when DU metal is hit with high explosives and burned, it turns into small Depleted Uranium oxide particles that can be carried long distances in the wind. When inhaled DU oxide particles can travel to various organs of the body, causing cancers, and genetic damage to future generations. The half-life of DU is 24,000 years.
When military live-fire causes brush fires at Pohakuloa, military toxins, including DU oxide particles, are likely blowing in the smoke. Still, no federal, state, or county agency is monitoring what’s coming off of PTA. Hawaii’s predominant winds are from the northeast, but winds shift. At night winds often come down off the mountain to the east. Winds that travel through the Saddle area where PTA is located can be very strong. Increasing vehicle traffic traveling the improved Saddle Highway can possibly transport military toxins around the island. Continuous independent air filter monitoring encircling PTA needs to be done for a full year to know what’s coming off the base according to Dr. Lorrin Pang, MD, and 24 years in the Army Medical Corps.
More than 50,000 acres at PTA are officially considered the “Impact Area,” but maps of PTA say that “ALL of PTA should be considered a Dud Hazard Area.” meaning unexploded ordinance could be present. Actually, the entire island is part of the PTA “Impact area.” We are living in a toxic war zone.
Cancel, don’t renew, PTA State lands Lease!
A new PTA Presidential Executive Order needs to be signed to return Federally seized lands, as was done with Kaho’olawe!
1. Mourn all victims of violence. 2. Reject violence & war as solutions. 3. Defend civil liberties.
4. Oppose all discrimination: anti-Islamic, anti-Semitic, anti-Hawaiian, anti-Black, anti-Asian, anti-Russian, etc.
5. Seek peace through peaceful means and work for justice in Hawai`i and around the world.
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 to receive our posts.
For more information http://www.malu-aina.org
September 16, 2022, Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet – week 1094– Fridays 3:30-5 PM downtown Post Office
