HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.R. NO.	171
THIRTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2023
STATE OF HAWAII

HOUSE RESOLUTION

urging the elimination of the threat to the health and safety of the ewa beach community by relocating the live fire training from the puuloa range training facility.

WHEREAS, the area now known as the Pu'uloa Range Training Facility was transferred from the Army to the Navy between 1915 and 1916; and

WHEREAS, by 1934, the range became known as the Marine Corps Rifle Range and supported long-range sniper training for a short period during the Vietnam era until 1979, when the training was moved to Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe, now known as Marine Corps Base Hawaii; and

WHEREAS, in the thirty-two years following the departure of the sniper range Iroquois Point (now known as Kapilina) and Ewa Beach were connected by a road inland from the Pu'uloa Range Training Facility, which allowed The Bus service through Iroquois Point; and

WHEREAS, in 2011, Marine Corps Base Hawaii doubled the length of the Alpha Range, which is the closest to the Ewa Beach community, re-establishing the sniper range without conducting an environmental assessment despite the addition of the Marine Corps' loudest small arms rifle shooting from a significantly different location, thereby altering Surface Danger Zones and noise contours; and

WHEREAS, no public hearings or forums were held related to the 2011 Alpha Range expansion; and

WHEREAS, the resulting closure of the access road because of this isolated the communities of Iroquois Point and Ewa Beach from each other and led to a termination of The Bus service to Iroquois Point, eliminating a potential tsunami evacuation Route; and

WHEREAS, a powerful public address system has been operated by the Pu'uloa Range Training Facility personnel in recent years well before 7:00 a.m. as a matter of routine in violation of the Clean Air Act, resulting in hundreds of noise complaints from the surrounding community without relief; and

WHEREAS, incessant noise pollution from simultaneous firing by dozens of shooters commences promptly at 7:00 a.m., and persists throughout the day, sometimes into the night; and

WHEREAS, Marine Corps Base Hawaii recently announced the Pu'uloa Range Training Facility would be used as a helicopter night landing zone, significantly increasing existing noise pollution outside of normal range hours; and

WHEREAS, Harvard Medical School researchers have shown that persistent noise pollution such as that experienced by the residents surrounding the Pu'uloa Range Training Facility not only drives hearing loss, tinnitus, and hypersensitivity to sound, but can alco cause or exacerbate cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, sleep disturbances, stress, mental health and cognition problems including memory impairment and attention deficits, childhood learning delays, and low birth weight and miscarriages; and

WHEREAS, the Pu'uloa Range Training Facility is an open-air range creating the potential for stray bullet impact to schools, churches, homes, parks, and low flying passenger aircraft within range of the weapons typically fired from the range via ricochet, accidental weapons discharge, or intentional directing of weapons fire off-range; and

WHEREAS, false alarm school lockdowns have occurred in the Ewa Beach area due to range gunfire mistaken as an active shooter situation; and

WHEREAS, in April 2021, the Deputy Commandant of the Marine Corps for Installations and Logistics specifically directed Marine Corps Base Hawaii to perform a Range Compatibility Use Zone study via Marine Corps Order 3550.13, and Marine Corps Base Hawaii refused to release the study results after it was properly requested by Ewa Beach residents in a Freedom of Information Act request in 2022; and

WHEREAS, significant lead contamination and a high risk of off-range migration of Munitions Constituents to nearshore waters and adjacent park and homes have been identified at the Pu'uloa Range Training Facility, and the proposed remedy of moving only the short distance pistol ranges forty meters landwards does not adequately address the long term threat of lead poisoning, especially given that Marine Corps Base Hawaii states no intention to retreat the significantly large A and B ranges which are within two hundred thirty feet of the homes and four hundred feet from Puuloa Beach Park; and

WHEREAS, the department of Hawaiian home lands recently announced the planned construction of approximately six hundred homes on the eighty-five acre parcel (formerly the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center) directly adjacent to the Pu'uloa Range Training Facility, leaving the Hawaiian families who reside there with little choice in how they will acquire shelter through DHHL; and

WHEREAS, impact beams at the Pu'uloa Range Training Facility are within tens of feet of the high-water mark and in some cases are interacting with wave activity, causing off-range migration of munitions constituents; and

WHEREAS, Marine Corps Base Hawaii preferred alternative for erosion migration at the Pu'uloa Range Training Facility to include hardening the shoreline with a one thousand five hundred foot corrugated steel sheet pile bulkhead, which is inconsistent with Hawaii Coastal Zone Management laws; and

WHEREAS, thousands of shooters annually must commute from Marine Corps Base Hawaii to and from the Pu'uloa Range Training Facility, significantly adding to vehicle pollution, traffic congestion, and carbon output; and

WHEREAS, the State of Hawaii is constructing a first responder campus in Mililani, featuring a one hundred thousand square foot, indoor shooting range which will significantly reduce the demand by non-Department of Defense users of the Pu'uloa Range Training Facility; and

WHEREAS, upon completion of Camp Blaz in Guam, the Pu'uloa Range Training Facility sniper distance range will no longer be the only range of its kind in the Pacific region; and

WHEREAS, the Pu'uloa Range Training Facility sniper range has previously been relocated to the more appropriate Marine Corps Base Hawaii from Puuloa and could do so again; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Thirty-second Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2023, that live fire training at Puuloa Range Training be found incompatible with the Ewa Beach community, given its close proximity to residents, schools, churches, public parks, and low flying passenger aircraft flight paths; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED this legislature urges the elimination of the threat posed by the Pu'uloa Range Training Facility operations on account of the health and safety of the Ewa Beach community by relocating all live fire training and aviation activity away from the Pu'uloa Range Training Facility; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the Commandant of the Marine Corps, Commander of the Naval Facilities Engineering Command Pacific, Commander of the Marine Corps Base Hawaii, members of Hawaii's Congressional delegation, the Office of the Governor of Hawaii, members of the state legislature of Hawaii, the chairperson of the Board of Land and Natural Resources, the Office of the Mayor of the City & County of Honolulu, and members of the Honolulu City Council.

OFFERED BY:

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Report Title:

Urging the elimination of the threat to the health and safety of the Ewa Beach community by relocating the life fire training from the Puuloa Range Training Facility