SR221

WHEREAS, the area now known as the Puuloa Range Training Facility (PRTF) was transferred from the United States Army to the United States 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 that training was moved to Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe, now known as Marine Corps Base Hawaii (MCBH); 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 mauka of the PRTF ranges, which also allowed bus service to Iroquois Point; and

WHEREAS, in 2011, MCBH doubled the length of PRTF's Alpha Range, which is closest to the Ewa Beach community, re-establishing the sniper range without conducting an environmental assessment and despite the United States Marine Corps' loudest small arms rifles shooting from a significantly different location thereby altering surface danger zones and noise contours; and

WHEREAS, the resultant closure of the access road isolated the communities of Iroquois Point and Ewa Beach from each other, resulted in the termination of bus service to Iroquois Point, and eliminated a potential tsunami evacuation route; and

WHEREAS, there was no public participation in the 2011 PRTF Alpha Range expansion decision; and

WHEREAS, a powerful public address system has been routinely operated by PRTF personnel in recent years before 7:00 a.m. 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 and sometimes into the night; and

WHEREAS, MCBH recently announced that PRTF 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 noise pollution not only drives hearing loss, tinnitus, and hypersensitivity to sound, but can cause or exacerbate cardiovascular disease; Type 2 diabetes; sleep disturbances; stress; mental health and cognition problems, including memory impairment and attention deficits; child learning delays; and low birth weight or miscarriages, with scientists investigating possible links to other health problems, including dementia; and

WHEREAS, PRTF is an open-air range, which creates the potential for bullets to stray into schools, churches, homes, parks, and low or slow-flying passenger aircraft -– all within the range of weapons typically fired from PRTF -– via ricochet, accidental weapons discharge, or intentional directing of weapons fired off-range; and

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

WHEREAS, in April 2021, the Deputy Commandant for Installations and Logistics of the United States Marine Corps specifically directed MCBH to perform a range compatibility use zone study via Marine Corps Order 3550.13, with MCBH refusing to release the study results after it was properly requested by Ewa Beach residents through a Freedom of Information Act request in 2022; and

WHEREAS, significant lead contamination of over seventy times the legal limit and a high risk of off-range migration of munitions constituents to nearshore waters and adjacent parks and homes have been identified at PRTF; and

WHEREAS, the proposed remedy of moving only the short distance pistol ranges forty meters inland does not adequately address the long-term threat of lead poising given that MCBH states no intention to retreat the significantly larger A and B ranges, which are located two hundred thirty feet from homes and four hundred feet from Puuloa Beach Park, where thousands of children play each month; and

WHEREAS, the Department of Hawaiian Homelands (DHHL) recently announced the planned construction of approximately six hundred homes on the eighty-five acre parcel directly adjacent to PRTF; and

WHEREAS, the native Hawaiian families who will reside in these homes have little choice in where they may acquire shelter through the DHHL, and the pollution and other imminent hazards produced by PRTF will significantly impact their health and safety; and

WHEREAS, impact berms at PRTF are within tens of feet of the high-water mark and, in some cases, are interacting with wave activity and causing off-range migration of munitions constituents; and

WHEREAS, MCBH's preferred alternative for erosion mitigation at PRTF includes hardening the shoreline with a one thousand five hundred foot corrugated steel sheet pile bulkhead, which is inconsistent with Hawaii Coastal Management law; and

WHEREAS, thousands of shooters annually commute from MCBH in Kaneohe to PRTF, significantly adding to vehicle pollution, traffic congestion, and carbon emissions; and

WHEREAS, the State 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-United States Department of Defense users of the PRTF; and

WHEREAS, upon completion of Camp Blaz in Guam, the PRTF sniper distance range will no longer be the only range of its kind in the Pacific; and

WHEREAS, the PRTF sniper range has previously been relocated to the more appropriate MCBH in Kaneohe from Puuloa and could be relocated again; and

WHEREAS, live fire training at PRTF is incompatible with the Ewa Beach community given its close proximity to residences, schools, churches, public parks, and low-flying passenger aircraft flight paths; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Thirty-second Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2023, that the United States Marine Corps is strongly urged to relocate all live fire training and aviation activity away from the Puuloa Range Training Facility; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the Commandant of the United States Marine Corps, Commander of the Naval Facilities Engineering Command Pacific, Commanding Officer of Marine Corps Base Hawaii, members of Hawaii's congressional delegation, Governor, Chairperson of the Board of Land and Natural Resources, Mayor of the City and County of Honolulu, and Chairperson of the Honolulu City Council.

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title:

Puuloa Range Training Facility; United States Marine Corps

THE SENATE	S.R. NO.	221
THIRTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2023
STATE OF HAWAII