Maybe the federal courts are seeing the wisdom

[Miulang]

Maybe the justices of the Federal Court are finally starting to think that saving Hawai'i is important...this time, the US Army had has a request to amend an agreement that prohibited them from using live ammo in Makua Valley delayed temporarily.

"...A federal judge said she is inclined to reject the U.S. Army's request to amend a 2001 agreement that prohibits live-fire training at Makua Valley until a federally mandated environmental impact statement is completed.

U.S. District Judge Susan Mollway said she will defer to the Army to decide when, where and which of its units need training, but she needs to enforce the law.

"Deference to the Army shouldn't be confused with letting the Army violate environmental laws that Congress requires us to follow," she told the parties yesterday.

The Army has been prohibited from conducting live-fire training exercises in the valley near Kaena Point since October 2004 under an agreement reached three years earlier with environmental group Earthjustice and native Hawaiian group Malama Makua...."


Miulang

[Miulang]

Re: Maybe the federal courts are seeing the wisdom

Score 1 for the 'aina and the kanaka maoli, 0 for the US Army! The judge who last week indicated she was "inclined" to reject the US Army's appeal to lift the ban on live ammo firing at Makua has officially ruled that the shelling cannot start until the Army finishes an EIS to determine whether or not fragile ecosystems will be impaired.

Miulang

[timkona]

Re: Maybe the federal courts are seeing the wisdom

It is interesting to note that most biologists would tell you that Military Training Facilities are well known as biological preserves. Flies in the face of enviro-logic, don't it?

Zero Public Access and Strict Enforcement keep the most destructive species off the land most of the time. Guess which species ?

[mar_y_sol]

Re: Maybe the federal courts are seeing the wisdom

Tim Kona- Because the Army often controls more land than it actually bombs, so the surrounding area remains relatively untouched. Such is the case in Vieques and Culebra, in Puerto Rico. When Puerto Rico successfully lobbied to get the Army out of Vieques, large swaths of land became U.S. forest preserves.

Unfortunately, the bombing has polluted the water table and Vieques has one of the highest cancer rates in Puerto Rico (cancer striking even protesters who trespassed on military land and stayed there for months to stop the bombing). A rogue bomb also killed a civilian.

Moreover, the actual bombed area is an environmental nightmare, with unexploded ammo that the U.S. government has yet to lift a finger about. And let's not even talk about the fishermen's plight. I assure you that most Viequenses would have rather had the federal reserve designation sans the preceding twenty years of bombing.

[honumel]

Re: Maybe the federal courts are seeing the wisdom

shelling cannot start until the Army finishes an EIS to determine whether or not fragile ecosystems will be impaired.

Miulang

Sort of reminds me of the fox minding the chicken coop!