HR104

WHEREAS, the area now known as the Pu‘uloa Range Training Facility was transferred from the United States Army to the United States Navy between 1915 and 1916 and developed into a small-arms range; and

WHEREAS, the range supported long-range sniper training for a short period of time during the Vietnam War era until 1979, when the training was moved to Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay, 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 an access road mauka of the Pu‘uloa Range Training Facility which allowed TheBus of the City and County of Honolulu to service Iroquois Point; and

WHEREAS, in 2011, the Marine Corps Base Hawaii doubled the length of the Alpha Range in the Pu‘uloa Range Training Facility, which is closest to the ‘Ewa Beach community, thereby re‑establishing the sniper range without public participation or conducting an environmental assessment despite the addition of the United States Marine Corps' loudest small-arms rifle shooting from a significantly different location which altered surface danger zones and noise contours; and

WHEREAS, the closure of the access road due to the expansion of the Alpha Range resulted in the isolation of the communities of Iroquois Point and ‘Ewa Beach from each other, termination of TheBus services to Iroquois Point, and elimination of a potential tsunami evacuation route; and

WHEREAS, in recent years, Pu‘uloa Range Training Facility personnel have routinely operated a powerful public address system well before 7:00 a.m. in violation of the Clean Air Act, which has resulted in hundreds of noise complaints from the surrounding community without relief; and

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

WHEREAS, the Marine Corps Base Hawaii recently announced that 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 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 or miscarriage; and

WHEREAS, scientists are investigating other effects of noise pollution including possible links to dementia; and

WHEREAS, since the Pu‘uloa Range Training Facility is an open‑air range, there is a potential for stray bullet impact to nearby schools, churches, homes, parks, and low or slow flying passenger aircraft—all of which are within the firing distance of weapons typically fired at the Pu‘uloa Range Training Facility—via ricochet, accidental weapons discharge, or the intentional directing of weapons fire off-range; and

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

WHEREAS, in April 2021, the Deputy Commandant for Installations and Logistics of the United States Marine Corps specifically directed the Marine Corps Base Hawaii to perform a range compatible use zone study via Marine Corps Order 3550.13; however, the Marine Corps Base Hawaii refused to release the study results after it was properly requested by ‘Ewa Beach residents via 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 homes and the Pu‘uloa Beach Park have been identified at the Pu‘uloa Range Training Facility, and the proposed remedy of moving only the short distance pistol ranges forty meters landward does not adequately address the long term threat of lead poisoning, especially given that the Marine Corps Base Hawaii has no intention to retreat the significantly larger Alpha and Bravo Ranges that are within two hundred thirty feet of homes and four hundred feet from Pu‘uloa Beach Park where thousands of children play each month; 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; and

WHEREAS, the native Hawaiian families who will reside in these homes have little choice in where they will acquire shelter through the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, and the pollution and other imminent hazards produced by the Pu‘uloa Range Training Facility will significantly impact their health and safety; and

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

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

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

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

WHEREAS, the Pu‘uloa Range Training Facility sniper range has previously been relocated to the more appropriate Marine Corps Base Hawaii in Kaneohe and could be relocated again; and

WHEREAS, live fire training at the Pu‘uloa Range Training Facility 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 House of Representatives of the Thirty-second Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2023, that all live fire training and aviation activities are requested to be relocated 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 United States Marine Corps, Commander of the Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Pacific, Commanding Officer of the Marine Corps Base Hawaii, members of Hawaii's congressional delegation, Governor, Chairperson of the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, Chairperson of the Board of Land and Natural Resources, Mayor of the City and County of Honolulu, and members of the Honolulu City Council.

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title:

Puuloa Range Training Facility; Live Fire Training; Aviation Activity; Relocation

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.R. NO.	104
THIRTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2023
STATE OF HAWAII