Uproar over Navy's plan for bombing drills on Hawaii island sanctuary filled with rare wildlife

A Hawaii island that is a sanctuary for rare birds and home to exotic wildlife is facing a startling increase in bombing drills, sparking fury among enraged locals.

US Navy officials unveiled its latest proposal to increase bombing tests and military training on Ka'ula Island at a public meeting on September 17.

Ka'ula is the last Hawiian island being used for military training and has hosted aerial bombing and target practice for decades.

Under the new plans, bombing training exercises would be increased to 31 times a year, which is a huge uptick from the current rate of 12 a year.

Environmentalists accused the Navy of abusing the island and warned that the drills would put its precious wildlife at risk.

The 'Air-to-Ground Bombing Exercise' includes dropping 'inert ordnance' - bombs that don't explode - on land targets day or night, and 'may include the use of targeting laser'.

The Navy also intends to double helicopter activities to 24 times a year, which would involve guns and rockets attacking targets on the ground - all of which would also be 'inert ordnance'

The military's 'air-to-ground gunnery exercise' currently operates 14 activities a year, according to the Navy's proposal.

Residents and environmentalist groups have been quick to voice concerns over the plans and accused the military of abusing its use of the Hawaiian lands.

Cultural practitioner, Mike Nakachi, told Hawaii News Now : 'The Navy has done enough damage in the Pae ʻĀina. The Navy does not need to be dropping any inert bombs especially on a place that is wild.'

The Navy has conducted training on Ka'ula Island since 1952 - with exercises carried out on 11 acres, or 1,000 feet, of the southern portion of the island.

But the island of Ka'ula is also a designated state seabird sanctuary and provides nesting ground for migrating birds.

According to the state, roughly 100,000 seabirds of 18 different species nest on the Island.

After taking a boat trip with his son to the island last year, Nakachi said they were 'awe-struck' by the beauty of the island.

'[The island] was just spectacular,' he added.

Nakachi reported seeing thriving wildlife including monk seals, dolphins, turtles and birds.

In its proposal, the Navy said that its ability to conduct training and testing at Barking Sands and Kaula Island 'is vital to military readiness'.

It also claimed no cultural resources were identified, and the impact of testing on wildlife and special-status species would be 'less than significant'.

The Environmental Assessment outlined that it had looked for other options, but found the location was 'ideal' due to its remoteness from human populations, reported Hawaii News Now.

The island of Ka'ula is located 20 nautical miles from Niihau, and 150 miles from Honolulu.

The Hawaiʻi Alliance for Progressive Action said: 'Kaʻula, the child of Wākea and Papa, has been used - abused - for far too long, with its sacred landscape now littered with unexploded ordinance and "inert" bombs resulting from decades of US Navy target practice.'

Residents across the state are now calling for action against the military's potentially disastrous use of the island.

`Aha Aloha `Āina, an independence coalition of aboriginal Hawiian organizations, held a public meeting to discuss the bombings.

Ka Lahui Hawaii, a native initiative for self-determination, said: 'The US occupation and destruction of our environment and natural resources has been threat to public health and in fact their presence here amplifies the threat of war on Hawaiʻi shores.'

The meeting discussed the environmental impact of the US Navy's use of the Island/

The Navy said there would be 'minimal impact' from the bombings.

However, a panel member at the meeting and Senior Associate Attorney for Earth Justice, Leināʻala Ley, claimed the Navy's reports were not sufficiently transparent.

'Over the past five years, the most amount of times they've ever done [gunnery training] in one year is 14 times, and the proposed increase is 24. It's not very transparent... they're not just looking at the average over the last five years but the highest.'

She continued: 'The events where they go in and they shoot as target practice, it's unclear if that would just be a one-day event or if it would be a multi-day event...'

Conservationist Hob Osterlund said: 'Here in the Northshore of Kuwaii, we have the only place in the world where any species of Albatross nests among people and they face so many threats. [Ka'ula is] one of the very few safe places for them, we see chicks die from plastic consumption every year... [Ka'ula] is really their Noah's Arc.'

Osterlund discussed the patterns of the birds and their disruption from the bombings, refuting the 'minimal' disturbance to wildlife claims from the Navy's environmental assessment.

'It's hugely significant, there's got to be an alternative to dropping bombs on them. [The Navy] say the birds haven't been disturbed very much, they just fly away and come back. [But] a lot of the birds are there just to nest, Albatross only come to land for the purpose of reuniting with their mates and raising their babies,' she added.

Osterlund also pointed out the significance of Ka'ula's role as a nesting island, saying that the newborn chicks are on the island for six months unable to fly.

'None of these babies can fly away if these bombs drop. They don't have any place to go.'

Osterlund also pointed out how startling parents can result in egg destruction, abandonment or neglect.

The parents incubate the eggs before they hatch and, if they are startled, can often break the eggs by stepping on them. The parents may also fly away, causing the egg to potentially die from exposure.

The documentation of the bird count was another problem Osterlund raised, saying that the bird population has 'no good reason' to disappear from their home.

'If their place is Ka'ula that's where they're gonna keep coming back to.'

According to Osterlund, the Sooty Tern numbered around 67,000 in the '70s before dwindling down to just 200 only two decades later.

Likewise, the population of Black Footed Albatross, of which there were only 100 in the '80s, has been depleted to just three in a recent count.

Many natives continue to distrust the Navy's claims following the mishandling of fuel contamination from the Navy Red Hill Facility.

A report was released in November 2023 by the Red Hill Water Alliance Initiative revealing that over the course of 80 years, Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility had 'incidentally' leaked an estimated 6,000 gallons of fuel every year.

The report also detailed a belief that a further 1.3 million gallons may have spilled in the 1940s.

Ka Lahui Hawaii said that the last known large leak from the Navy Red Facility was 19,000 gallons of fuel that poisoned 93,000 Oʻahu residents, and traces of the contaminated water were still present as of October 2023.

The Navy shut down its Red Hill well after reports came in of people living on base suffering nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, headaches and skin-related problems, reported CNN .

At the time, the Navy said testing of the water revealed petroleum hydrocarbons and vapors.

Through an investigation the Navy also found inadequate responses to the May 2021 spill and the November spill, and found the risk could have been identified with proper training and drills following the original leak, reported CNN.

The US Government was hit by a lawsuit involving more than 100 plaintiffs in 2022 for the damages caused by the Red Hill Facility.

'We know that if we fail to hold the US Navy accountable, have them pay for cleanup and remediation, insist on third party water testing, and demand transparency in regards to all the damage the Navy has done to our environment including our most precious resource, wai (water), then we put our collective future at risk,' Ka Lahui Hawaii added in relation to the Ka'ula military training.

The proposal outlines each environmental concern but said that very few ground-based surveys have taken place since 1988 'due to the terrain and unexploded ordnance on the island'.

Among those opposing the proposal is activist Walter Ritte, who was part of the group that ended military bombing on Kaho'olawe in 1990.

He told Hawaii News Now: 'What was really going in my head was wow, I cannot believe this. It shows a lack of sensitivity of course. There is no respect of how precious these lands are to us.'

A report from Honolulu Civil Beat detailed the track record of the military failing to clean up after the trainings, as well as the ongoing land dispute for the island of Ka'ula.

Andre Perez, project director with Native Hawiian nonprofit Ko'ihonua, said: 'It litters the land with a bunch of aluminum, steel and brass that they normally don't come back and clean up. I think it's still completely spiritually, morally, against Hawaiian values.'

Perez cleared unexploded ordnance from Kaho'olawe for seven years after it was used as a military target for decades. It was turned over to the state in 1994, and the federal government set aside $400 million to clear explosives and debris.

According to Honolulu Civil Beat, at least 25 percent of the island remains uncleared.

The Navy is currently in the process of creating an environmental impact statement to be reviewed by the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, according to Kaua'i Now News.

The proposals are set to take place upon the completion of the Environmental Assessment in January 2025. The Navy, in a statement, said that a 'decision-maker' with the US Pacific Fleet will likely determine how they will proceed, according to Honolulu Civil Beat.

Nearly 9,000 acres of Pacific Missile Range Facility have been leased to the Navy and NASA for more than 65 years, but these lease agreements are set to expire in 2027 and 2030, respectively.

On top of that, the ownership of the island of Ka'ula has been disputed since the 1920s when Hawaii's then-territorial government allowed the US Coast Guard to build a lighthouse, according to Peter Young, who served as the state's Department of Land and Natural Resources director from 2003 to 2007.

The right of entry for the 'specific use' of building the lighthouse is suspected to have 'assumed ownership of the islet' by the Coast Guard. This 'assumed ownership' was then passed to the Navy in the 1950s upon the removal of the lighthouse.

'The US military has not been good caretakers of our natural and cultural resources, lands, water, and fragile ecosystems which are home to dozens of organisms found nowhere else in the world,' said Ka Lahui Hawaii.