Pacific Missile Range Facility releases draft assessment on land-based training, testing impacts in West Kaua‘i

The U.S. Navy will hold a public meeting for Kaua‘i residents to review the potential environmental impacts of conducting land-based training and testing at launch areas and other locations in areas managed by the Pacific Missile Range Facility.

On Thursday, officials with PMRF announced a draft environmental assessment has been created and they are looking to the public for feedback.

The public can download the Draft EA here or view a printed copy at the Waimea or Līhu‘e public libraries.

The Proposed Action outlined in the assessment is to conduct an increased number of land-based, multi-domain training and testing activities within the Study Area. These activities would be conducted by the Navy, Army, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Missile Defense Agency and may also include the participation of foreign militaries under U.S. sponsorship and oversight.

According to a press release from PMRF on Thursday, the purpose of the Proposed Action is to provide the U.S. military services and the Missile Defense Agency with land-based training and testing activities at a level that supports military readiness into the reasonably foreseeable future. The Proposed Action is needed to ensure U.S. military services are able to organize, train, and equip service members and personnel to meet their respective national defense missions.

In June, the military and NASA solicited feedback from the West Side community to create the environmental impact statement covering West Side lands the state of Hawai‘i has leased to the Navy and NASA since the mid-1960s: namely, the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Barking Sands and the Mānā Plain, and the Kōkeʻe Park Geophysical Observatory within Kōke‘e State Park.

The Navy has a short presentation scheduled in Līhu‘e on Sept. 17 where they hope to garner comments on the accuracy and adequacy of the environmental impact analysis.

The meeting will also be an open house featuring informational poster stations with an opportunity for the public to meet the project team and ask questions about the proposal.

No new types of training or testing activities are proposed at PMRF or Kaula Island. The activities proposed are currently being, or have previously been, conducted at these leased locations and are similar to those analyzed in previous environmental documents.

Training and testing activities conducted at sea and the in-water effects of land-based activities (e.g., land-based missile launch) were previously analyzed in the 2018 Hawai‘i-Southern California Training and Testing Environmental Impact Statement/Overseas Environmental Impact Statement.

The Proposed Action in the assessment also includes standard operating procedures to avoid or minimize potential impacts on environmental and cultural resources.

The meeting next week starts at 4 p.m. with the Navy presentation scheduled for 5 to 5:30 p.m. The open house will continue till 7 p.m. The meeting will take place at the Kaua‘i Veterans Center, located at 3215 Kauai Veterans Memorial Highway.

The Missile Defense Agency is a cooperating agency because of its launch activities at PMRF. The U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force, and U.S. Marine Corps are participating in the development of the EA as additional range users.

The public is encouraged to submit a comment on the draft EA or if you have information or concerns about historic properties. Comments may be submitted at the open house, by email to PMRF-LBT-EA-Comments@us.navy.mil, or by postal mail to:

Naval Facilities Engineering Systems
Command Pacific/EV22
Attention: PMRF LBT EA Project Manager
258 Makalapa Drive, Suite 100
Pearl Harbor, HI 96860

Comments must be postmarked or received electronically by 11:59 p.m. Hawai‘i Standard Time on Sept. 30, 2024, for consideration in the development of the Final EA.