Kauaʻi public, Navy spar over state renewing lease agreements at Pacific Missile Range Facility

Emotions ran high during three recent public meetings in Līhu’e, Kekaha and Kapa’a concerning the U.S. Navy’s and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s joint Draft Environmental Impact Statement for proposed lease renewal agreements on state-owned land on Kauaʻi.

NASA is seeking to extend its lease agreement for Kōkeʻe Park Geophysical Observatory, where it takes daily readings on the Earth’s rotation for multiple reasons. The Navy is seeking to extend its use of the Pacific Missile Range Facility, the world’s largest instrumented, multi-dimensional testing and training missile range for defense technologies and high-end weapons systems. 

The leases expire between 2027 and 2030.

Comments collected at the meetings, as well as written testimony, will be incorporated into the final Environmental Impact Statement, which will be released in the spring of 2026. 

Several participants began their testimony in ‘Ōlelo Hawai’i, describing their deep historic connection to the land. Many were brought to tears recalling their ancestors who lived and were buried in Mana Plain, many in the dunes of Nohili near the military training.

In 2019, the Navy constructed the Lua Kupapaʻu O Nohili Crypt to reinter ‘iwi kūpuna (ancestral bones) that have been unearthed at the missile range, according to the Navy’s official website. 

Others spoke passionately about childhoods spent fishing or picking limu on the site and their frustration with losing access to the land.

“I cannot gather on the shores I was raised on. I cannot fish in the same places as my ancestors,” said a Native Hawaiian woman from the West side of Kaua’i.

While disturbing ‘iwi kūpuna and denying access to the land were common talking points throughout the meetings, a number of testifiers said the draft Environmental Impact Statement was insufficient to capture the full scope of Navy activity in Mana. 

One Native Hawaiian man flew from Maui to testify in person, saying it was the “worst EIS” he has ever read.

Many other testifiers said the Navy’s draft document had significant lapses in its coverage of environmental impacts on the site, specifically the lack of analysis about its effects on marine ecosystems or the groundwater.  

Several people also highlighted the Navy’s exclusion of Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC), the world’s largest international maritime warfare exercise that is held biannually in Hawai’i. 

Others took issue to the lack of clarity on the Navy’s third “No Action Alternative,” which outlines the potential impacts of the Navy not renewing its leases and vacating the site. 

Kerry Ling, a project manager with the Navy, admitted in the public information session that the no action alternative is “limited” because her team does not know how the State of Hawaiʻi would manage the land should the Navy be forced to leave. 

Many participants took the public meetings as an opportunity to speak about their larger discontent with the Navy’s presence on Kaua’i in general. Several testifiers asserted that the Navy is occupying lands deemed as crown lands that originally were set aside for the Hawaiian people by the Kingdom of Hawai’i. 

“These were never ceded lands, these were stolen,” one participant asserted. 

Another argued that since Hawaiʻi never signed a formal treaty of annexation, the original Navy leases for the land are invalid. 

Throughout the three meetings, many residents expressed concern about the environmental impact of the Navy’s weapons testing and missile launching initiatives.

“Are we really supposed to believe that decades of water diversion, rocket launching, war games, access restriction, development expansion, has no cumulative adverse impacts on the environment?” asked one resident from Hanapēpē. 

Many participants also expressed concern about the Navy’s recent decision to increase bombing and weapons testing on Kau’la island, a small island off the coast of Ni’ihau that is home to a federally-recognized seabird sanctuary. 

The Navy’s use of PFAs, or Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances, was another common issue among testifiers. But a Navy spokesperson sent reporters an email expressing concern that misinformation was being spread. With information coordinated with subject matter experts in Washington, D.C., the spokesperson wrote: “Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) are a family of thousands of different chemicals which have been widely used in many household and industrial products since the 1950s”.

The spokesperson said the Navy began using products containing the manmade chemicals at the Pacific Missile Range Facility in the early 1970s, mainly in the form of aqueous film-forming foam, which is used as a fire retardant. 

According to the EPA’s official websites, PFAs are known as “forever chemicals” because of their tendency to stay in the environment for a long period of time. The EPA website also says that while long-term exposure to PFAs have been linked to adverse health effects, more research needs to be done to understand its full impact on human health. 

While the Navy’s full Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) investigation on the impacts of PFAs at the missile range facility is currently ongoing, the Navy official asserts that no “human health drinking water exposure pathway has been identified” at this stage in the assessment. 

One testifier, a member of the O’ahu Water Protectors group, expressed her distrust of the Navy given its handling of a jet fuel leak into drinking water at Red Hill Bulk Fuel Facility on Oʻahu:  “We cannot forget how the Navy poisoned 93,000 residents, lied to the public about it, and tried to cover it up,” she told the crowd. 

According to the EPA’s official website, in November 2021, approximately 14,000 gallons of jet fuel leaked into the drinking water of nearby communities, causing many adverse health impacts to local residents. 

Kaua’i County Council member Felicia Cowden attended last Thursday’s meeting, saying: “People have lost their trust in the Navy after Red Hill on O’ahu and Pōhakuloa on the Big Island. Therefore, it’s really important that the EIS have real integrity.”

But she also said the Pacific Missile Range Facility has been a “good community partner” on Kaua’i. 

Some testifiers highlighted the Navy’s contribution to the local society, especially the military’s support preventing and fighting wildfires, and helping with neighboring agricultural ventures. 

The Navy did not address any comments and concerns brought up in these meetings directly. Rather, it will document and respond to submitted testimony in the next iteration of the Environmental Impact Statement. 

The Navy will be accepting written testimony on its website until Aug. 7. This can be done through the project website comment form, by email at info@PMRF-KPGO-EIS.com or by mail, postmarked by Aug. 7, to:

Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command, Environmental OPHEV2
Attention: PMRF and KPGO RE EIS Project Manager, Ms. Kerry Ling
400 Marshall Road, Building X-11
Pearl Harbor, HI 96860