Bill Text: HI HCR75 | 2021 | Regular Session | Introduced

Hawaii House Concurrent Resolution 75 (Prior Session Legislation)

Introduced

Bill Title: Requesting The United States Marine Corps To Complete An Environmental Impact Statement For The Shoreline Stabilization Project At The Puuloa Range Training Facility.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 5-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2021-03-12 - Referred to EEP/WAL, FIN, referral sheet 23 [HCR75 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2021-HCR75-Introduced.html

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.C.R. NO.	75
THIRTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2021
STATE OF HAWAII

HOUSE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

REQUESTING THE UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS TO COMPLETE AN ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT FOR THE SHORELINE STABILIZATION PROJECT AT THE PUULOA RANGE TRAINING FACILITY.

WHEREAS, studies conducted by the University of Hawaii show that hardening the shoreline of Oahu where there is chronic coastal erosion causes beach narrowing and beach loss; and

WHEREAS, in heavily armored sectors, sand impoundment mauka of walls can lead to general sand volume decreases causing or exacerbating sector-wide erosion trends; and

WHEREAS, coastal hardening can also produce coastal water quality impacts through increased turbulence and turbidity; and

WHEREAS, the shoreline stabilization project at the Puuloa Range training facility (PRTF) is a plan to harden the shoreline along the makai boundary of the PRTF; and

WHEREAS, the PRTF shoreline project plans to use impact pile driving to force steel sheet pile vertically through sand and then further to a depth of twenty feet below the surface of the underlying coral rock along the shoreline creating a bulkhead which will cover a horizontal distance of fifteen hundred to twenty-five hundred feet; and

WHEREAS, no environmental impact statement was conducted prior to the major shoreline hardening project at Iroquois Point immediately to the east of the PRTF which was completed in 2013; and

WHEREAS, the University of Hawaii coastal erosion website details a stable Ewa shoreline west of Keahi Point from 1928 through 2005 with net accretion during that time along the entire PRTF shoreline; and

WHEREAS, modeling forecasts in the Iroquois Point environmental assessment (2012) predicted a continued stable shoreline west of the Iroquois Point beach restoration project, citing predominantly west to east sand transport; and

WHEREAS, in about 2014, shortly after completion of the Iroquois Point hardening project, increasing erosion led to a steepening of the slope and undermining of approximately ninety percent of the vegetation on the PRTF shoreline; and

WHEREAS, Marine Corps Base Hawaii (MCBH), as custodians of the PRTF, assert that their lead-filled berms are now in danger of imminent erosion which would introduce lead into the Ewa shoreline environment; and

WHEREAS, erosion events of increasing magnitude have occurred west of Iroquois Point and PRTF since the completion of the Iroquois Point hardening project completion in 2013; and

WHEREAS, the shoreline stabilization at PRTF environmental assessment (2019) released by MCBH does not properly consider potential beach narrowing and beach loss west of PRTF resulting from strong trade wind wave events producing east to west near shore sand transport; and

WHEREAS, the environmental assessment does not properly consider potential beach narrowing and beach loss west of PRTF resulting from cumulative beach hardening projects at Iroquois Point and PRTF; and

WHEREAS, the environmental assessment does not account for existing prominent structures of historic significance that would potentially be affected by this project or exacerbate potential negative impact to private and public property west of the project; and

WHEREAS, the environmental assessment does not sufficiently analyze alternative options such as retreat of the entire range from the shoreline into vacant land owned by the Department of the Navy; and

WHEREAS, the Ewa Beach community is concerned that prolonged impact pile driving has the potential to damage and collapse the karst system, creating sink holes and damaging the water table which is hydraulically connected to the coral reef feeding vital fresh water to limu which is vital to the food chain; and

WHEREAS, the Ewa Beach community is concerned that the proposed project has the potential to create significant impact to the human and natural environment to include endangered Hawaiian monk seal habitat, sea turtle habitat, and essential fish habitat; and

WHEREAS, MCBH did not take action that would most effectively notify and involve the public as directed by Marine Corps Order 5090.2-vol 12, ch.3; and

WHEREAS, the Ewa Neighborhood Board was not notified of this project nor the public comment period that was open from August 29 to September 13, 2019; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Thirty-first Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2021, the Senate concurring, that the United States Marine Corps is requested to complete an environmental impact statement for the shoreline stabilization at the Puuloa Range training facility; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Commander of the Marine Corps Base Hawaii, members of Hawaii's congressional delegation, Governor, Chairperson of the Board of Land and Natural Resources, and Chairperson of the Ewa Beach Neighborhood Board.