Safety concerns at Puuloa Range in Ewa Beach addressed

State Rep. Rose Martinez and U.S. Marine Corps officials said Wednesday that they have come to a “mutually agreeable consensus among all involved parties” regarding potential lead poisoning of soil around the Marines’ Puuloa Range Training Facility in Ewa Beach.

In April the state House passed a nonbinding resolution introduced by Martinez urging the Marine Corps to relocate the firing range due to noise, safety and possible lead exposure to nearby homes, the shoreline and sea.

Though the range has been in use for more than a century, recent renovations and a previously considered “shore stabilization” proposal to install a concrete barrier in the sandy beach have put the training range under local scrutiny.

In October the Surfrider Foundation’s Oahu chapter said that soil its members had taken near the training facility earlier this year had been tested for lead, and that some had up to 17 times the state safety standard for an industrial area.

Keili McEvilly, Surfrider’s Oahu chapter coordinator, wrote in a letter to the Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Hawaii that “families either live in or visit these areas each day and many children may be exposed to severely dangerous levels of contamination.”

“I’m happy to report that following discussions with Marine Corps Base Hawaii and other community stakeholders, we have come to an agreement on the necessary measures to address our community’s concerns,” Martinez, who represents Ewa Beach and Iroquois Point, said at a news conference Wednesday at the Capitol. “I’m pleased that they have acknowledged their responsibility and are committed to taking proactive steps, including the development of a timeline for lead testing, while actively engaging community stakeholders throughout the process.”

Surfrider representatives were not present for the announcement and the organization did not respond to requests for comment.

“It’s important that we are good stewards of the environment,” said Col. Jeremy Beaven, commanding officer of Marine Corps Base Hawaii. “The legacy that we leave to our children, have a clean environment as pristine as we can make it, we have to be good stewards of that environment that we live in. A place that is healthy, conducive to our lives to our families is of utmost importance.”

In March and just before the House passed its resolution, Beaven took command at MCBH, where he oversees facility maintenance and operations across 4,500 acres within five parcels on Oahu that serve roughly 20,000 personnel, including Marines, Navy sailors, military family members, civilian employees, contractors and veterans.

“Over the last several months, my environmental compliance and protection has been working diligently with the (state) Department of Health, the office of hazard evaluation and emergency response to develop a testing analysis plan,” he said. “At this point, with the plan approved, we are working through final logistics in order to implement it.”

Beaven said that includes working with scientists “that can help us execute this plan and to provide some third-party oversight and expertise as we implement it.” Among them were University of Hawaii at Manoa School of Life Science professor Celia Smith, UH adjunct professor Kathy Van Alstyne and Daniel Demartini, Kuleana Coral Restoration chief scientific officer.

The scientists issued a joint statement, saying that “the residents of ‘Ewa rely heavily on the health of their coastline. We three marine biologists were identified as locally concerned scientists and invited to help identify independent labs to conduct these needed assays for the Department of Health-­approved sampling of Pu‘uloa Range. We look forward to working with this process in good faith, to ensure that the sampling is appropriate, that the data will be rigorously analyzed, and that the findings will be used to inform decisions to minimize public health risk.”

Beaven said that in addition to those experts participating in the testing, he hopes to invite community “observers” to be involved. The military officials, scientists and state officials are working on how that will play out.

“The observers can be anyone,” he said. “We will have to establish a location for them … there won’t be room on the beach itself, but we will establish locations that are outside of the area that is being sampled — but as close as we can get it for observers — and we strongly welcome individuals to come in and take a look into how we’re doing business.”

The Puuloa Range is the Marines’ only 1,000-yard “known distance firing range” for sniper training in Hawaii and the only location where all 7,000 Hawaii-based Marines can undergo annual rifle qualifications out to 500 yards. Officials said that the testing will have to take place in several areas along the shoreline. Beaven said “the sampling plan is incredibly robust, it will be upwards of 100 pounds of soil and that will need to be sampled.”