A suit has been filed in U.S. District Court to block shipment of nerve gas from Germany to Johnston Atoll. The suit was filed by the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund on behalf of Greenpeace, the Institute for the Advancement of Hawaiian Affairs, and the World Council of Indigenous Peoples – Hawai’i. SCLDF characterized the Army’s action as “premature and irresponsible,” noting that the Army still lacks an EPA permit to incinerate nerve gas on the atoll. The request for a restraining order was denied; a court hearing was set for August 20.
Speaking of incineration, Marvin Miura, erstwhile Director of the Office of Environmental Quality Control and now candidate for Mayor of Maui, has left the state with a dubious legacy: a plan for a hazardous waste treatment, storage, and disposal facility on O`ahu (an incinerator, in other words). The plan, released in July just after Miura’s departure, does not appear to have been written by anyone familiar with federal environmental law or basic chemistry – and therefore cannot be said to make a serious case for an incinerator. (The report, prepared by the Pacific Environmental Research Group, would be laughable, but for the waste of $200,000 in taxpayer money it represents.)
People wanting to see the PERG report first-hand can do so at the OEQC office in Honolulu, at 465 South King Street.
And while we’re on the subject: O`ahu’s H-POWER plant is up and running, but not exactly as planned. Figures for June show the plant is nearly up to top speed (accepting about 1,700 tons per day on average, out of a planned use of 1,800 tons per day). But more than a third of the material (by weight) ends up in the Waimanalo Gulch landfill up the road. Included in the landfill are some 60 tons a day, on average, of ferrous metal. Original plans called for that to have been a money maker for H-POWER (sold to dealers at $25 a ton). H-POWER will be the focus of October’s issue of Environment Hawai`i.
A new and welcome addition to the fifth estate is the Hawai`i Campaign Spending Monitor, published by Ian Lind. For anyone seriously interested in the prospects for passage of sound environmental legislation, Lind’s publication is required reading. Subscriptions are $25 a year and up. Send checks to P.O. Box 605, Ka’a’awa 96730. Other new publications of note are Hawai’i Eco-Report, a free tabloid published since April, containing state, national and global reports (Box 1153, Pu’unene 96784); and a monthly newsletter – the first in 20 years – from the Department of Land and Natural Resources. That publication, entitled Resources, is available free upon request of the DLNR, 1150 Punchbowl Street, Honolulu 96813. Last but certainly not least is Recycle, the newsletter of the Recycling Association of Hawai`i. For a sample copy, write RAH, 162-B North King Street, Honolulu 96817.
Volume 1, Number 3 September 1990
