The Abercrombie administration could improve its situation by making more information available to the public.

Take the emergency proclaimation that suspends various laws in order to facilitate the removal of unexploded military ordnance from land controlled by the state and counties. It has provided only the slimmest public rationale for the range of laws being suspended, everything from historic preservation and conservation laws to Chapter 46 regarding county organization and administration.

Searching around online yesterday, I found a set minutes of the Former Waikoloa Maneuver Area Restoration Advisory Board meeting, dated October 1, 2008 which discuss the Corps of Engineers’ problems getting access to state lands around the Hapuna Beach area.

The State believes the Corps has to go through the NEPA process (i.e., prepare either an EA or EIS) for any detonation done on State land. It is the Corps’ position that under FUDS, the Corps is covered by CERCLA which puts public safety ahead of environmental issues.

I had to look up the references. FUDS refers to the Formerly Used Defense Sites program, while CERCLA is the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (Superfund).

According to the minutes, Rep. Cindy Evans agreed to seek the assistance of then-Attorney General Mark Bennett in resolving the right of entry issue.

The Corps was still waiting for a response from the AG’s office in March 2009, another set of minutes shows.

The point is that there must be quite a paper trail for this issue, one that perhaps could help the public understand why such a sweeping executive order was seen as necessary.

The work of surveying the public lands for possible unexploded weapons and then taking necessary action is being done under a series of multi-million dollar contracts from the Army Corps of Engineers.

More on that when I find a little more time.