A lawsuit against the company with a long-term contract to build and operate on-base housing at Marine Corps Base Hawaii in Kaneohe is facing a lawsuit brought on behalf of current and former residents at the base (“Hawaii Monitor: Contaminated Dirt Triggers Military Housing Lawsuit“).
My column in Civil Beat this week traces some of the background to the case against Forest City Enterprises, the Cleveland-based corporation that landed this 50-year contract. No, that’s not a typo. Fifty years. Five-Oh.
The initial plaintiffs are four marine wives, but the suit is seeking certification as a class-action on behalf of more than 8,600 marines, and their families, who have passed through these living quarters since 2006.
In some ways, the situation is simple. Pesticides were found in the soil under and around old housing areas at Kaneohe when the military still managed the on-base housing. When Forest City took over, about 2004, they were warned about the pesticide problem, and did their own round of soil testing, which confirmed several pesticides in the soil, including chlordane, heptachlor, and several others. Most of these were used to treat the area for ground termites when the concrete foundation slabs were originally laid down. The chemicals were banned years ago due to their health effects, but residue lingers, sometimes well above safe levels as defined by the EPA.
Forest City, advised by their own consultants that it should be assumed all their housing areas rest on contaminated soil, developed a pesticide soil management plan that called for removing and isolating soil with high chemical levels, and sharing information about where the soils were found and how they were disposed of or contained.
But as old homes were demolished, and new housing built, residents were not informed of the presence of pesticides or of the potential health risks.
In the meantime, lots of residents were reporting that children and pets were having unusual health issues of unknown origin. There was lots of talk, and sharing stories on social media.
Eventually these residents learned of the pesticides found earlier and tried to get information from Forest City.
Even after lawyers got involved in the effort to get details on the potential pesticide problem, including the results of earlier testing, the company told them to get lost. Or, as one of the lawyers told me: “They basically told us to pound sand.”
This lawsuit is not seeking damages for individuals who have suffered health problems that potentially could be traced back to pesticide exposure, although such lawsuits could be filed later. Instead, this focuses on the Forest City’s failure to disclose information about the problems to residents and potential residents who might have decided to look for less risky housing elsewhere.
Of course, my CB column is a bit more organized, and I hope you’re able to read it.
If you’ve used up your free views, you can check out some of the first hand information from both sides.
I would start with the Facebook page maintained by some of the current and former residents, MCBH Housing Issues.
Another website includes links to a number of reports and documents: Military Families Deserve Safe Housing.
And just a couple of months ago, Forest City set up its own website aimed at its residents on the Kaneohe base, YourMCBHhousing.com.
There’s lots of information here to keep you busy.
Forest City has had help in getting their side of the story to public officials.
Here in Hawaii, the company has been represented most recently by lobbyists Linda Chu Takayama and Charley Toguchi, according to lobbyist registrations on file with the State Ethics Commission.
Takayama, an attorney, is a former state insurance commissioner, and also served as deputy director of the Department of Commerce and Consumer affairs. She is married to Rep. Gregg Takayama.
Takayama also lobbied for Abbott Laboratories, Hawaii Pacific Health, Hawaii Pacific University, and the UH Foundation, in addition to Forest City.
In February, 2014, she was named executive director of Honolulu’s Office of Economic Development by Mayor Kirk Caldwell.
Toguchi is a former state legislator who served with Neil Abercrombie in the House and Senate, and later served as Superintendent of Education. Over the past few years, he has been a lobbyist for Forest City, First Wind Energy LLC, Hu Honua Bioenergy, LLC, and the North West & Canada Cruise Ship Association.
Toguchi also currently serves as the chairman of the state’s Stadium Authority.
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Rule one, USMC, do not mess with the wives. They are tougher than their husbands. Gunny sergeants fear them. The wives are sweet, loyal and friendly but in defense of their kids. . . Forest City needs to come clean and do it right.
You are forgetting to ask one question! What has happened to all of us and our families who lived in Hawaii’s military housing sometime over the “last 20 years”. For me, I have lost my Beautiful wife of 23 years whom I had the privilege of knowing since she was 6 years old, my beloved son, born in Hawaii during my service in 1990 is gone after only 21 years, plagued with health problems, learning disabilities and grieve stricken by the horrific loss of his mother he took his own life 4 months later, my last son is still struggling to find his way with many of the same issues as his little brother and has grown 2-inches since his 23rd birthday and my beautiful granddaughter who was born with a spinal sacral dimple birth defect 3 years ago. No one ever bothered to warn us about the contamination, or perhaps my wife wouldn’t of had to live with the undiagnosed cancer eating the inside of her body for 20 years unit it finally decimated her. Are you angry? I’m devastated and living in indescribable anguish EVERY SINGLE DAY…!
No, I am not hateful or vengeful, I grieve for them every day and shed tears that will surely never end. For me there will never be relief or justice. No one in the government cares about lives lost or ruined dreams. For the powers at be it’s all about the $money$. If they would have alerted us about the chlordane or arsenic they sprayed in the air through the streets of Iroquois Point housing in 1990 we could have at least evacuated during the spraying. But they let us sit in our homes and be fumigated over and over and over… yes, they drove down the middle of the street with a truck spraying chloradane/arsenic into the air, how do you think the pesticides got in the soil to begin with?
This is the beginning of my fight for them and others. I shutter to think how many families are out there right now living the horrors my family and I have gone through with no idea about the cancer growing inside them or other adverse effects from the contaminants. My wife was diagnosed with several different illnesses over the years (none were correct) including bi-polar disorder, pre-menopause symptoms, ovarian cysts, IBS irritable bowel syndrome, etc, etc…
She finally was diagnosed and died a few months later in Sept 2011 with Neuroendocrine carcinoma. Her tumors were labeled “innumerable” but based on the PET scan it was in the hundreds. If you read this and lived there or similar places tell your doctor and if you have mysterious symptoms, get a “P.E.T. SCAN” Its the only way to be sure its not cancer! You can not rely on doctors finding this disease it hides well and mirrors other illnesses making it very difficult to diagnose. That’s why I choose not to file a medical malpractice suit, her Doctors, although idiots in my opinion, did try to help her but just never found the cancer.
Good luck and never give up.
PS. Be good to you and yours today, because tomorrow they really may be gone… forever!