Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 30, Number 6, 1 June 2013 — EPA grant helps boost OHA's plans for Kakaʻako [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

EPA grant helps boost OHA's plans for Kakaʻako

By Harold Nedd The Office of Hawaiian Affairs is moving ahead with plans to breathe new life into property it owns in Kaka'ako Makai. A $400,000 grant recently awarded to OHA from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will allow it to begin studying environmental eontamination at six sites in Kaka'ako Makai that contain petroleum and other hazardous substances. The six sites are part of 10 parcels comprising 30 acres of largely waterfront property that was transferred to OHA about a year ago by the state to settle longstanding claims for past-due revenues from the Puhlie Land Trust. Taken together, the 10 parcels are valued at an estimated $200 million and could potentially provide a major boost to OHA's efforts to fund community-based programs aimed at improving conditions for Native Hawaiians. But before redevelopment ean occur, environmental contaminants on the six properties - including Fisherman's Wharf, Honolulu Marine, and the Army and Air Force

Exchange Service Government Building, known as AAFES - will have to be assessed and addressed through eleanup work expected to take about three years to complete. "This grant will be an important first step in addressing environmental contamination within Kaka'ako Makai," said OHA's Chief Executive Officer Kamana'opono Crabbe. "It's also an important first step in OHA's eleanup and redevelopment of Kaka'ako Makai as part of a broader effort to create a safe plaee for Hawai'i residents to access the oeean and provide increased opportunities for shopping as well as entertainment close to home." OHA will be receiving two EPA Brownfields Assessment Grants totaling $400,000 to assess the six parcels in Kaka'ako Makai. The total of the first EPA grant is $200,000, whieh will be used to assess hazardous substances. Another $200,000 EPA grant will be used to assess petroleum contamination as well as conduct community engagement activities. "These grants go a long way to bring areas in Honolulu back into productive reuse while involving community members in the process,"

Jared Blumenfeld, EPA's regional administrator for the Paeihe Southwest, said in a statement. "EPA is pleased to be able to fund these loeal projects that will help address eontamination, revitalize neighborhoods and spur eeonomie activity." OHA is one of 240 organizations that have been recommended by the EPA to receive $62.5 million in grants to protect people's heahh and the environment in loeal eommunities. In a press release, the EPA said that the funds provide communities with funding necessary to assess, elean up and redevelop contaminated properties, boost loeal economies and leverage jobs while protecting puhlie heahh and the environment. According to the EPA, the grants target underserved and eeonomically disadvantaged neighborhoods - places where environmental elean-

ups and new jobs are most needed. In its application to the EPA for grant money to help improve Kaka'ako Makai, OHA raised eoncerns about arsenic, lead and dioxin from incinerator ash that was used as fill, and petroleum contamination from prior land uses. "OHA recognizes, given that Kaka'ako Makai was created by filling submerged land with raw trash and incinerator ash, that the first step to responsible planning and safe redevelopment is to fully understand the extent of contamination and the options for cleaning it up," Crabbe said. "With OHA's redevelopment vision combined with EPA funding, Kaka'ako Makai ean shine as the jewel it was intended be, adding value to the surrounding community and neighborhoods." ■

The Brownfields Assessment Grants will help assess contamination in six properties in Kaka'ako Makai, including the MFES building, pictured. - KWO file phoio