PTA offering bow hunting this weekend
Army officials are opening several training areas for bow hunting from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at Pohakuloa Training Area.
Training areas 1 to 4, 9, 12 and 14 to 16 will be open for bow hunting of mammals only. Hunters are allowed one pig, one goat and one sheep per day in keeping with state bag limits. Shooting sheep with blue collars is not permitted. All hunters must check in and check out at one of the following hunter’s check-in stations: Kilohana, located on Saddle Road between mile markers 43 and 44 or Puuhuluhulu, located at the intersection of Mauna Kea Access Road and Saddle Road near mile marker 28. Check-out time is no later than 7:30 p.m. each day.
Hunting passes will be provided at the check-in stations beginning Friday after 5 p.m. These passes must be signed and placed on the vehicle’s dashboard. Hunters who do not have a signed hunting pass on their dashboard will be barred from hunting for 30 days. Hunter access to training area 1 to 4, 9, 12, and 14 to 16 are through any of gates 1 to 10 east of Mauna Kea State Park on Saddle Road. Hunter access to training areas 9, 12, and 14 to 16 are through the gate at mile marker 38.5 on Saddle Road.
Firearms, alcoholic beverages, all-terrain vehicles, dirt bikes and recreational vehicles are not allowed in the training and hunting areas. For more information, call the PTA Hunter’s Hotline at 969-3474, visit garrison.hawaii.army.mil/pta and click on the “Hunting” tab, or refer to instructions on the hunting pass.
Drug take-back scheduled April 26
The Hawaii Police Department is encouraging the public to participate in a nationwide prescription drug take-back initiative being sponsored in Hawaii by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the state Department of the Attorney General and the Department of Public Safety.
The public may turn in unused, unneeded or expired prescription medications between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. April 26 at the Kona police station parking lot, 74-611 Hale Makai Place, Kailua-Kona.
Tablets, capsules and all other solid dosage forms will be accepted. Intravenous solutions, injectables and syringes will not be accepted.
Illicit substances such as marijuana or methamphetamine are not a part of this initiative.
For more information about the drug take-back program, visit dea.gov.
EPA reaches agreement to continue cleanup at Waipahu Ash Landfill
HONOLULU – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the City and County of Honolulu recently signed an agreement to begin work on the second phase of cleanup at the Waipahu Ash Landfill site on Oahu.
“Honolulu’s latest agreement will allow the ongoing cleanup at the old ash landfill to proceed to the next stage,” said Jared Blumenfeld, EPA’s regional administrator for the Pacific Southwest. “The work by the city to evaluate the site for remaining health and environmental risks is set to begin this month and will be completed over the next few years.”
The landfill cleanup included excavation and relocation of ash refuse, grading and erosion control, installation of a liner and soil cover, and installation of a passive gas well system and groundwater monitoring wells. The city spent approximately $16 million on this initial phase that was completed in September 2011. The main cleanup concerns at the landfill are dioxins and heavy metals in the landfill sediments and the risks posed to wetland areas near Pearl Harbor.
The second phase of the work will include characterizing residual contamination at or from the site, determining any human health and ecological risks, and evaluating potential cleanup alternatives. The city will also define the extent of ash material remaining in the soil and sediment and, if necessary, install additional monitoring wells to sample groundwater to evaluate any impact from the landfill.
The landfill is located on the Waipio Peninsula on Oahu and was an ash landfill for the City’s Waipahu Incinerator that burned municipal solid waste from 1972 until the incinerator was closed in 1991. The site encompasses about 54 acres on U.S. Navy, State of Hawaii and City and County of Honolulu property adjacent to the West Loch of Pearl Harbor.
This settlement was reached under the authority of the federal Superfund law as part of the site lies within the Pearl Harbor Superfund site, and came after a public comment period. In the last fiscal year, EPA reached agreements with responsible parties to commit an estimated $1.2 billion toward Superfund site studies and cleanups nationwide.
By local and wire sources