The Federal Aviation Administration is planning to build four radars in Hawai’i whose installation elsewhere in the United States has been surrounded by controversy over their possible health effects. The radars are part of a new system of weather service radars called NEXRAD (short for “Next Generation Radar”).
The Moloka’i radar is schedule to be the first built in this state. In July, a “Finding of No Significant Impact” was issued for its construction, with a deadline for public comment set for September 3. Here in Hawai’i, the first notice of availability for review of the FONSI was not published in the Office of Environmental Quality Control Bulletin until August 23, 1993, less than two weeks before the comment period closed.
Cause for Alarm?
Altogether, 152 NEXRAD radars are planned for Alaska, the lower 48 states, Hawai’i and the Caribbean. To date, about 45 have been built with roughly half of those in operation. Elsewhere, public outrage, acrimonious hearings, and sharp debate have accompanied announcement of proposed NEXRAD installations. The deadline for comment on the Moloka’i installation, however, appears to have passed without a blip on the proverbial radar screen.
At press time, environmental assessments for the South Kaua’i and Kamuela sites proposed for NEXRAD installations were completed, although no FONSIs had been issued. According to a Washington spokesman for the NEXRAD program, site work for the Moloka’i radar is expected to begin sometime this month, with delivery of equipment form the manufacturer (Unisys) anticipated in early November. A “final facility inspection” was scheduled for December 1, 1993.
Work on the Kaua’i NEXRAD is proposed to begin in the spring of 1994. Construction of the one in Kamuela is scheduled for January 1995. While no site has been selected yet for South Hawai’i an “equipment delivery date” for the installation has been set for January 1, 1995. As the spokesman noted, actual site work usually begins several weeks in advance of the equipment delivery date.
A Long History
A new national weather radar network, meeting the needs of the Department of Transportation (parent to the National Weather System) and the Department of Defense, was proposed in 1979. Emerging technology based upon the Doppler effect had been recommended to replace the older, conventional radars. To pursue development of the new system, a Joint System Program Office was established in November 1979, with the Department of Commerce as the lead agency. At present, plans call for 116 radars in the lower 48 states to be operated by the National Weather Service, 22 in the lower 48 to be run by the Department of Defense and 14 radars in Alaska, Hawai’i and the Caribbean to be operated by the FAA.
First fruits of the JSPO’s efforts appeared in the spring of 1984, when a draft programmatic EIS was released for comment. At that time, three Hawai’i sites were under consideration for NEXRAD installations: Kamuela, Moloka’i, and South Kaua’i. A final programmatic EIS was published in November 1984, with no record of any agency based in Hawai’i having submitted comments on the draft.
Health Concerns
While the technology was being worked out, concerns were growing over the possible impacts on human health that might result from the public’s exposure to the pulsed beams of radio frequency radiation that the radar systems would emit.
Giving voice to these concerns initially was the Town of Clarence, New York, a suburb of Buffalo. In 1989, a group calling itself Citizens Opposed to NEXRAD Radar (CONRAD) pressed the FAA to reconsider siting a radar in Clarence. (The radar was relocated down the road to Batavia, New York although not without complaints from that town, too). A year later, bowing to community opposition in the Long Island town of Sayville, New York, the JSPO dropped plans to install a NEXRAD radar there.
In light of growing opposition, the JSPO undertook preparation of a Supplemental Environmental Assessment designed to address more comprehensively the potential health effects of exposure to radio frequency radiation. The draft Supplemental EA was released in early 1992 and was the subject of further controversy as may be seen in the comment section of that document, the final version of which was released only in April of this year.
Meanwhile, on Moloka’i
In 1991, the Joint Systems Project Office and its consultant, SRI International, of Menlo Park, California, began studying sites on west Moloka’i that would be suitable for a NEXRAD installation. By 1992, the decision was made to locate the Moloka’i NEXRAD on a half-acre parcel along Maunaloa Ridge, which, as the “Expanded Site Survey Report” states, lies “about 1.5 (nautical miles) east of downtown Maunaloa.”
The site is now owned by Moloka’i Ranch. Access to the site is provided by an unpaved road that will probably require some improvements to accommodate the heavy construction equipment that would be used in erecting the NEXRAD tower.
The structure itself will consist of a steel scaffold-type base, 29.2 feet square. Atop that will rest a spherical radome 38-7 feet in diameter, which will house a 28-foot diameter antenna and microwave feed. Topping it will be a 9-foot-high lightning rod. Total height will be 109 feet. The environmental assessment report notes the “minor” visual impact this will have. To mitigate it, the report suggests “tower and radome coloration… The light brown option, FCS No. 30291, is recommended.” On the matter of “community relations,” the “Expanded Site Survey Report” has this to say: “Residents of Moloka’i are keenly aware of new developments occurring throughout this relatively small and undeveloped isle. During this site survey, opposition to the installation of a NEXRAD tower was not detected.”
In fact, apart from the owners of Moloka’i Ranch, few people on the island seem to have been aware of the proposed radar. On September 3, the deadline for comments, two members of the Moloka’i Planning Commission told Environment Hawai`i that they had no knowledge of the planned installation.
As for Kaua’i
The site proposed for Kaua’i’s NEXRAD is a field about 2,000 feet east of Numila, home of the McBryde sugar mill – or, as the draft environmental assessment states, “about 3 nmi east-southeast of downtown Hanapepe.” Owner of the land is the McBryde Sugar Company, a subsidiary of Alexander & Baldwin. The area surrounding the recommended site is planted in coffee.
The area was hard hit by Hurricane ‘Iniki. A nearby radio antenna was toppled in the storm and the sugar mill was heavily damaged.
The installation planned for Kaua’i is slightly larger than that proposed for Moloka’i. The scaffold base will be 35.5 feet on aside, while total height will be 142 feet.
In a discussion of aesthetic impacts, the environmental assessment states, “views of the tower would be seen from selected portions of State Routes 50 and 540.” From the highway, NEXRAD “would be seen as a distant vertical element in the landscape,” the EA states. Here again, to minimize the visual impact, the EA suggests “coloration” of the tower, this time “by use of the dark green color option (Federal Standard 34127).”
The Expanded Site Survey Report notes the following endangered or threatened species in the area: the federally endangered Hawaiian hoary bat and the threatened Newell’s shearwater. Fledgling shearwaters can become disoriented by lights, but, the report states, “if the tower is not lit with floodlights, no adverse effects are anticipated.”
The report continues: “Bird strikes are possible, as with any structure; however, because the NEXRAD tower and radome do not require marking and lighting, are relatively short.. and are highly visible, significant bird losses due to tower collisions are not anticipated.” With reference to birds flying into the powerful radio frequency radiation emitted by NEXRAD, the report states: “Any heating effects (even in the main beam) are expected to be negligible.”
Coming to Kamuela
The site chosen for the NEXRAD in northern Hawai’i island is about seven miles north of the town of Kamuela, along the rim of Pu’u Lapalapa, one of the many cinder cones that grace the Kohala Mountain slopes. Actually, the Federal Aviation Administration is proposing two radars be built along Pu’u Lapalapa’s rim – the NEXRAD, which is to be built along the northern rim, and an Air Traffic Control Beacon Interrogator (ATCBI) installation, which would be placed on the southern rim.
The site is owned by the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands. It is under lease at the present to Kahua Ranch, but DHHL has indicated it is willing to issue a license or lease to the FAA for use of the site.
The cinder cone rim is not accessible by any road, so the FAA plans to build one to connect the two radar sites to Kohala Mountain Road, which is more than a mile distant. According to the Expanded Site Survey Report for this installation (published February 1993), “Based on previous road feasibility studies for similar terrain within the Kohala Mountains, severe road cuts and grading will be required to accommodate the access route and the radar tower foundation. For access up the Pu’u, road switch backs with a retaining wall may be necessary to maintain maximum grade. As for the excavated materials, “some… may need to be disposed of at a suitable location off-site. Organic material can be disposed of in a public dump at Kona, approximately 30 miles away.”
The five-year state land use boundary review just completed by the Office of State Planning identifies the site where the FAA plans such extensive construction activity as part of an “area of critical concern.” The OSP’s report states, “these areas require attention and alternative methods of regulation or management to protect the resources which are present.” The specific resource of concern in the area of Pu’u Lapalapa is the retention of water recharge areas critical for the sustainability of the underground aquifer. (In fact, were Pu’u Lapalapa not owned by DHHL, it probably would have been recommended for inclusion in the state Conservation District, as were 13 pu’u immediately to the north. Hawaiian homelands are not subject to the state Land Use Law, the Boundary Review Report notes.)
Accelerated Pace
According to spokesmen at the Joint System Program Office, the Moloka’i and South Hawai’i installations have been “fast-tracked” at the express direction of the Congress. The Moloka’i NEXRAD was originally destined to be one of three radars to be installed (by the Department of Defense) in the Far East (two in Korea, one in Okinawa). Following passage of the 1993 appropriations bill for the Department of Defense, however, one of those three systems was diverted to Moloka’i.
Similar pressure has been brought to bear on JSPO to accelerate work on the South Hawai’i NEXRAD site selection process, although the actual equipment to be delivered there “hasn’t appeared in our delivery schedules yet,” a spokesman for JSPO said.
Weather Service Chief Welcomes NEXRAD’s Arrival
NEXRAD may be terrific for tornadoes and thunderstorms, but what good will it do in Hawai’i, where such storms are rare?
First of all, the NEXRADs in Hawai’i are being installed by the Federal Aviation Administration. Their primary purpose, then, is for air traffic control, with weather prediction being secondary. However, as explained by Richard Hagemeyer, chief of the National Weather Service’s Pacific region, the Weather Service and the FAA will share in the benefits from the NEXRAD program.
Besides, Hagemeyer said in a recent telephone interview, “there are a surprisingly large number of thunderstorms in Hawai’i. And we do have tornadoes in Hawai’i. About a year ago there was one on O’ahu, near Schofield Barracks, and another on the Big Island.”
Will the NEXRAD radars help in the tracking of hurricanes? “I wouldn’t say detection of tropical storms is the best reason” for installing the NEXRAD system, Hagemeyer said. Still, NEXRAD offers advantages in tropical storm forecasting that are unavailable using present means.
“When storms are in close, we send out reconnaissance aircraft every three hours. NEXRAD will allow us a real-time look at the storm. Within 125 miles, NEXRAD will allow us to predict rainfall. And this is the most important aspect for the National Weather Service. NEXRAD can detect the moisture content of the atmosphere – not just precipitation. It provides rainfall data that are extremely accurate.”
Hagemeyer sees no conflict between the type of radar scans needed for air traffic control use and NWS forecasts, although he acknowledges that the types of scans do vary, depending upon the information one wants to obtain.
Volume 4, Number 4 October 1993
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