Army agrees to restore access to Hawaiian cultural sites
HONOLULU (AP) - The U.S. Army has agreed to restore access to a valley considered sacred on Oahu in a settlement with a Native Hawaiian cultural group.
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reports the Army has settled the 2016 federal lawsuit by Malama Makua, agreeing to pay $80,000 in attorney fees and to address an unexploded ordnance stockpile at the Makua Military Reservation.
Environmental law organization Earthjustice represented the group in its latest action in a long-running legal dispute over Makua Valley, the site of decades of military training.
The lawsuit claimed the Army violated an agreement by blocking access to the cultural sites in 2014.
Earthjustice says the settlement restores access to all but two sites, which remain closed because they are within the blast radius of the ordnance stockpile.
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