Hawaii lawmakers have ordered the formation of a new working group to discuss lead contamination in the air and water around a Marine Corps’ shooting range in Ewa Beach.

House Resolution 18, adopted on Friday, calls for quarterly gathering of elected officials, subject matter experts and the military to conduct informational briefings related to contamination and remediation at the Puuloa Range Training Facility. The group is expected to release quarterly reports to the House and take action the group deems appropriate until June 30, 2025.

The measure comes after testing by the Surfrider Foundation and Rep. Rose Martinez’s office found lead detections on the beach near the range and in fish and dust samples taken nearby. The Marine Corps took its own samples from the beachfront boundary of its property earlier this year but has not yet released the results.

The resolution calls for the following members:

• Rep. Martinez, who represents District 40
• Councilman Augie Tulba, who represents District 9
• The vice chair of the Ewa Neighborhood Board. The county website lists two vice chairs, teacher Julie Reyes Oda and Navy veteran John Clark III.
• A marine biologist from the University of Hawaii at Manoa
• A representative from Kuleana Coral Restoration
• A representative from the fishing industry;
• A representative from the U.S.Marine Corps

“The concerns voiced by residents regarding potential contamination and impact on marine life show that we need to address the well-being of the Ewa Beach community and act now,” Martinez said in a statement.

The resolution faced some opposition from community members. Ewa Beach Neighborhood Board members Liam Chinn and Alex Gaos said in written testimony that the focus should be on relocating the shooting range outside of the immediate residential area, a request made by previous resolutions passed by the House and Senate.

“Efforts by our elected leaders should be on working with the U.S. Marine Corps and officials to identify funding and a location for relocation of PRTF, not on gathering people ‘quarterly’ to talk about whether millions of cubic feet of lead-contaminated soil located adjacent to schools and communities can be managed or mitigated,” Chinn wrote.