National Historic Preservation Act Section 106 Review Process
The National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) is a law that requires federal agencies to identify and consider the potential effects of their actions on historic properties and look for ways to avoid, minimize, or mitigate effects. Historic properties may include archaeological sites, sacred and religious sites, submerged historic resources, traditional cultural places, or historic buildings, structures, or objects. The Navy’s outreach efforts supported consultation under Section 106 of the NHPA and its implementing regulations.
Public involvement is an important part of the NHPA Section 106 process. The Navy encouraged the public to help identify historic properties and potential effects on them, as well as seek to participate as a consulting party during designated public comment periods.
The Navy is meeting its NHPA Section 106 obligations in accordance with the 2012, as amended in 2024, Programmatic Agreement between the Navy, the Hawai‘i State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO), and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. For more detail on how Pacific Missile Range Facility addresses historic resources, see chapter 3.6 in the Final Environmental Assessment (EA).
Through the NHPA consultation process, the Navy determined the proposed undertaking (land-based training and testing activities) would adversely affect Ka‘ula Island, a newly identified traditional cultural place (TCP) that is eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). In response to public comments received on the Draft EA and the designation of Ka‘ula Island as a TCP, the Navy considered eliminating training on Kaʻula Island and determined that training is necessary for gunnery and non-explosive bombing exercises. Ka‘ula Island is the only location within the Hawaiian Islands where overwater-to-land training with non-explosive weapons can currently occur.
In accordance with the NHPA, the Navy is consulting with Native Hawaiian Organizations and the Hawaiʻi SHPO to develop a memorandum of agreement that will minimize or mitigate adverse effects on Kaʻula Island. While this consultation is pending, no training will occur on the island unless the Commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet authorizes it for national defense or national security purposes.
This webpage will be updated upon conclusion of the NHPA process.
Section 106 Consultation
Who are Consulting Parties?
- Advisory Council on Historic Preservation;
- State historic preservation officers;
- Federally recognized Indian tribes/tribal historic preservation officers;
- Native Hawaiian organizations;
- Representatives of local governments; and
- Applicants for federal assistance, permits, licenses, and other approvals.
Other individuals and organizations with a demonstrated interest in the project participated in the NHPA Section 106 review as consulting parties (36 Code of Federal Regulations 800.2(c)(5)). Their participation was subject to approval by the responsible federal agency (CitizenGuide2021_011321.pdf (achp.gov)).
Further information and correspondence about the NHPA process to this point can be found in Appendix C.5 of the Final EA.