Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustees are poised to go to court if the Army fails to offer assurances that it will steer clear of sacred cultural sites on a future training range for the incoming Stryker brigade.

OHA board chairwoman Haunani Apoliona and administrator Clyde Namu'o yesterday met with Col. Howard Killian, commander of U.S. Army Garrison Hawai'i, to inform him that trustees voted 8-0 last week to allow OHA staff to spend up to $250,000 to ensure that an old heiau and other cultural sites are protected in the Schofield Barracks area.

Namu'o said OHA is asking Killian to provide "an explanation as to how he intends to comply with the provisions of the programmatic agreement" reached between the Army and various Hawaiian groups, including OHA.

If not satisfied, Namu'o said, OHA will go to court and seek a temporary restraining order to halt preliminary work now being done in an area known historically as Lihu'e. The order would claim that irreparable damage is being caused by the project.

On July 22, an unexploded-ordnance crew bulldozed across a buffer protecting Hale'au'au'au heiau, according to cultural monitors hired by the Army. The cleanup work was halted at the end of July. Namu'o said the work has since resumed. Army officials did not respond yesterday to the Advertiser's questions on the matter.

OHA is not seeking to stop the Strykers from training in Hawai'i, Namu'o said. "We believe the work at Pohakuloa (on the Big Island) has been progressing satisfactorily," he said. "There has been the discovery of a heiau at Schofield. A lot of the complaints we've received have been related to how the heiau is to be protected and how inadvertent discoveries are to be handled."

Namu'o said OHA also wants assurances that cultural monitors will have greater access to the project site.

Killian appears willing to work with OHA and others on a remedy, Namu'o said. "As I explained to Col. Killian, we're not looking to litigate this if we can avoid it. Our preference is to have the Army assure us there is compliance with the agreement."

The OHA action won praise from members of DMZ Hawai'i/Aloha 'Aina, which has been urging the agency to sue the Army.

"Sites have been destroyed and are being destroyed," said Kyle Kajihiro, a spokesman for the group. "That's why we need some sort of preliminary injunction."

Kajihiro called an environmental impact statement completed for the project "grossly inadequate" and said the Army has failed to conduct sufficient cultural surveys, establish adequate protection and communicate with affected parties, and that that has resulted in contractors damaging both the heiau and possibly an agricultural complex known as Kukuiolono.

Asked if the Army would be able to continue with the Stryker training site if it were to meet all the conditions sought, Namu'o said, "That's something the Army is in a better position to answer." He added, however, that he is hopeful an agreement can be reached that allows the project to proceed.

Kajihiro, however, said that a number of culturally significant sites are believed to be in the area. "Our belief is that ... (with) the number of sites it would be impossible for the Army to do what it proposes to do," he said.

A separate effort by environmental and Hawaiian groups to halt Stryker's arrival has so far been unsuccessful but is under appeal.

Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com.