In 1986, Mililani was the recipient of the All-American City Award from the Citizens Forum on Self-Government of the National Municipal League in Washington, D.C. No other community in Hawai`i has received this distinction. The following news accounts tell the story of how our community received this prestigious award.

Mililani Nominated for City Award, Ka Nupepa of Mililani
Mililani Gets All-American Award, Gannett News Service
All-American City Day July 23, Ka Nupepa of Mililani
Neighborhood Board No. 25 Newsletter

MILILANI NOMINATED FOR CITY AWARD
Ka Nupepa of Mililani, October 9, 1985

    MILILANI, HAWAII - - Governor George B. Ariyoshi has nominated Mililani Town for the All-America City Award for citizen action and organization in cleaning up the pesticide contamination of its drinking water. The All-America City Award is sponsored by Citizens Forum and USA Today.
    The nomination of Mililani was drafted by John Evans, a long-time community activist, and it names Samuel S.H. Lee and the Mililani Neighborhood Board as the principal individual and organization at the forefront in spearheading the campaign to have the government clean up the contamination.
    In its campaign, the neighborhood board mounted three parallel drives. The first was a series of public forums that brought responsible official and scientists face-to-face with Mililani residents. The second involved written and personal appeals to every elected and appointed official who could possibly assist in solving the problem. Finally, a petition containing 6,220 signatures (almost one per household at that time) was presented to the Honolulu mayor by a group of board members.
    These citizen projects resulted in both short-term relief and a long-term solution. Mililani Town, Inc., developer of Mililani, agreed to fund and construct a $2.7 million activated charcoal carbon filter system, which is scheduled for operations in December. The system will be dedicated to the city’s Board of Water Supply for operation.
    The state has decide on a longer-range solution and committed $2.5 million in drilling three new wells in the mountains, which have proved to be clean.
Although 80 percent of residents surveyed have complained that the remedial measures are taking too long for completion and are not as effective as they should be, water contamination is becoming a non-issue. Most of the residents now realize that the filter system will soon be operational and new mountain wells can produce pure water, thanks to the initiatives taken by Sam Lee and the Mililani Neighborhood Board.

MILILANI GETS ALL-AMERICAN AWARD
By Gannett News Service

    WASHINGTON, July 6, 1986 --- In presenting Mililani Town an All-American Cities Award yesterday, Transportation Secretary Elizabeth Dole praised "aggressive citizen action" that forced a cleanup of the town’s contaminated water supply.
    Mililani is one of nine areas selected for the award, sponsored by the Citizens Forum on Self-Government/national Municipal League, and the national newspaper USA Today.
    "Not only has Mililani dealt with its problem, but it has insured a safe supply of drinking water for the future," Dole said.
    Residents of the town learned in July 1983 that its water supply was contaminated by cancer-causing pesticides residues.
    Efforts to correct the problem were opposed, at various times, by state health officials, Dole Pineapple Co. on whose land Mililani was built, & the developer, Mililani Town Inc.
    Samuel S.H. Lee, chairman of the Mililani Neighborhood Board, which organized the cleanup effort, said in an interview that the award illustrates the "power of citizens getting involved and the response of government as well as the private sector in meeting problems of the community.
    But without citizens insisting on corrective action, he said, "bureaucratic delay and corporate profit" would have made obtaining a solution much more difficult.
    Tom Curley, president of USA Today, told the winners, "You are democracy on stage."
    The Neighborhood Board of Mililani, a central Oahu town of about 25,000, organized meetings between government officials, scientists, and residents, contacted federal agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency, and increased public pressure by circulating a petition eventually signed by 6,220 people.
    Mililani Town Inc. eventually agreed to pay for a $2.5 million carbon-filter system. The state is drilling exploratory wells above the polluted pineapple fields to provide a long-range solution.

ALL AMERICAN CITY DAY JULY 23
Ka Nupepa of Mililani - July 16, 1986

   MILILANI TOWN --- The Mililani/Waipio/Melemanua Neighborhood Board #25 will be hosting a party for all area residents on Wednesday, July 23 in celebration of Mililani Town’s recent selection as a winner of the All-American City Award.
    NB #25 encourages all residents to participate in the community event beginning at 7:30p.m. in Mililani Rec Center III, 95-281 Kaloapau St. Dignitaries throughout the state have been invited to join in the celebration.
    Some of the area organizations scheduled to take part in the program include the Mililani High School Ensemble and the Mililani American Legion Post $56 Color Guard Unit. Retail merchants in the community are also making plans to have commemorative items (to include t-shirts and caps) available for purchase.
    In recognition of community efforts in "citizen action, effective organization and community improvement," Hawaii’s former Governor William F. Quinn will make the presentation of the award to the citizens of Mililani Town. Quinn was the foreman of the All-America City jury of the Citizens Forum on Self-Government of the National Municipal league in Washington, D.C.
    The All-American City Awards are intended to be reminders of the standards a city hopes to live up to, according to league officials. Each year, over 500 cities across the nation are nominated for this award.
    In September 1985, Governor George B. Ariyoshi sponsored Mililani Town’s nomination because of community efforts to help solve the town’s water contamination problem. The water problem, discovered in 1983, has been resolved with the recent completion of a $2.77 million water filtration system built by Mililani Town Inc.
    The nomination of Mililani Town was drafted by John Evans, a long-time active community member. Organizations that were actively involved in working on the water problem included the Mililani/Waipio/Melmanu Neighborhood Board, State Legislature: Joint House/Senate Interim Committee, Mililani Town Association Board of Directors, Waipahu Community Association Board of Directors and the Conservation Council for Hawaii.
    The neighborhood board played the principal role in getting citizens involved with the water issue. The board sponsored a series of public forums, bringing responsible officials and scientist to meet with Mililani residents. In addition, written and personal appeals were made to every elected and appointed officials who could possibly assist in solving the problem. A petition containing 6,220 signatures (almost one per household) was presented to then Honolulu Mayor, Eileen Anderson.
    These citizen projects resulted in both short-term relief and a long-term solution. The carbon filtration water treatment plant was made fully operational in March. In addition, the state committed $2.5 million for the drilling of three new wells in the mountains, above the pineapple fields. These well will also provide safe water for future development in Mililani Town.
    Mililani Town was one of nine cities selected for the 1985-86 awards.

WATER CLEANUP DRIVE WINS MILILANI ALL-AMERICA CITY AWARD
Neighborhood Board No. 25 Newsletter - July 1986

    MILILANI --- That was the headline in the Honolulu Star Bulletin on April 18, 1986, which captured the essence of the hard work that went into the drive to clean up the pesticide contaminated water three years ago.
    Your Neighborhood Board, led by Chair Sam Lee, reacted quickly to the news in July 1983, that Mililani residents were drinking contaminated water.
    In quick succession, the Neighborhood Board organized a series of public forums to bring responsible officials and scientists face to face with Mililani residents, and appealed by letters and personal calls on every elected and appointed official who might help solve the problem, including the Governor, Mayor and the EPA Administrator. We also circulated a petition and gathered 6,220 signatures (almost the same number of households then in Mililani) asking for the cleanup of the contamination or the creation of new sources of pure water.
    The result? Mililani Town, Inc., funded the design and construction of the $2.5 million activated carbon filter system which went into operation a few months ago and now assures clean drinking water for Mililani residents. In addition, the Governor had three new wells drilled in the mountains which will provide proven contamination-free water for future use in Mililani.
    Last year, John Evans, then a board member, suggested we apply for the All-America City Award. With the Board’s approval, John drafted and completed the lengthy and complicated nomination papers in just three days in order to meet the submission deadline. Governor George Ariyoshi was our official nominator. Some months later we learned that Mililani was selected as one of the 20 semi-finalists. Sam Lee went to Cincinnati at his own expense to plead our case before the All-America City Award jury.
    The favorable decision of the jury is a source of deep satisfaction to the Mililani/Waipio/Melemanu Neighborhood Board. However, as Sam explained in his presentation to the jury, our achievement will not become an excuse for smugness, as we have already embarked on the need for coordinated action by private and public sectors to prevent the worsening of traffic congestion from approaching gridlock. We want action before the term "freeway" becomes a cruel mockery.