The Marine Corps is determined to move ahead with a plan to home base two new aircraft at Marine Corps Base Hawaii-Kaneohe. Officials have made a persuasive case that these craft will strengthen the Marines’ current focus on a zone of increasing tension: the Asia-Pacific region.

Unfortunately, what they’re serving up in response to community feedback is pretty weak tea, especially at this fraught time, post-Red Hill contamination crisis. The Marines could better address concerns about historic sites, especially if they expect to avoid doing a full, costly environmental impact statement (EIS).

What Corps officials did declare recently is the completion of a lower-level environmental assessment (EA) to analyze the impact of the base plan on natural and cultural resources. The new additions to the fleet, along with crews to operate them, are the KC-130J and the MQ-9, a remotely piloted drone.

The initial findings made, after the EA draft was released last spring, were that there would be no significant impacts on resources, including impacts on water, cultural and biological resources as well as noise, air quality, transportation, and public health and safety.

But criticism rolled in from the Historic Hawaii Foundation and others, pointing to the planned demolition of World War II-era hangars the nonprofit wants preserved. The foundation proposed an alternative location for the new structure.

In response to comments, the Corps did further analysis of elements such as noise, concluding that the operations would not raise the day-night average noise level above the federally defined standard of significance, 65 decibels.

But on the historical matter, the proposed compromise was itself insignificant: merely incorporating “historic design elements” in the new hangar to replace the war-vintage Hangar 103. If the Marines truly can’t substitute another location, they didn’t offer a sufficient explanation.

And offering a merely superficial representation of the hangar is insufficient. They could do more without embarking on a full EIS process and delaying what is undoubtedly an urgent refinement, according to the EA: “enhance the airborne and intelligence capabilities of Marine Corps forces.”

In the wake of a terrible deterioration of Navy-community relations over Red Hill, the Marines should be motivated to do more to address local concerns over its Kaneohe project.