Kaho'olawe

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

This past Wednesday I visited the Hawaiian island of Kaho'olawe,
courtesy of the Kaho'olawe Island Reserve Commission (KIRC) and the U.S.
Navy. Funded by a special Senatorial appropriation, the cleanup of the
28,000-acre former Navy target range is generally considered the largest
unexploded ordnance (UXO) cleanup project ever.

I learned, however, that the Kaho'olawe effort is much more than UXO
clearance. The Navy project director said only about 4% of the current
budget is being used directly for UXO detection and demilitarization.
The Navy and its contractors are clearing huge quantities of scrap
metal, primarily from shrapnel, inert munitions, and targets from the
entire island. They are clearing, the hard way, non-native trees and
other vegetation, to support UXO clearance. This effort should make it
easier for the KIRC to plant indigenous plants, but it is not closely
integrated with the KIRC restoration program. It is also building
infrastructure for the clearance effort, including a road and a
saltwater water-pumping system. All of the infrastructure will be
offered to the KIRC, which owns the island, when the Navy project ends.
Infrastructure development costs are high because the island is remote
and entirely undeveloped, with no transportation facilities, no power
sources, and no fresh water.

The UXO clearance appears to be moving slowly, but the Navy believes it
can reach its goals if funding continues as promised. The plan is to
surface-clear the entire island - not the surrounding waters - and clear
30% of the land to a four foot depth, in areas needed by the Navy for
infrastructure or designated by the KIRC as significant for cultural,
environmental, or educational reasons. The Navy has installed receivers
to support differential GPS (Global Positioning System) navigation and
survey. Each grid and UXO find will be mapped electronically. 

The Navy is relying now primarily upon man-portable EM-61 ordnance
detectors, in the audio (manual) mode. It compared various detection
technologies, and it believes that on-the-spot human operators can
compensate for the visible (by color or shade) variations in the
island's soils. (Digital post-processing could not.) The Navy says it is
open to the use of new technologies, but the old method appears to be
the mainstay of operations.

In general the Navy BIPs (blows in place) any UXO that it finds.
However, it checks first with the KIRC to ensure that such an explosion
will not damage any nearby archaeological, cultural, or environmentally
sensitive sites. Air emissions seem not to be an issue, since the
dominant trade winds blow hard, steadily, and usually in the direction
of distant Tahiti.

The Navy's contractors are carefully sorting metal scrap, from large
truck bodies to shards found in excavated soil. Project officers don't
know yet how they will treat those scrap items that might contain
remnants of explosives or propellants. They are prepared to burn the
scrap openly, with environmental monitoring, but they are awaiting
guidance from the Pentagon, which is reviewing nationally procedures for
preventing explosions - as happened a few years ago in Fontana,
California - when scrap metal is handled or remelted.

The metal recycling operation is a major effort. The Navy presently
plans to remove all anthropogenic metal over 1.5 inches from the
island's land surface. Ironically, under its current financial rules,
the project can't keep a cent of the proceeds from the metal sales.

Making the island permanently safe for unescorted visitors will be
difficult. There is no below-tide clearance, yet tidal action is likely
to move or expose significant quantities of ordnance over time. With
only 30% of the island expected to be cleared to four feet, many more
shells and bombs could surface due to continued erosion. Reasonably
safe, meaningful public use may be as dependent on the Risk Management
Program being developed by the KIRC, as it will be on the results of the
cleanup.

It's easy for boaters from Maui and other neighboring islands to
approach Kaho'olawe. The KIRC operates a patrol boat, and it frequently
encounters unauthorized visitors. With Navy and contractor helicopters
regularly flying to and over the island, it's relatively easy to spot
intruders, but when the Navy project ends it will be much more
difficult.

The Kaho'olawe cleanup is a daunting project. Despite the anticipated
ten-year budget of $400 million - if Congress continues to deliver - it
will still remain difficult to meet all the goals of both the KIRC and
the Navy.

The wide geographic range of munitions found on Kaho'olawe, combined
with a diverse mix of munitions - aerial bombs, rockets, naval gunnery
shells, torpedoes, small arms, etc. - suggests that the cleanup of other
Naval island target areas may be even more challenging. Finding and
removing UXO, clearing scrap, and restoring the environment will be
costly and difficult at Vieques, No Man's Island, Adak, and other
Pacific Islands. But no such site is likely to win the earmarked
appropriations that Senator Inouye has brought to Kaho'olawe.




-- 


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 222B View St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/968-1126
lsiegel@cpeo.org
http://www.cpeo.org