From: | Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org> |
Date: | Sat, 21 Aug 1999 00:28:55 -0700 (PDT) |
Reply: | cpeo-military |
Subject: | Kaho'olawe |
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 | |
Prev by Date: New DOE Weapons Megastrategy Next by Date: World War I Mess Raises Safety Issues in 1999 Washington | |
Prev by Thread: New DOE Weapons Megastrategy Next by Thread: World War I Mess Raises Safety Issues in 1999 Washington |