[CPEO-MEF] US Military keeps ordnance cleanup squarely in sights

[CPEO Moderator <cpeo@cpeo.org>]

Honolulu Star-Bulletin
http://starbulletin.com/2001/02/01/news/story4.html

U.S. military keeps
ordnance cleanup
squarely in sights

Finding, clearing explosives
is slow and scary

By Gary T. Kubota
Star-Bulletin 

KAHOOLAWE -- Smoke and heaving earth shot like a geyser more than 300 feet in
the air, then a low boom sounded, reverberating across the southeast hills of
Kahoolawe. 
Even three miles away, at an observation area, the explosion from a 2,000-pound
bomb breaks the air like a cannon shot. 

The Navy's demonstration and media tour yesterday showed the danger of clearing
live ordnance from the former Target Island and a reason why work has been
cautious and sometimes slow. 

Within two years, only some 6,304 acres, or a little more than 20 percent of
the 28,600-acre island, has been cleared of ordnance, dashing hopes of clearing
the whole island of unexploded ordnance in the foreseeable future.

continued...

http://starbulletin.com/2001/02/01/news/story4.html

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