[CPEO-MEF] Navy to tackle contaminated soil

[CPEO Moderator <cpeo@cpeo.org>]

Hawai'i
THE HONOLULU ADVERTISER
Navy to tackle contaminated soil
By Will Hoover
Posted on: Thursday, November 20, 2003

For the first time in Hawai'i, the Navy today will fire up a
technologically advanced heating unit that is expected to treat some
26,000 cubic yards of PCB-contaminated soil excavated from various
locations around O'ahu and stockpiled at the former Naval Air Station
Barbers Point at Kalaeloa.

The contaminated soil was removed from Navy facilities at Pearl Harbor,
Central O'ahu, Kalaeloa and Lualualei Valley on the Wai'anae Coast. Each
site once housed electrical transformers that, prior to 1977, used
polychlorinated biphenyl, or PCB — a toxic substance that has been
linked to cancer.

Known as a Thermal Desorption Unit, the mobile equipment is designed to
heat soil to a high temperature and then filter and separate
contaminants, which will be collected and disposed of at an EPA-approved
landfill on the Mainland.

The treated soil can then be safely returned to the earth.

According to the Navy, the electrical transformers in question were
phased out after it was realized that they could be harmful to humans
and the environment.

"But years of use resulted in the release of PCBs into the soil," said a
statement issued yesterday by the Navy. "On O'ahu, soil from 21 sites
has already been excavated and stockpiled at Kalaeloa and Naval Radio
Transmitting Facility, Lualualei, for treatment."

The Navy said an additional 79 locations await excavation and treatment.

This article can be viewed at:
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2003/Nov/20/ln/ln15a.html

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