Air Force plans changes to Johnston Atoll cleanup

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Hawai'i
HONOLULU ADVERTISER
Air Force plans changes to Johnston Atoll cleanup
By Jan TenBruggencate
Posted on: Wednesday, March 17, 2004

The Air Force has proposed a series of changes to its toxic materials
cleanup program at Johnston Atoll, the former chemical weapons storage
and disposal site that lies about 700 miles southwest of Honolulu.

The atoll is a national wildlife refuge, but has been used for a range
of military activities, including nuclear explosion tests, storage of
Agent Orange and the storage and disposal of chemical munitions such as
nerve gas and blister agents.

The chemical weapons disposal plant has been closed and dismantled, but
the island continues to be plagued by a range of contamination issues
associated with half a century of military use, including one area of
radioactive soil from two nuclear-rocket mishaps in the 1960s, petroleum
products in the soil at various locations, PCB compounds, dioxin, and
copper and lead residue.

The military has placed a coral debris cap on the low-level radioactive
soils at Johnston Island, one of four islands within the atoll. The EPA
has expressed concern about eventual erosion of the coral fill cap
material, but the agency has no direct control over the military's
handling of the radioactive site. More highly radioactive soils have
been excavated and removed.

Among the proposed remedies for other toxic compounds are the excavation
of PCB-contaminated soils, which would be shipped to the Mainland for
disposal. The soils containing dioxin are being heat-treated. Soils with
unacceptably high levels of lead and copper would be excavated and
shipped off-island.

This article can be viewed at:
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2004/Mar/17/ln/ln19a.html

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