Forum tackles unexploded ordnances in Waikoloa

WAIKOLOA — More than 70 years ago, the U.S. Navy and Marines began running training exercises on Hawaii Island to prepare soldiers for combat against the Axis powers in World War II.

Those exercises ceased in 1946. On five separate occasions since then, the Department of Defense has conducted clearance operations to locate and remove unexploded ordnance — or UXOs — from nearly 29,000 acres of the Waikoloa Maneuver Area (WMA).

But as the WMA spans 100,000 acres, a number that may yet rise, and it is estimated that roughly 10 percent of munitions used in training exercises failed to detonate, dangerous explosive devices remain scattered across a massive area of northwest Hawaii Island.

Costs of completing clearance of the entire area — which stretches from Anaehoomalu Bay to Kawaihai and upland areas of Waimea, east to Waikii and back down through Waikoloa Village — are estimated at $720 million. The current annual budget for remediation of the land is $10 million, meaning the clearance period is expected to span more than seven decades.

In an effort to spread awareness and educate the public on safety precautions as well as remedies to potential hazards, the Hawaii Department of Health held a UXO Forum Wednesday at the Waikoloa Beach Marriott Resort where it disseminated its Areawide Environmental Hazard Management Plan (AEHMP), created to help mitigate dangers surrounding UXOs.

“Our whole purpose in bringing the forum together is … to do public outreach,” said Fenix Grange, manager of the Hazard Evaluation and Emergency Response Office at the HDOH.”(UXOs) have been there for 40, 60 years, and they’re not like improvised explosive devices where you walk down the street and it’s going to blow you up. But if you play with it, or you carry it in the back of your pickup truck, or if you’re a child and you see something interesting and you want to bring it home, there’s a big risk.”

The Three Rs

UXOs containing high explosives are the primary concerns for members of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), the agency primarily responsible for mitigating risk from unexploded ordnance.

Those munitions include artillery, mortars, grenades, rockets and tank rounds, which are littered at varying depths across areas zoned for everything from residential to commercial to agricultural use.

There have been deaths in the WMA, although Walter Nagai of USACE said he’s unaware of any that have occurred since 1954.

But UXOs are still frequently encountered in the area. Nagai referenced clearance activities that took place roughly five years ago at Waikoloa Elementary and Middle School, during which a live hand grenade was located on the school’s soccer field, buried between six and eight inches underground.

The Three Rs provide guidelines for dealing with UXOs or any item a civilian may expect is a UXO — as some are broken up or hard to identify, yet still present a danger.

They are as follows:

1) Recognize potential danger.

2) Retreat from the area. Do not approach, touch, move or disturb a UXO.

3) Report findings to police by dialing 911, who will then notify the appropriate governmental authorities.

Brian Stepp, vice president of Environet Inc. who offered the keynote address at the forum, offered a simple piece of advice to avoid such catastrophes.

“If you didn’t put it on the ground, don’t pick it up,” he said.

Messaging and Communication

The goal of the forum and the AEHMP is not to strike fear into the hearts of residents and visitors to the island, but rather to inform them that UXOs may present themselves anywhere throughout the WMA.

Discussion about improvements to signage and education efforts were central topics on Wednesday, as crafting appropriate messaging is crucial to the awareness effort.

Children and tourists are among the most vulnerable demographics because unlike adult residents of the island, they may not even be aware UXOs exist.

Ross Birch, executive director of the Island of Hawaii Visitors Bureau, said the number of tourists hasn’t changed in the last 10 years, but those who come to Hawaii Island are now more adventurous and prone to exploration than in years past.

“We try to get that message to our visitors,” he said. “Not an alarming message, not one that’s going to make them change their plans to vacation on our island, but one that’s going to make them aware of potentials that are out there.”

Acceptable Risk?

Stepp explained during his presentation that detecting and clearing 100 percent of UXOs is simply an impossibility. There are several methods to survey lands, but only sifting provides complete clearance, and that clearance only extends to a certain depth.

Excavating land to a specified depth and sifting through all of it runs approximately $20,000 per acre, and changes in topography could still bring UXOs at greater depths up to the inspected depth as time passes.

He said advanced geophysical verification, a physics-based process, can produce an 85 percent detection level at a 90 percent confidence level. Paul Chong, remedial project manager and environmental health specialist with the HDOH, said that means essentially the process can assert a 90 percent certainty that it has detected 85 percent of UXOs in a given area.

This poses some problems, as land and housing are in high demand on Hawaii Island. Construction in uncleared portions of the WMA increases not only the risk of the accidental detonation of an undiscovered UXO, but also the cost for anyone interested in development.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has been hesitant to move forward with projects in places like the WMA because of the inherent uncertainty that remains despite technological advancements.

“HUD is struggling with the risk issue, but I don’t think were’ going to make a decision on what is that quantifiable level of risk that’ll trigger us funding or not funding project,” said Ryan Okahara of HUD, adding that if the USACE and HDOH can develop parameters for safe residential use under specified conditions, his organization might find the risk level acceptable.

James C. King, Director for Munitions and Chemical Matters, Headquarters Department of the Army, said the problem with defining acceptable risk is that the term means different things to different people.

“How can a state feel that they’re done? We’ve been working on it 15 years and we don’t have a single answer,” he said. “We can give you a level of assurance, and now we’re working on a process … to be able to statistically show you’re at that level and you’re not going to get any better.”