Military backs new work to locate, safely detonate wartime munitions dumped off Hawaii

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - An estimated 100,000 military bombs were sunk off Hawaii in the 1940s alone, according to a University of Hawaii researcher.

Now there’s a new effort to find some of those aging munitions before they deteriorate further.

HNN Investigates learned that tests will begin soon on new kinds of technologies aimed at locating the explosives in places where people are most likely to come in contact with them.

During World War II, the United States military used the ocean as a means to dispose of an untold number of bombs and chemical weapons. Today, thousands of people flock to beaches, taking to the water not knowing what could be hidden beneath the surface.

“They didn’t have the chemical processes that we have now to chemically neutralize toxins,” said Margo Edwards, director of the University of Hawaii at Manoa’s applied research laboratory.

HNN Investigates

Edwards said back then, if they wanted to get rid of excess, obsolete or damaged munitions, options were limited. “They could burn them, not a very good idea,” Edwards said. “They could bury them, which meant that maybe their constituents would leak into the water table that we drink from. Or they could dispose of them at sea. That was seen as the lesser of three evils.”

Edwards says the military documented very little regarding the locations of the dump sites.

Many of them seem to have been arbitrarily chosen by service members responsible for carrying out the task. Edward spoke to one of those veterans. “He said basically their metric was they would get south of Oahu,” roughly gauge their distance from land and then start dumping, Edwards said.

It’s believed even more military munitions were dumped off Oahu during World War I — likely even closer to shore.

In recent years, explosives have been discovered in Kaneohe Bay and off Lanikai.

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“I have the scraps right here,” said Rep. Lisa Marten, as she pulled the rusted remnants of two munitions that had been detonated out of a cardboard box. Marten was there in April 2020 when the Navy destroyed the pair of military munitions in the water approximately 400 yards off Lanikai.

“They put an extremely minimal amount of explosive material on them to detonate them. So the explosion that we saw really came from what was still there from wartime,” Marten said.

At the time, the state said the unexploded ordnances were among 10 WWII-era bombs recovered.

Edwards said the focus now is on mitigation.

“What we’re trying to do is test new kinds of technologies that are being developed to find munitions and explosives of concern in shallow water areas,” Edwards said.

What does that mean exactly?

Essentially, they’re putting their focus on munitions that might be in highly-frequented areas.

The Department of Defense recently approved a two-year project to develop a Maritime Test Range Complex with the University of Hawaii. As part of the project, the school will be responsible for operating the site as well as monitoring the environment.

“The idea is that people from all over the world that are developing technologies to try and find munitions can come in and test their technology and see if they work,” said Edwards. “We’re also going to be able to start mapping areas around Oahu and creating these very high resolution maps.”

If you’re wondering why it’s important, Edwards explained, “We don’t know if they’ve had the constituents — the toxins inside — leaking for a long time or if they’re still all preserved in there.”

She added, “What happens on the day when the munition finally sort of disintegrates because the steel’s gotten too old? Does it create an environmental little problem? Big problem?

“We don’t know the answer to that question.”

The project is slated to begin this summer.

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