Training area scattered with old munitions envisioned as housing area after clean-up
HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - A Hawaii lawmaker is behind a years-long push to rid a 138-acre property at Bellows Air Force Station of decades-old explosives. Her hope: That the land will eventually be released to the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands for housing.
For nearly a century, the property — known as TM001 — has been occupied by the military. It borders a residential neighborhood and Waimanalo Bay, and has been used for everything from an aerial gunnery target range in the 1930s, to a Nike Missile site during the Cold War and an Urban Warfare Training Facility after that. Today, it’s used for non-munitions training exercises.
But Rep. Lisa Marten says that won’t be the case much longer.
“That is something the Air Force wants to release,” she said.
“Other federal agencies will get first dibs on it. But if they don’t want it, it will come back to the state. DHHL I think would really like the land. But not contaminated land.”
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Officials say they’re concerned about the danger old military munitions pose to the public.
Experts say unexploded ordnance can be just as deadly now as they day they were dropped.
The state Health Department told HNN Investigates that despite a previous clean-up conducted about 25 years ago, there are still concerns as to what hazards could be buried there.
“Previous investigations had not really given us a good enough idea of the nature and the extent of the contamination,” Sven Lindstrom, program specialist at the Health Department’s Hazard Evaluation and Emergency Response Office, told HNN Investigates.
Last month, crews concluded an extensive clean-up at a recreation area near the Menehune Campground located just east of the Urban Warfare Training Facility.
In the 1930s, that portion of the base was used as a bombing range.
Today, it’s a popular vacation destination for service members and their families.
The work there was prompted by the discovery of a 25-pound bomb unearthed at a campsite two years ago prompting the military to post signs banning all ground disturbing activity.
While scouring the site, crews recently found a 37-millimeter round. Officials say is believed to have been dropped by the Japanese the day Pearl Harbor was attacked. It was about 2 1/2 feet underground in a grassy area between the Turtle Cove building and Waimanalo Bay.
HNN Investigates
As for what else was found, Maj. Dalin Chhen said, “A lot of munitions related debris.”
Or pieces of bombs and other munitions that do not contain explosives.
The military says crews also recovered more than 1,200 smalls arms items. Examples include things like ammunition. When asked how important is it to make sure that the land is free of these unexploded ordnance, Marten responded, “It’s very important.”
The lawmaker confirms another clean up is currently in the works for part of the Urban Warfare Training site. “The makai portion is already scheduled,” she said. “It is funded. So that’s in the near future.” She says the final design for that clean-up is expected to be published in December.
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