Category: Hawai’i

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Strykers (and DU) on Parade in Hilo?

Mahalo to Joan Conrow and the Hawaii Independent for this article about Hilo residents’ opposition to Strykers and possible Depleted Uranium contamination being in the Veteran’s Day Parade. 

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http://thehawaiiindependent.com/page-one/read/veterans-parade-hit-with-du-concerns/

Hilo Veterans’ Day parade hit with depleted uranium concerns

Nov 05, 2009 – 12:35 PM | By Joan Conrow | The Hawaii Independent

HILO—Plans to include vehicles from Hawaii Island’s Pohakuloa Training Area (PTA) in Saturday’s Veteran’s Day parade in Hilo have met opposition from those concerned about glorifying war and possible contamination by depleted uranium (DU).

Jim Albertini, director of the Malu Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action, said that after event organizers told him Stryker vehicles would be participating in the parade, he wrote to Lt. Col. Warline S. Richardson, the PTA’s commanding officer, to express his concerns.

“Including Stryker vehicles in the parade is a provocative action that glorifies war disguised as honoring veterans,” Albertini wrote in his October 30 letter. “I urge that Strykers and other combat weapons be kept out of the parade. To parade these killing machines through our peaceful streets desensitizes young and old to the horrors of war.

“As you know, basing Strykers in Hawaii has been a major controversy,” the letter continued. “Their use of Depleted Uranium (DU) weapons in Iraq contaminating that country forever is equally controversial, and likely related to the Gulf War Syndrome that has effected [sic] the health of hundreds of thousands of disabled U.S. veterans and millions of Iraqi citizens. The fact that these Strykers are currently doing live-fire training at Pohakuloa, known to be contaminated with DU, risks spreading that contamination, endangering the health and safety of troops and the citizens of this island. Bringing these Strykers, that may be contaminated with DU, down the streets of Hilo adds insult to injury.”

Albertini said that Richardson contacted him early the next morning and said she was willing to keep mobile weapons out of the parade in order to avoid a protest, and instead would send “command Strykers” that were outfitted with communications equipment rather than weaponry.

But he said Richardson was not receptive when he raised the concern that any vehicles from PTA could be contaminated with DU oxide: “I don’t think she takes that issue very seriously.”

Albertini said that fear about possible DU contamination from the training area was widespread on the Big Island, and had prompted the Hawaii County Council to pass a 2008 resolution “ordering a complete halt to B-2 bombing missions and all live firing exercises and other actions at PTA that create dust until there’s an assessment and clean up of the depleted uranium already present.”

When contacted by The Hawaii Independent, Richardson said: “Those vehicles aren’t contaminated. What would they be contaminated with?” Richardson also denied that she had agreed to let command Strykers participate in the parade. “I don’t control those vehicles,” she said.

“She’s telling two different stories,” Albertini countered.

Loran Doane, media relations chief for the U.S. Army Garrison, said that event organizers had asked the Army to participate in the parade, but “no final determination has been made as to exact form that participation will take.” He said a decision likely would be made by noon Friday.

He also said that the Army has a “process and standards for cleaning military vehicles before entry into the U.S.”

The fact sheet for cleaning vehicles states: “Those identified as contaminated with DU are wrapped in plastic and tarps (encased) to prevent the spread of any removable contamination or residues. They are then shipped through the Port of Charleston, South Carolina, to the U.S. Army’s Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG), Maryland. Here, the vehicles are assessed for decontamination and repair, or for recovery of parts.”

Richardson also said she could not understand the objection to Styrkers. “It’s just a wheeled type of a piece of equipment. I just don’t understand a little bit of the concern,” she said, likening them to Toyota releasing a new version of the Maxima. ”Part of it is education. That’s why you want to let them participate in parades.”

Meanwhile, Major Doug Rokke (Ret.), the former director of the U.S. Army Depleted Uranium project, issued a statement in response to the parade plans that read:

“Any and all combat vehicles and equipment (everything) returned from Iraq should be prohibited from any civilian area. A standard wash rack is useless for decontamination. Keep all contaminated equipment isolated to the army post. Army regulation 700-48, section 2-4 requires isolation from all human contact.

“Even after extensive depot level cleaning, I found DU and other radiological, chemical, and biological contamination in vehicles years later.

“The gross contamination of equipment, vehicles, terrain, air, water, soil, and food is reflected in, and verified by, the hundreds of thousands of U.S. casualties with serious medical problems that are unrelated to bullets or bombs, but are directly related to all of these toxic exposures.

“Hawaii’s isolated and pristine environment should not be exposed to, and consequently placed in danger through, any exposure to any of the contaminants brought back by the U.S. military from war zones.”

Dr. Lorrin Pang, a consultant to the Big Island County Council on the issue of DU, also advised caution, noting that Dr. Rosalie Bertell has said the weaponry causes nano-particles to be released, as well as DU oxide.

“There is a newly recognized associated threat called nanotoxicity, especially from small metallic particles,” Pang said in a written statement. “Yet another unknown. With so many unknowns I suggest we adhere to the precautionary principle and honor our veterans by not further exposing them (and the public) to further unknown agents. Remember both Rokke and I are former Army and we are still watching out for the soldiers.”

 

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Strykers in Hilo veteran’s parade

CENTER FOR NON-VIOLENT EDUCATION AND ACTION

Malu ‘Aina Farm

P.O. Box AB

Kurtistown, Hawaii 96760

Phone 808-966-7622 email ja@interpac.net http://www.malu-aina.org

Lt. Col. Warline S. Richardson October 30, 2009

Commanding Officer

Pohakuloa Training Area (PTA)

Dear Col. Richardson:

I have received a report that Stryker urban assault vehicles from PTA, recently returned from Iraq, will be in the Nov. 7th Hilo Veterans parade. Including Stryker vehicles in the parade is a provocative action that glorifies war disguised as honoring veterans. I urge that Strykers and other combat weapons be kept out of the parade. To parade these killing machines through our peaceful streets desensitizes young and old to the horrors of war.

As you know, basing Strykers in Hawaii has been a major controversy. Their use of Depleted Uranium (DU) weapons in Iraq contaminating that country forever is equally controversial, and likely related to the Gulf War Syndrome that has effected the health of hundreds of thousands of disabled U.S. veterans and millions of Iraqi citizens The fact that these Strykers are currently doing live-fire training at Pohakuloa, known to be contaminated with DU, risks spreading that contamination, endangering the health and safety of troops and the citizens of this island. Bringing these Strykers, that may be contaminated with DU, down the streets of Hilo adds insult to injury.

Our organization supports veterans being given the best possible medical care but we are opposed to U.S. illegal wars of aggression that keep producing more and more disabled veterans. It’s time to end these U.S. illegal wars and the illegal U.S. occupations of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Hawaii. If your goal is to truly honor vets, take the money you would spend to transport the Strykers to and from downtown Hilo and use it for their medical care.

With gratitude and aloha,

Jim Albertini

President

cc: government officials and the media

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Stryker brigade prepares for Iraq deployment

The article says that the Army is the “owner” of Pohakuloa, but it actually occupies Hawaiian national lands that were stolen by the U.S. Much of the land is actually leased from the State of Hawaii.

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http://www.starbulletin.com/news/20091026_new_look_stryker_team_trains_to_help_finish_mission_in_iraq.html

New-look Stryker team trains to help finish mission in Iraq

By Gregg K. Kakesako

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Oct 26, 2009

POHAKULOA TRAINING AREA, Hawaii » Col. Malcolm Frost, preparing for a summer deployment to Iraq, faces a daunting task after losing nearly half of his Stryker brigade to transfers and attrition.

Frost also realizes that his 2nd Stryker Warrior Brigade Combat Team could be making history when the U.S. draws down its force of more than 143,500 soldiers to a 50,000 “noncombat” force in August.

“I see this as a tremendous honor,” said Frost, 43, last week as he observed a platoon from Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 21st Infantry, practice entering a faux Iraqi town and clearing several of its structures on this vast training range on the Big Island.

“It’s finishing the mission and finishing the mission with honor,” he said. “We will leave it under Iraqi control where the government is sovereign and free. There is a good chance we will be a part of history.”

By early summer Frost will deploy with 4,300 soldiers from the 25th Infantry Division and 322 eight-wheeled Stryker combat vehicles that have been refitted and re-equipped from previous Iraqi deployments.

Although the 2nd Brigade has many combat veterans, Frost’s team of leaders are new to their current jobs. Frost assumed command of the brigade in June.

However, Frost went to Iraq in 2007 with Schofield Barracks’ 3rd Bronco Brigade Combat Team and did one tour in Afghanistan.

Upward of 75 percent of the soldiers in his Stryker unit have served at least one combat tour in Iraq or Afghanistan.

After the 2nd Brigade returned from Iraq in February and March after 15 months, it lost 2,000 of its soldiers. Some chose to leave the military. Others sought reassignment and transfers or further Army schooling.

“In one day 900 departed,” Frost added.

All six battalion commanders in the 2nd Brigade are new, as are many of its key noncommissioned officers. But many have been under fire in other units.

That includes Maj. Jim Tuite, the executive officer of the 1st Battalion and a 1995 West Point graduate. Tuite served in Mosul, Iraq, with the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment in 2007.

Staff Sgt. Tom Cronin, 47, served with 2nd Stryker Brigade during its 2007-2009 deployment. He had two knee surgeries before he was allowed back into the Army just before the brigade left for Iraq.

The reason for his dedication?

“My business is to fight,” says Cronin.

Frost said preparations for his soldiers will include “core war-fighting tactics to protect themselves and the Iraqi people.”

There will also be an emphasis on tasks designed “to assist and advise” Iraqi security forces and the government. Nearly 50 high-level Army officers will be assigned to Frost’s brigade to fill out stability training teams with missions to train local leaders.

“In the end we will be ready for the whole spectrum that can be thrown at us an any given day.”

Frost believes he will know the brigade’s assigned operating area in northern Iraq by the time the brigade leaves for the National Training Center in California for a month beginning in February.

At the Mojave Desert training center, Frost hopes to employ scenarios based on the economics, ethnic composition and conditions of the towns and villages in his area of operation.

As he observed 2nd Platoon trying to master the techniques of clearing a building after a firefight, Frost asked one of the 25th Division’s observer-trainers whether the platoon had taken the time to photograph and search an “Iraqi insurgent” killed during the fight.

“They didn’t,” the trainer told Frost. He also noted that the “insurgent” played by a fellow 25th Division soldier had a homemade bomb hidden under his shirt.

“That will go into the AAR,” said Tuite, referring to the after-action report.

Frost said that each platoon will repeat the same exercise several times while training here.

“Each time the circumstances will be a little different and difficult,” he said. “The soldiers will even have to do the same exercise at night.”

From now until Thanksgiving, Stryker units will be rotated through Pohakuloa for two weeks of field training. In December the brigade will conduct a major computerized simulation exercise at Schofield.

Before they are shipped to California, the Strykers bound for Iraq will have undergone minor internal retrofits, including the installation of troop seats and ballistic floor plates and an alternator upgrade.

In Kuwait the vehicles will be equipped with slate armor to deflect rocket-propelled grenades so they detonate before penetrating the vehicle. Another improvement, known as the “pope’s glass,” shields the vehicle commander when he pokes his head out of the top of the Stryker.

WIDE-OPEN SPACES

The Pohakuloa Training Area on the Big Island is the largest maneuver training area in the Pacific.

Owner: U.S. Army, but used by all services as well as FBI agents and local law enforcement officers

Location: 38 miles west of Hilo

Size: 134,000 acres

Maneuver training area: 43,148 acres (21 areas)

Airfield: Capable of handling one C-130 cargo plane

Billets: 1,680 beds (troops generally stay in the field)

Water: 26 truckloads (180,000 gallons) need to be hauled in every day

Source: U.S. Army

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Munitions clean up to begin at Maku’u Farm Lots

According to an article in the Honolulu Advertiser, the Army Corps of Engineers is beginning the clean up of munitions from the Maku’u Farm Lots in Puna.  The article states:

The agricultural Puna subdivision, now leased by the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, was built over a 640-acre bombing range. During World War II, it was known as the Popoki Target Area.

“The site was reportedly used by the Navy as a target practice area during World War II,” the corps said in response to an inquiry. “No records document this but ground reconnaissance revealed deteriorating air-to-ground practice bombs onsite.”

The Navy acquired the land through a sublease. That lease was canceled Nov. 1, 1945, and the land was returned to the Territory of Hawai’i.

http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20091012/NEWS0101/910120321/Puna+site+due+for+ordnance+removal

Posted on: Monday, October 12, 2009

Puna site due for ordnance removal

By Peter Sur

Hawaii Tribune-Herald

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is moving ahead with plans to clear munitions from the Maku’u Farm Lots.

The agricultural Puna subdivision, now leased by the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, was built over a 640-acre bombing range. During World War II, it was known as the Popoki Target Area.

“The site was reportedly used by the Navy as a target practice area during World War II,” the corps said in response to an inquiry. “No records document this but ground reconnaissance revealed deteriorating air-to-ground practice bombs onsite.”

The Navy acquired the land through a sublease. That lease was canceled Nov. 1, 1945, and the land was returned to the Territory of Hawai’i.

In 1990, the corps conducted a preliminary investigation and found 12 practice bombs within the subdivision, one of which contained a spotting charge.

A second site visit in 1991 found no evidence of ordnance because of the dense vegetation, but it was given a high priority for further action.

The corps in mid-2005 then conducted a much more thorough survey of the 640 acres, and identified two areas of concern: a 93-acre bombing target area and a 15-acre troop maneuver area.

In the bombing target area, the investigation collected 271 pounds of munitions debris. A search of the maneuver area found a hand grenade with its fuse missing and a trash pit containing shell casings of various sizes, up to .50-caliber.

Another follow-up search in July 2008 that focused on the two areas found no explosives or hazardous metal compounds.

“Archival records show no evidence for the potential of chemical warfare material or byproducts,” the corps said.

The corps decided in August 2008 on what it called “the most ambitious” of the alternatives considered: the removal and disposal of all munitions-related items from the surface and down 2 feet. The 93-acre bombing target area and the 15-acre maneuver area will both be cleared of vegetation as necessary to allow the use of munitions detectors. Personnel will sweep the ground in lanes 5 feet wide.

Also, the corps will begin a public education campaign, which will include periodic public safety awareness meetings and the distribution of educational media to landowners and local businesses.

“In the public safety materials, the corps will stress that munitions encountered by the public should never be touched or handled by teaching the ‘Three R Rule,’ ” an official said.

That is, recognize you may have seen ammunition, retreat and report it to authorities.

The corps issued a $1.56 million contract to Environet Inc. on Sept. 22 to remove the munitions and potential explosives.

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Strykers to deploy from one illegally occupied country to another

The Stryker Brigade Combat Team from Hawai’i will be deployed to the occupation of Iraq.   Malu ‘Aina is organizing a demonstration against the Stryker training at Pohakuloa on Hawai’i island.

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http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20091008/BREAKING01/91008071/Stryker+team+at+Schofield+will+deploy+to+Iraq

Updated at 3:20 p.m., Thursday, October 8, 2009

Stryker team at Schofield will deploy to Iraq

By William Cole

Advertiser Military Writer

The Pentagon today announced it is ordering the 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team at Schofield Barracks back to Iraq amid plans by the U.S. to wind down its presence in the country and as increasing attention is focused on the dilemma of a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan.

The announcement for the next Iraq rotation involves three brigade combat teams, and one armored cavalry regiment totaling approximately 15,000 personnel, the Pentagon said.

The scheduled rotation for the forces will begin in the summer of 2010.

The 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division based out of Fort Lewis, Wash., was the first Army unit to deploy to Afghanistan with the eight-wheeled Stryker vehicles. Sixteen soldiers from the brigade have died since it deployed in July.

The 4,300 soldiers with Hawaii’s Stryker Brigade returned in February and March from 15 months in northern Baghdad, Taji, Tarmiyah and Abu Ghraib. The brigade has about 400 of the 19-ton Stryker armored vehicles.

About 123,000 U.S. troops remain in Iraq. President Obama has ordered all combat troops to be out of Iraq by Aug. 31, 2010. As many as 50,000 noncombat troops could stay to train and advise Iraqi forces until the end of 2011.

U.S. troop levels in Iraq are expected to be at 120,000 by the end of the month, with 110,000 in the country at the end of 2009.

Violence has decreased in Iraq, from a high of 1,600 attacks in 2007 a week to less than 200 a week now, the Associated Press reported.

The units also receiving Iraq deployment orders to Iraq include:

  • The 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Ga.
  • The 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, Fort Hood, Texas.
  • The 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.

Two large Schofield contingents are now returning from Iraq. The 3rd Brigade with about 3,500 soldiers has mostly returned to Hawaii, while about 1,000 soldiers with the 25th Infantry Division headquarters are expected back into November.

In August, some 2,400 troops with the 25th Combat Aviation Brigade left on a yearlong deployment to northern Iraq. The brigade sent nearly 100 helicopters on the deployment.

Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com.

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Protest of Stryker and other live-fire training at Pohakuloa Training Area (PTA)

Press Release Monday, Oct. 5, 2009

Protest of Stryker and other live-fire training at Pohakuloa Training Area (PTA)

Saturday, Oct. 10, 2009 Mauna Kea State Park

There will be a peaceful protest l0AM Saturday Oct. l0th at Mauna Kea State park –l mile east of the Pohakuloa main gate on Saddle Road. (Car pools will leave 9AM from the Hilo Bayfront parking lot at Pauahi and Kamehameha Ave.) The protest will begin at the park and then move to PTA’s main gate. The protest is over Stryker tank and other ongoing live-fire training at the base known to be contaminated with Depleted Uranium (DU) radiation from past weapons training. Live-fire and other activities that create dust, risk spreading the radiation off base into civilian areas. The Hawaii County Council passed a resolution 8-1 in July 2008 calling for a halt to all live-fire at PTA until there is a complete assessment of the radiation contamination and clean up of the DU present. The military continues to ignore the Council’s call to action.

Reports are that l00 Stryker l9 ton eight-wheeled tanks (perhaps more) are currently doing training at PTA. These tanks have recently returned from Iraq where their l05 mm canons and 50 cal machine guns have fired DU munitions.

The protest is sponsored by Malu ‘Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action.

Jim Albertini of Malu ‘Aina said: It’s time to Stop Strykers! Stop all live-fire on Pohakuloa, and live-fire in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan. The military needs to clean up its mess and end its occupations, not make more of a mess.”

-pau-

STRYKER PROTEST

Stop Live-fire on Pohakuloa,
Iraq, Afghanistan, & Pakistan, etc.

Time: 10AM

Date: Saturday, Oct. l0th

Meeting place: Mauna Kea State Park
One mile east of the new main gate of the Pohakuloa Training Area on Saddle Rd. in the center of the island. Car pools will leave 9AM from the Hilo Bayfront parking lot at Pauahi and Kamehameha Ave.

A Stryker is an eight-wheeled, l9-ton modern tank (urban assault vehicle). It’s not a defensive weapon. It is a killing machine. A full Stryker Brigade is based on Oahu at Schofield Barracks. Earlier this year the Brigade, including more than 300 Stryker tanks, returned from Iraq. The Brigade is now training for another deployment to Iraq or possibly Afghanistan, as President Obama escalates the war there.

The Stryker tanks fire depleted uranium (DU) ammunition. They have fired it in Iraq and have contributed to the widespread DU contamination there which is causing widespread health problems, including cancer, birth defects, and deaths. Whether these tanks have brought DU contamination back to Hawaii is unknown. No independent testing has been done.

Reports are that a hundred Strykers (perhaps more) have been brought via Kawaihae Harbor from Ohau and are now doing training at the Pohakuloa Training Area (PTA), including live-fire. While the Army says no DU weapons are presently used in training at PTA, the area is already officially acknowledged to be contaminated with DU from earlier weapons training. Live-fire, and other activities that create dust such as tank maneuver training, risk spreading radiation contamination — toxic deadly poison, off-base into civilian areas, carried by the strong winds that travel through the Saddle Area toward the Hilo and Kona sides of our Island.
Stand Up and Speak Out!

Let a cry go out by all of us who are charged to be responsible stewards of this ‘aina: Stop Strykers! Stop all live-fire on Pohakuloa, and live-fire in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan. But let us do more. Let us work to end the illegal U.S. occupation of Hawai’i as well as illegal occupations of Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. The people and the land are spiritually interconnected as one. So too are the issues of Justice & Peace. Join our non-violent protest, where hearts come together to help remove the obstacles to peace. Mahalo.

For more information please contact: Malu `Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action P.O. Box AB Kurtistown, Hawai`i 96760. Phone (808) 966-7622. Email ja@interpac.net http://www.malu-aina.org
—
Jim Albertini
Malu ‘Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action
P.O.Box AB
Kurtistown, Hawai’i 96760
phone: 808-966-7622
email: JA@interpac.net
Visit us on the web at: www.malu-aina.org

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Groups sue state over Mauna Kea management plan

http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20091002/BREAKING01/91002053/Groups+sue+state+over+Mauna+Kea+management+plan

Updated at 12:03 p.m., Friday, October 2, 2009

Groups sue state over Mauna Kea management plan

By Nancy Cook Lauer
West Hawaii Today

HILO – A consortium of groups opposed to the state’s management plan for Mauna Kea said it filed suit in 3rd Circuit Court yesterday, fighting for its right to protest a plan it says doesn’t protect the environment or Native Hawaiian cultural resources.

The state Board of Land and Natural Resources earlier this year denied the groups – including Mauna Kea Anaina Hou, the Royal Order of Kamehameha I, the Sierra Club, KAHEA: The Hawaiian Environmental Alliance, and Clarence Kukauakahi Ching – a contested case hearing on the grounds they didn’t have legal standing to fight the plan.

“The board’s decision undermines the basic right everyone in Hawaii has to stand up for their environment, their culture and their religion,” Kealoha Pisciotta, president of Mauna Kea Anaina Hou, said in a statement. “Despite extensive evidence on the record of our cultural, spiritual, environmental and recreational connections to Mauna Kea, the Board is now claiming we suddenly have no right to ensure it is protected from bulldozers.”

The Land Board had approved the 299-page plan with amendments that made the University of Hawaii Board of Regents responsible for implementation, subject to land board oversight. It also put in a number of safeguards, including the creation of four sub-plans to address public access, natural resources, cultural resources and the decommissioning of telescopes.

Opponents of the plan are particularly concerned about a new Thirty Meter Telescope group that recently chose Mauna Kea over Chile. The development process for the TMT is now moving forward, with a meeting earlier this week of TMT designers and local design and construction companies.

“Mauna Kea belongs to the people,” said Alii Ai Moku Paul Neves, of the Royal Order of Kamehameha I. “Hawaii law has long recognized the unique interests of Native Hawaiians and the public in protecting our natural and cultural resources. The board cannot approve any management plan without hearing all of the facts first, and that means holding this contested case hearing.”

The management plan was required by a 2007 ruling of the 3rd Circuit Court in favor of these groups, who have been working to protect the summit for more than 15 years. In that 2007 decision, the court held that a comprehensive management plan is required before any land-altering activity can be allowed in the conservation district at the summit of Mauna Kea.

The cost of implementing the plan has been estimated at about $1.5 million a year, and former UH President David McClain said he was “committed to providing what’s necessary for the implementation of the plan.”

“The reason why I voted for it,” Department of Natural Resources Chairwoman Laura Thielen had said of the plan, “is it sets in place management steps. And the conditions the board added require the university to move forward with some specific issues that the public raised during the testimony.”

Thielen yesterday referred West Hawaii Today to Conservation and Coastal Lands Administrator Sam Lemmo, who did not respond to a phone message at his office.

Such a hearing, if granted, could delay implementation of the plan for months or years.

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Environet Receives $70M Contract For Ordnance Removal

Another article on the Waikoloa ordnance clean up.  Senator Inouye calls it a “a big win-win”.  The clean up is a good thing. But these lands should not be destroyed and contaminated in the first place.   Why do the politicians continue to support military expansion plans that will result in more contamination and future clean up projects?  If I were cynical, I’d say they were intentionally funding destructive projects to ensure that there will be a need for future clean up projects and the funds that come with it.

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West Hawaii News – Environet Receives $70M Contract For Ordnance Removal

23 Sep 2009

(Media release) – County of Hawai’i Mayor Billy Kenoi announced today that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has awarded a $70 million contract to the Hawai’i-based Environet Inc., to remove unexploded artillery shells and other ordnance from the 100,000-acre former Waikoloa Maneuver Area on the Island of Hawai’i.

The contract will span more than five years, and will involve cleanup of Department of Hawaiian Homelands and Parker Ranch lands in West Hawai’i.

“I am extremely pleased to see this important work move ahead under this contract,” said Kenoi. “It’s represents a significant investment that will make our island safer for residents and visitors, and will provide good jobs for County of Hawai’i residents who will be employed on the project.””I want to thank the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Sen. Daniel K. Inouye for their efforts to bring this project to our island,” Kenoi said.

Environet Inc. is committed to the hiring of Big Island residents, the mayor said. In July 2009, 25 Big Island students graduated from an Unexploded Ordnance Tech I course at the Hawaii Community College in Hilo. These students will be interviewed by Environet as candidates for the cleanup work on the former Waikoloa Maneuver Area.

“I wish to commend the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for working very hard to maximize opportunities for both Hawaii companies and also Big Island residents,” said Inouye. “Cleaning up UXO is important, and the right thing to do. Having Big Island residents employed on the job ensures that it is done with cultural and local sensitivity. It is a big win-win. I look forward to more announcements of additional cleanup efforts on the Big Island.”

The total cleanup of the former Waikoloa Maneuver Area to remove what the military calls Munitions and Explosives of Concern (MEC) is expected to cost more than $600 million. Over the past seven years a total of $82 million has been spent on the cleanup effort, and more than 2,100 munitions or explosives items and 260 tons of military debris were successfully removed.

The announcement of the latest $70 million contract means that work can now continue under a new Small Business, Indefinite Delivery Quantity (IDIQ) contract administered by the Army Corps of Engineers.

The Department of Defense is committed to protecting and improving public health and safety by cleaning up environmental contamination in local communities that served as former military properties, according to the Army Corps. The Corps and its partners are dedicated to reducing risks from Formerly Used Defense Sites (FUDS) to the people and communities of Hawai’i.

The Waikoloa Maneuver project involves more than 100,000 acres on the western side of the Island of Hawai’i, and includes all or parts of the communities of Waikoloa and Waimea.

The U.S. Navy acquired the site area in 1943 for use as a military training camp and artillery range. Portions of the area were used for U.S. Marine Corps maneuvers and intensive live-fire training with hand grenades, 4.2 inch mortar, and 37 mm, 75mm, 105mm, and 155mm high explosive shells.

For more information, call Hunter Bishop, (808) 961-8565.

Source: http://www.bigislandchronicle.com/?p=9221

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$70 million awarded for Waikoloa ordnance cleanup

Source: http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20090923/BREAKING01/90923043/+$70+million+contract+awarded+for+Big+Island+ordnance+removal+

Updated at 9:18 a.m., Wednesday, September 23, 2009

$70 million contract awarded for Big Island ordnance removal

By Jason Armstrong
West Hawaii Today

A Honolulu company will be paid $70 million to remove more unexploded artillery shells, grenades and other World War II ordnance from old training sites near Waimea on the Big Island.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced yesterday that it has hired Environet Inc. to perform the next cleanup phase at the former Waikoloa Maneuver Area.

Honolulu-based Environet will have five years to clear 3,950 acres of private and state-owned property, said Lacey Justinger, spokeswoman for the Corps’ Honolulu Engineer District.

Some 2,500 acres belong to Parker Ranch and are located two miles south of the Waimea-Kohala Airport, she said. The state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands owns the 450-acre balance located about two miles north of the airport, she said.

Parts or all of Waikoloa and Waimea are within the former 123,000-acre, or roughly 200-square-mile, military area used as a live-fire range during World War II.

It’s the nation’s largest “formerly used defense site,” the Corps said in a written statement. Some 40,000 troops, mostly Marines, trained there from 1943 to 1946.

That training left high explosives in a region where between 15,000 and 20,000 people now live, work and attend school, according to the Corps’ Honolulu Engineer District’s Web site.

“Accordingly, Waikoloa’s risk assessment code is ‘1,’ which means it is a high priority for ordnance removal,” the Web site states.

“The Department of Defense is committed to protecting and improving public health and safety by cleaning up environmental contamination in local communities that served as former military properties,” said the Corps’ written statement.

More than 2,100 “munitions and explosives of concern” and 260 tons of military debris have been taken from the area over the past seven years at a cost of $82 million, it said.

In March 2008, the Corps estimated another $680 million will be needed to finish the project.

“Because of the size, complexity and cost of the Waikoloa response, it should be considered a long-term action, potentially spanning more than 50 years,” states an April 2008 “information paper” the Corps’ Honolulu office supplied.

The Corps’ decision to approve the next cleanup phase drew praise from both Big Island Mayor Billy Kenoi and U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye.

The important work “represents a significant investment that will make our island safer for residents and visitors,” Kenoi said.

It also will provide good jobs for Big Islanders, he added.

According to Justinger, Environet is committed to hiring Big Island residents and will interview the 25 people who in July graduated from an unexploded ordnance course offered by Hawaii Community College.

Environet’s desire to hire island residents could not be confirmed, however, because no company official returned a phone message left at its Honolulu headquarters Tuesday.

According to its Web site, Environet has already cleared about 1,322 acres within the former live-fire range. As part of a separate project, it surveyed a 230-acre area to “target items of environmental concern.”

Slightly more than 2,000 total acres have been cleared, according to the Corps.

The Corps’ announcement also quoted Inouye as touting the project’s employment benefits.

“I wish to commend the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for working very hard to maximize opportunities for both Hawaii companies and also Big Island residents,” Inouye was quoted as saying. “Having Big Island residents employed on the job ensures that it is done with cultural and local sensitivity. It is a big win-win.”

Calling the cleanup “the right thing to do,” Inouye said he looks forward to more announcements of ordnance-removal efforts on Hawaii Islan

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British coroner’s jury: DU killed soldier

British coroner’s jury: DU killed soldier

Verdict raises questions for Hawaii soldiers and civilians

By Alan D. Mcnarie
Wednesday, September 23, 2009 2:10 PM HST

As the Nuclear Regulatory Commission considers the army’s plan to leave depleted uranium shell debris in place at Pohakuloa Training Area and Schofield Barracks, it may have some new data from Britain to ponder. A coroner’s jury there has found that a British veteran named Stuart Raymond Dyson died from “colon cancer… caused by or contributed to by his exposure to Depleted Uranium in the 1991 Gulf war.”

Dyson had been healthy before serving in the Gulf. Within three years of his return, however, he developed a “whole range of symptoms” that the coroner’s report said were characteristic of “Gulf War Syndrome.” In 2008 he was diagnosed with colon cancer. He died of the disease within a year.

The “Report on Probability of Causation” that the coroner’s office released on the case noted that while colon cancer is a fairly common disease, deaths from it by persons in Dyson’s age group were only about six per million residents in England and Wales in recent years.

“This is an extremely low rate and so the first conclusion we can draw in Mr. Dyson’s case is that his death from cancer was very rare indeed,” wrote Chris Busby, the Ph.D. researcher who authored the report. Since “There is no report of colon cancer in Mr. Dyson’s parents,” he added, “It follows that we are looking for an aggressive carcinogenic or mutagenic substance to which Mr. Dyson’s colon must have been exposed at some period, maybe 10-20 years before the cancer was clinically evident. Was there such an exposure?”

Busby concluded that the “carcinogenic or mutagenic substance” was depleted uranium that Dyson had been exposed to during the Gulf War.

Faulty modeling?

Busby noted that the British military was basing its claims about the safety of DU on standards of exposure set by The Royal Society, the National Radiological Protection Board and the World Health Organization — but that those standards were all based on “a single risk model.” That model was created by the International Commission on Radiological Protection, which has close ties to the nuclear industry and receives funding from “governments of nuclear nations.”

“This ICRP risk model has been increasingly questioned by a number of organizations in the last 10 years particularly in its seeming inability to predict or explain a wide range of health effects reported following exposures to internal, that is, ingested and inhaled, radioactive material,” Busby noted.

DU is primarily an emitter of alpha radiation: heavy subatomic particles that can’t usually penetrate the skin, but can do enormous damage to cells and DNA if they can get inside the body via the lungs or digestive system.

While the ICRP model might be useful in predicting gamma radiation damage from a nuclear blast, Busby contended, it was not very good for predicting damage from DU in the lungs or digestive system. The difference, he wrote, was that between “warming oneself in front of a fire” and “eating a red hot coal.”

“In an environment where Mr. Dyson was cleaning vehicles and equipment which had been contaminated with DU dust it is inevitable that he will have been contaminated internally both through inhalation and inadvertent ingestion,” Busby contended. And the convoluted surfaces of the intestinal lining, he observed, “would be excellent catchers for such dust particles,” trapping and holding them until they damaged the surrounding DNA enough to trigger cancer.

The report finds another fault with the ICRP model. Other types of radiation, such as gamma waves, can easily penetrate the skin but do less concentrated damage internally. But Busby said higher-density elements absorbed exponentially more gamma rays, so uranium, the heaviest naturally occurring element, could also increase gamma radiation damage by trapping it and releasing the energy in the form of “photoelectrons of various ranges.”

A bit of DU trapped in colon tissue, he calculated, would absorb 201,000 times the background radiation of living tissue, and then release that energy into surrounding cells. As a result, those cells would get the equivalent of 70 years of normal background radiation in a single year, in addition to the damage caused by alpha particles from the uranium itself.

The United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defense produced its own counter-report for the coroner’s inquest. Its author, Ron Brown, who listed himself as Principal Scientist at the “DSTL Environmental Sciences Department, Institute of Naval Medicine,” attacked Busby’s report as “an extreme view of radiation risk held by a very small minority.”

Brown argued that the vast areas of the Middle East battlefields and the “dilution” of DU with battlefield dust and debris made the levels of contamination so low that “there is no current statutory requirement for the implementation of any health protection measure.”

Brown based most of his argument on “accepted” or “legal” standards of radiation exposure — the very standards that Busby attacked as coming from a single unreliable model. But Brown defended the Royal Society’s standards of exposure, for instance, by saying they agreed with “independent studies,” including those by the U.S. Army and the U.S.’s Sandia National Laboratory.

“The scientific consensus is that DU intakes are only likely to be of concern for those in or on vehicles at the time they are struck by DU munitions or for those who enter immediately afterwards to rescue casualties,” Brown concluded.

The jury sided with Busby.

The U.S. Army and the ICRP

In its handling of DU contamination in Hawai’i, the U.S. Army is using some of ICRP-based standards that Busby questioned. In its presentation to the Hawai’i County Council on May 20, 2008, for instance, the Army cited World Health Organization standards to back up its contention that DU at Pohakuloa Training Area presented no immanent threat to public health. It also cited Nuclear Regulator Commission and Environmental Protection Agency guidelines.

“Both the NRC and EPA limits are consistent with the ICRP recommendation of 100 mrem/year to the general public for all controlled sources of ionizing radiation.” wrote Loren Doan U.S. Army Hawaii Garrison’s chief media officer, in an e-mail to Big Island Weekly. But some of the details he gave suggested that the EPA and NRC guidelines were stricter than the IRCP’s.

“The NRC has a 25 mrem/year exposure limit for residual radioactivity under unrestricted release, and the EPA has a 15 mrem/year exposure limit for residual radioactivity for environment cleanup,” he wrote.

Spreading Nano-particles

In addition to the question of what constitutes a dangerous dose of DU, the coroner’s report contradicts the Army’s testimony on another count. In its application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to leave the DU shell fragment contamination on site, the Army asserted that “Available information indicates that depleted uranium metal generally remains in the immediate vicinity where initially deposited with limited migration over the periods that the materials have been present.”

To back up this contention, the Army cited the heaviness of the metal and its propensity for bonding with iron and other minerals in local soils and lavas.

Busby’s report maintained just the opposite.

“On impact, the DU burns to a fine aerosol of ceramic uranium oxide particles of mean diameter from about 1000nm (1I) down to below 100nm,” he wrote. “These particles are long lived in the environment (and in tissue), and can travel significant distances from the point of impact up to thousands of miles (Busby and Morgan 2005). They become resuspended in air, are found in air filters in cars at some distance from the attacks, and of course are respirable. Because their diameters are so small, below 1000nm, they are able to pass through the lung into the lymphatic system and in principle can lodge anywhere in the body.”

Different rounds, different threat levels?

Of course, there are some major differences between the radiation exposure a soldier like Dyson might receive and what civilians might get from the old shell casings at Pohakuloa. In the Gulf War, for instance, the U.S. and Britain fired off hundreds of tons of DU in the form of anti-tank shells and bunker-busting bombs. Anti-tank shells work by spewing a fountain of white-hot, liquefied, burning DU that literally melts its way through armor, creating Busby’s “fine aerosol of ceramic uranium oxide particles.” DU burns at about 600 degrees Fahrenheit, producing the DU-oxide particles that Busby believes are so dangerous.

According to the U.S. Army, the rounds fired at Schofield Barracks and Pohakuloa were not armor-piercing rounds, but spotter rounds for a weapon called the Davy Crockett: a Cold War-era cannon that fired small nuclear bombs. The spotter rounds were not bombs: they struck the target area and marked their point of impact with a plume of smoke.

Doan thinks that the Davy Crockett rounds are unlikely to create the ceramic DU nano-particles that the armor-piercing shells produce.

“The Davy Crockett does not work the same way [as armor-piercing rounds]. The type of metal that comes off of it is larger chunks,” he told Big Island Weekly. But when we asked him if the smoke-producing incendiaries in the spotter rounds reached 600 degrees, he said he didn’t know.

But if Busby and the sources he cites are right, then DU could have potentially profound health effects for thousands of current and former army personnel based in Hawai’i.

According to Doan, all U.S. military personal returning to Hawai’i from Iraq an Afghanistan undergo health assessments that include “evaluations of potential exposures to DU.” However, if those assessments are based on the ICRP recommendations, they may be inadequate.

Back in 2006, a bill was introduced that would make funds available to test for DU in Hawai’i National Guard members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. That bill is still languishing; the current legislature has put off action on it until 2010. The Dyson case may provide a new incentive for that bill’s passage.

Source: http://www.bigislandweekly.com/articles/2009/09/23/read/news/news02.txt

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