[CPEO-MEF] MUNITIONS: "Munitions search off Makua Beach [Oahu, HI] raises concern over ordnance disposal"

[Lenny Siegel]

Munitions search off Makua Beach raises concern over ordnance disposal

By Jim Mendoza
Hawaii News Now
April 5 2018

MAKUA BEACH, OAHU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Beginning next week, unexploded ordnance experts will use underwater metal detectors to search for military munitions off Makua Beach, focusing on a 22-acre area.

"It's about the length of two football fields and the depth of one football field," said Col. Steve Dawson, of U.S. Army Garrison Hawaii.

The search zone surrounds a spot where ordnance was found in June 2016. A recreational diver spotted a World War II artillery round wedged in the coral. The Navy detonated it in the ocean.

This time, if munitions are discovered, they'll likely be destroyed on shore.

"if we detonate the ordnance on land it will be done in an extremely safe manner," Dawson said. "The unexploded ordnance experts will build a very large sandbag enclosure around the ordnance before detonating it."

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For the entire article, see
http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/37883749/munitions-search-off-makua-beach-raises-concern-over-ordnance-disposal

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Lenny Siegel
Executive Director
Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
P.O. Box 998, Mountain View, CA 94042
Voice/Fax: 650/961-8918 
<lsiegel at cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org