Campbell businesses
By Christine Donnelly
focused on Y2K bug,
survey shows
Star-Bulletin
Residential neighbors of Campbell Industrial Park were reassured that potential air polluters there are working to prevent Y2K-related accidents.
"We've been told the companies are being very responsible," said Maeda Timson, chairwoman of the Makakilo-Kapolei-Honokai Hale Neighborhood Board. "The reaction from the board was a sigh of relief."
The board got the positive assessment from air quality scientist Helen Mary Wessel who, at its request, surveyed Y2K-related air pollution risks of 28 of the roughly 140 businesses at the complex.
Wessel, the state Health Department's compliance coordinator for the industrial park, limited her survey to businesses with state air quality permits, figuring they were most likely to have accidental toxic emissions if the so-called Y2K-bug struck.
Of the 28 companies, she found seven had computer equipment related to air-quality control that was susceptible to the bug. But all seven were working on their problems and expected them to be fixed "well before" the end of the year, Wessel said.
The Y2K or millennium bug stems from the inability of some older computers to decipher data dated the year 2000. Countries worldwide are spending billions of dollars to correct that.
