Officials delayed State and federal officials have discussed for more than three years the need to make an environmental assessment of the site where Aiea children found mercury.
Halawa cleanup
The site where kids found
By Mary Adamski
mercury was to have had
an environmental survey
Star BulletinThe land occupied by an abandoned pump house and warehouse was transferred to the state in 1962 and conveyed to the state Department of Defense earlier this year, a step in a land swap. The Navy wants the small parcel back, and the state wants adjoining Richardson Field land for the planned Oahu Veteran Center.
State Department of Land and Natural Resources documents chronicle unresolved discussions about doing an environmental sweep of the site.
A November 1997 memorandum signed by then deputy director now land board chairman Gilbert Coloma-Agaran said: "To identify the type and quantity of any hazardous substance ... the state hereby agrees to undertake at its own cost 'environmental baseline surveys.' The purpose is to determine whether any remedial actions are required to make the parcels suitable for the intended use and to protect human health and the environment."
A February 1999 document said: "Because the cost of clearing and cleaning the parcel is almost equal to the value of the land, and negates any value for exchange, the (Oahu Veterans) Council and the state have been reluctant to expend its limited funds for this purpose, and requested consideration of the Navy to accept the land in exchange as is." Walter Ozawa of the Office of Veterans Services signed the report.Carroll Cox, president of EnviroWatch, a nonprofit watchdog group, who researched Department of Land and Natural Resources records, said there was no indication that anyone realized the mercury contamination. But he faulted the state for failing to find that out years ago.
"I'm not speaking in a sense of criminal breach of public welfare, but this is another example of the state reacting instead of doing the prevention," Carroll said.
The state Department of Health and contractor Pacific Environmental Corp. are in Day 5 of the cleanup made necessary because Aiea children found the mercury and carried an undetermined amount home to Puuwai Momi housing.
About half of the 1,100 residents of the public housing complex have been unable to return home while the grounds and apartments are swept for traces of mercury.People who were home when the quarantine was imposed Monday were allowed to stay.
The tedious process of removing flecks of mercury from apartments was to be sped up today with the arrival of a federal Environmental Protection Agency emergency response team.
Officials said yesterday that the equipment now in use is battery-operated, and half of the machines are down for recharging at any given time.
Some 107 apartments were found clear of the potentially toxic liquid metal. Thirty units were contaminated, and 12 of those had been swept clean by last night.
About half of the 260 units have not yet been examined, which may mean several more days before residents can reoccupy them.
State Health Director Bruce Anderson led a media tour of the Halawa housing yesterday.
At one spot, a technician ground away at the rough cement sidewalk with a wire brush, loosening mercury specks.
Several hours of time had been spent at the area that officials labeled a "hot spot," where children had played with and spilled the liquid.
Deputy Health Director Gary Gill said there is no way to estimate the ultimate cost in the housing cleanup, but he expected it to be "in the hundreds of thousands of dollars."
As for the source of the mercury, an 8-foot fence topped with barbed wire is being constructed around the pump house, located in a shady glen near Pearl Harbor.
National Guard Lt. Gen. Edward Correa said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had planned to clear it in the agreement worked out between state and federal agencies.
"That was before this occurred. I don't know what will happen now," he said.