Honolulu Harbor
oil tests don’t have
full picture yet

Final cleanup costs could
reach tens of millions of dollars

---

By Diana Leone
dleone@starbulletin.com

Two months of sampling the soil and water of Iwilei has yielded more evidence of petroleum contamination, but the full picture of how much is there and how best to get it out won't be clear until early next year.

Mike Pitta, spokesman for Honolulu Harbor Participating Parties, had that assessment yesterday and said the projected cost of the cleanup won't be available until then either.

The final cleanup cost "could be certainly in the tens of millions or even higher than that," and could take up to 10 years, state Health Director Bruce Anderson said Sept. 5 when the work began.

Since then, crews have taken more than 400 soil samples and 100 water samples between Nuuanu Stream and Kapalama Canal, makai of Nimitz Highway.

Work that will continue in the next few months will test more sites mauka of Nimitz, Pitta said.

"Until we summarize it all, I can't give you an idea yet about what's out there and the possible remedy," he said.

Pitta is project manager for 12 companies who are cooperating in the cleanup: BHP, Castle & Cooke, Chevron, City Mill Co., DIL Trust, the state Harbors Division, Hawaiian Electric Co., Phillips Petroleum, Equilon Enterprises, Texaco, Tosco and Unocal.

Officials have said the redevelopment of Honolulu Harbor depends on getting rid of the underground oil, which seeped out of underground pipelines over the past 100 years.

Visible sheens on the harbor water have not been seen since the work began, Pitta said. But removal of the underground oil and other petroleum products will be required by the Environmental Protection Agency, which is overseeing the work.

Gary Gill, deputy director of environmental health, has said that most marine creatures can tolerate some oil in seawater, as long as it's less than the amount that creates a sheen on the water.