The Environmental Protection Agency and Del Monte Fresh Produce are proposing to spend $12.9 million to clean ground water in Kunia that's contaminated with agricultural chemicals believed to be cancer-causing. EPA, Del Monte plan
Kunia water cleanupBy Diana Leone
dleone@starbulletinThe pineapple grower and the federal agency were to explain cleanup plans at a public meeting in Wahiawa Wednesday night and will accept comments from the public on their proposal until April 18.
Unless public comment suggests significant changes, the project could be finalized this fall and be designed and built in the winter, Janet Rosati, EPA remedial project manager, said yesterday.
Del Monte will bear the cost of the cleanup, while the EPA will monitor its results.
Contamination of ground water was detected in 1980, three years after nearly 500 gallons of pesticides were spilled near the Kunia Camp Well in the Kunia Village area.
Since 1980, the Kunia well has been disconnected from Kunia Village's drinking water supply and there has never been an "imminent threat" to public health, Rosati said.
EPA wants the water cleaned to drinking water standards to erase the possibility of future contamination of drinking water supplies, if the contamination should migrate from an upper, "perched" aquifer to the larger, basal aquifer over time.
The basal aquifer is where drinking water is drawn.
Currently the nearest functioning drinking water well is 4 1/2 miles away and there is no detection of contaminants above drinking water standards there, Rosati said.
The contaminants of concern are ethylene dibromide, 1,2-dibromo-3-chloropropane, 1,2,3-trichlororpropane, and 1,2- dichloropropane. The pesticides were legal at the time, but have since been banned because of concern that they could cause cancer, Rosati said.
A key portion of the treatment plan includes an innovative "phytoremediation" technique. It uses haole koa trees in special lined planter boxes to clean the pesticides from the water.
Del Monte has been testing the process since 1998 and is very pleased with how effective it is, said Calvin Oda, Del Monte's senior director for pineapple research.
In addition to the phytoremediation, activated carbon filters will be used to clean any gases migrating out of the contaminated soil.
The EPA's full remediation plan is available at the Wahiawa Public Library, 820 California Ave. Written comments will be accepted until April 18. They can be mailed to Janet Rosati, US EPA Region 9 (SFD-8-2), 75 Hawthorne St., San Francisco, CA 94105; faxed to 415-947-3526 or e-mailed to rosati.janet@ epa.gov.
Environmental Protection Agency