Waikane cleanup
briefing set
Engineers will discuss the
planned removal of old ordnance
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will brief Windward Oahu residents tonight on a proposal to clean up ordnance on 874 acres in Waikane Valley used for jungle training from 1942 to 1976.
The proposal does not include the 187 acres in Waikane Valley that the Marines in November labeled as unsafe to use as a training area because there were too many unexploded devices. It has since fenced that area.
The Marines' decision followed a 16-month-long environmental assessment and a staff study that concluded there was too much unexploded ordnance in the valley. The last time Waikane was used as a live-fire range was in 1976.
The Army Corps of Engineers' briefing on the possible cleanup will begin at 6 tonight at Waiahole Elementary School at 48-215 Waiahole Valley Road.
Chuck Streck, project manager, said ZapataEngineering will conduct the $1 million engineering evaluation and cost-analysis study. He estimated that it will take at least a year to complete the study, with about three or four months of field work to evaluate potential risks from any munitions and to develop alternative plans to address the problem.
He said the land is owned by Waikane Development Co., the state, city and several small property owners.
The Army engineers also will ask the Windward Oahu community to see whether a restoration advisory board should be established for this project, Streck said.
"The advisory board will be community-focused, and its No. 1 priority is to have people from the community who have direct interest in the project," he said.
He said most of the Waikane training area is undeveloped. It is covered with dense vegetation with gulches and steep slopes of the Koolau Mountain range.
The Army in 1942 obtained a lease from Lincoln L. McCandless heirs and the Waiahole Water Co. to use 1,061 acres in Waikane for warfare training.
In 1953, the Army turned the range over to the Marine Corps. It was used as a training area and a bombing and firing range for artillery units from 1942 to 1976. Army engineers have estimated that since the lease was terminated in 1976, more than 40,000 pounds of practice ordnance and scrap have been removed from the area.
The Marines said two major sweeps of their portion of the valley recovered 24,000 pounds of ordnance debris in 1976 and 16,000 pounds in 1983. Marine Corps training there included the use of rockets, mortars and hand grenades.
Windward Oahu residents have long advocated a cleanup of the area by the military, especially after the Marines abandoned its plan to use part of it for jungle training.
Last year, when Arthur Machado was chairman of the Kahaluu Neighborhood Board, he said a majority of board members believed the Marines should clean up the valley.
www.poh.usace.army.mil
