The Army will begin a $1.2 million yearlong study to try to determine the long-term effects of the dumping of 2,000 World War II-era conventional weapons on the sediment, shellfish, limu and fish near Ordnance Reef in Waianae.

Tad Davis, the Army's deputy assistant secretary for the environment, safety and occupational health, met with members of the Waianae and Nanakuli neighborhood boards last night to brief them on the continuing Pentagon program to track and rid the ocean of unexploded conventional ordnance. The term conventional refers to munitions that are not nuclear, biological or chemical.

At the same time, the Army will spend an additional $3 million to look at the different technologies to remove ordnance from the ocean bottom and coral heads in the area.

“;The goal,”; Davis told reporters, “;is to clear the water from the shoreline to 120 feet.”;

The Army, working with University of Hawaii and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists, hopes to remove or destroy in place up to 1,500 conventional munitions near Pokai Bay, using remote underwater drones and other robotic techniques perfected by oil companies. The weapons range from .50-caliber or smaller ammunition to 50- to 100-pound bombs and 105 mm projectiles.

“;I have stressed to the community,”; Davis said, “;that I have a high level of confidence that none of the weapons in the area are armed or fused because they were disposed of by being dropped over the side of a vessel.”;

  Early next year at a different location, the Army will again work with the UH oceanographic department using its two submersibles to get a better idea of where the military dumped nearly 600 tons of chemical weapons five miles south of Pearl Harbor in 1944.

He described the job, which will probably use the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory submersibles Pisces IV and V, as “;the most comprehensible effort to date to address this issue.”;

The Army has said 16,000 M47A2 bombs containing 598 tons of mustard gas were dumped in the area around Oct. 1, 1944. Each chemical bomb weighs 100 pounds and is nearly 32 inches long. The practice of ocean dumping was banned in 1972.

Chemical weapons were also reported at two other locations:

» The largest amount of chemical weapons believed to have been dumped in island waters is in an area 10 miles west of the Waianae Coast. The Army believes that 2,000 tons of lewisite, mustard, hydrogen cyanide and cyanogen chloride were discarded in this area.

Two buoys will be placed in the waters near the Waianae dumpsite by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to study currents, temperature and other ocean conditions in the area to determine how the chemicals would be dispersed in the event any of the casings are damaged.

» An additional 19 tons of mustard gas encased in 100-pound bombs and 155 mm and 75 mm projectiles was discarded 10 miles south of Pearl Harbor between 1932 and 1944.