Army seeks regulatory exemption for DU in Hawaiʻi as Hawaiʻi Doctors find uranium in people’s urine

Post Date December 26, 2012

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Author Laurel Mei-Singh

Category Depleted Uranium

Hawaiʻi island peace activists reported that elevated levels of uranium have been found in residents’ urine and demanded that the State of Hawaiʻi Department of Health take more aggressive measures to investigate the cause of this contamination. After falsely claiming that the Army had not used Depleted Uranium (DU) in Hawaiʻi, the Army now admits to DU contamination in Schofield (Līhuʻe, Oʻahu) and Pōhakuloa Training Area. The Hawaiʻi County Council passed a resolution calling for a moratorium on live fire training in Pōhakuloa as long as DU contamination is present.

On December 5, 2012, the peace organization Malu ʻĀina staged an action at the state Department of Health offices:

A group of 2 dozen Big island residents, many wearing Hazmat type suits, dramatically urged the State Health Department (DOH) to stop being bystanders and become pro-active advocates of public health over the issue of Military Depleted Uranium (DU) radiation contamination at the Pohakuloa Training Area (PTA). In a protest organized by Malu ‘Aina at the Hilo DOH Environmental Health Office, citizens prodded the DOH to follow the Hawaii County Council’s action call in Resolution 639-08 to stop all live-fire and other activities that create dust until there is a clean up of the uranium contamination at PTA. There were several signs with the well known radiation symbol. Other signs read “Test For Radiation; Why Uranium in Urine?; No More Radiation; Peace thru Poison?, Time to Aloha ‘Aina; Time to Mother Earth; DU equals Dirty Bomb, Sacred Mountains under Siege.” There was even the appearance of a well known Hilo resident, playing the role of Governor Neil Abercrombie.

Jim Albertini, of Malu ‘Aina said “DOH action is needed to investigate what’s causing uranium showing up in Big island resident’s urine. Is it uranium weapons that have been fired at PTA or something else? Three MDs and a Naturopathic doctor have patients who have tested high for uranium in urine, including levels exceeding three times the upper expected limit.” Albertini said, “it’s likely that far more uranium weapons have been used at PTA than the 700 hundred or two thousand Davy Crockett DU spotting rounds from the 1960s. Comprehensive independent testing and monitoring is needed to determine the full extent of radiation contamination at PTA and other sites throughout Hawaii. The DOH should be offering free uranium urine tests for Big Island residents, especially people who work at PTA, or travel the Saddle Rd..”

On December 12, 2012, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) held a conference with the Army over the Army’s application for a license to “possess” DU at Schofield and Pōhakuloa. In a submittal to the NRC, the Army requested an exemption from NRC oversight for the DU contamination in its ranges:

Request an exemption for the US Army from licensing residual Davy Crockett M101 DU on its operational ranges under the provisions of 10 CFR § 40.13(c)(5) or 10 CFR § 40.14(a).

Hawaiʻi island activist Jim Albertini issued the following statement on the NRC meeting with the Army (12/12/2012, 10 am – 1 pm HST). The public could listen in and make comments/ask questions at the end of the meeting:

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) will be issuing a license for the mongoose to guard the hen house in Hawaii. The Army will be issued an NRC license to possess Depleted uranium (DU) in Hawaii at Schofield Barracks and the Pohakuloa Training Area (PTA). In effect, the NRC is licensing Hawaii nuclear waste dumps and allowing those dumps to be bombed, spreading the nuclear dump debris wherever the wind takes it. The State Dept. of Health made no comment, nor did it ask any questions, following the meeting. It is a fact that DU exists at Schofield Barracks and PTA, and perhaps other present and former military sites in Hawaii, including Kaho’olawe and Makua Valley. How much is not known. A minimum of 700, perhaps more than 2000, DU Davy Crockett spotting rounds have been fired at Pohakuloa. Less than 1% of PTA’s 133,000-acres have been surveyed. DU cluster bombs, and more than a dozen DU penetrating rounds, DU bunker busters, etc. may also have been fired at PTA and elsewhere. All branches of the US military use DU weapons today. It’s clear to me that we cannot rely on so called regulators to fix the problem. Nuclear regulators are just as much part of the problem as bank regulators. The DOH is also part of the problem. Where have our health officials been all these years on the issue. The military in Hawaii has lied and use deception repeatedly. The US military mission goes before concern for the health and safety of its own troops and Hawaii’s people and land. Uranium is now showing up in Big Island residents’ urine. Is it related to PTA, Fukushima or what? The people have a right to know. Is the military above the law? What’s needed is a peoples’ movement of non-violent resistance to stop the bombing to protect the people and land of Hawaii against attacks by the U.S. military.

Jim Albertini Malu ‘Aina Center For Non-violent Education & Action P.O.
Box AB Ola’a (Kurtistown) Hawai’i 96760 Phone 808-966-7622 Email
ja@malu-aina.org www.malu-aina.org

Hawai'i island residents blast Army expansion at Pohakuloa

Post Date November 10, 2011

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Author Laurel Mei-Singh

Category Depleted Uranium, DMZ-Hawai'i / Aloha 'Aina In the News, Hawaiian Sovereignty, Land, Culture & Human Rights, Projects and Campaigns

The Hawaii Tribune Herald reports that more than fifty people turned out to testify against the Army’s proposed expansion of training facilities at Pohakuloa.

“We don’t want any further militarization of our island,” Bunny Smith said.

According the Hawaii Tribune Herald,

The next step is to come up with the (cost) numbers to construct,” Egami said of the modernization of training infrastructure and the construction and operation of a battle area within the 132,000-acre military facility.

Meeting the 25th Infantry Division’s training requirements will necessitate constructing a 200-acre Infantry Platoon Battle Area, according to the DEIS. Included will be a simulated battle course consisting of a live-fire shoothouse and a building like those found in urban warfare.

Also, the Army wants to construct various buildings for munitions storage, vehicle maintenance and administrative use. Those and related facilities would be built outside the 200-acre battle area.

Testimony was colorful and passionate:

Hawaii needs “houses of justice and peace” rather than military shoothouses, said peace activist Jim Albertini of the Malu ‘Aina Center for Nonviolent Education and Action.

“We want the U.S. to stop bombing Hawaii,” he said.

In directly addressing Army Col. Douglas Mulbury, commander of the Army Garrison Hawaii, Moanikeala Akaka said the military will have to pay tens of millions of dollars to remove World War II-era bombs like one found recently at Hapuna Beach State Park.

“You know, it’s hard to have respect for your institution when you ignore and so callously treat our homeland,” she said.

“We say no expansion; do it somewhere else,” Akaka shouted, generating applause from the audience.

Claiming the military is in Hawaii illegally, Cory Harden of the Sierra Club questioned whether the firing will dislodge depleted uranium found at PTA, triggering fires like those that have occurred at the Army’s Makua site on Oahu, or pose other public health risks.

“You’ve got to wonder what hazards are lurking out there. Apparently, nobody knows,” she said.

More on military expansion on Pohakuloa

Post Date January 26, 2011

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Author Laurel Mei-Singh

Category 'A'ole Stryker, Depleted Uranium, DMZ-Hawai'i / Aloha 'Aina In the News, Environmental Impacts, Hawaiian Sovereignty, Land, Culture & Human Rights

The full extent of military expansion at Pohakuloa is only becoming more evident.

The Army website for the Pohakuloa Training Areas Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement can be accessed here. Written comments on the proposed action and alternatives will be accepted via e-mail (ptapeis@bah.com) and U.S. mail until February 7, 2011 to: PTA PEIS, P.O. Box 514, Honolulu, HI 96809. Materials from the scoping meetings will be made available on the “Project Documents” page.

Yesterday, I learned that people witnessed construction activity up on the slopes of Mauna Loa. The activity was so high on the mountain that the observer thought it surely must be outside the boundary of the Pohakuloa Training Area. Later, they saw explosions near the site from aircraft and land based artillery fire.

We have confirmed that the construction companies were building ‘targets’. Julie Taomia, an archaeologist at Pohakuloa said that the activity is most likely related to Marine Corps projects. She said that the Pohakuloa Training Area extends pretty far up Mauna Loa, beyond the old Hilo-Kona Road. She said that the Marines did an Environmental Assessment (EA) for this range construction work. However, since this was done as an EA, as opposed to a full Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), it slipped past the notice of most people. Furthermore, since this is a Marine Corps project, she said that cultural monitors, which are required under the Army Stryker Brigade programmatic agreement, are not required to oversee ground disturbing activity, which is just a way for the Army to avoid responsibility for the impacts on an Army range. This loophole must be closed. The Marine Corps expansion contributes tot he cumulative impacts of military activity. There should be way to conduct cultural and environmental monitoring for all activity related to the installation regardless of which service branch is doing the project.

In addition to this current Marine Corps expansion activity, the Marines are expanding training in Pohakuloa to accommodate the new aircraft scheduled to be stationed at Mokapu (a.k.a. the Marine Corps Base Kane’ohe). I missed the following article in the Big Island Weekly when it came out in September.

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http://www.bigislandweekly.com/articles/2010/09/01/read/news/news02.txt

The Marines are landing on the island

New squadrons may be using Pohakuloa for future training and gunnery exercises

By Alan D. Mcnarie

Wednesday, September 1, 2010 9:50 AM HST

The United States military is planning yet another expansion entailing increased use of Pohakuloa Training Area. The Marine Corps wants to move up to three additional squadrons of aircraft to the islands, including 9 UH-1Y Huey and 18 AH-1Z Cobra helicopters and 24 of its controversial MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft.

The Marines held “scoping meetings” for an Environmental Impact Statement on the proposed expansion last week in Hilo and Kona. The meetings followed an “open house” format: instead of allowing public testimony before an open mic, the meeting’s organizers set up various visual displays manned by experts to answer questions, and allowed members of the public to present written testimony or dictate their input to a court reporter. But a group of protestors led by Malu Aina’s Jim Albertini brought their own microphone system to the Hilo meeting to voice their objections to the plan, including concerns that increased use of PTA’s firing range could stir up depleted uranium dust there and that the Ospreys, which have a less-than-perfect safety record, could present dangers to servicemen and to the community.

The move would essentially allow an entire Marine Air-Ground Task Force to operate out of Kaneohe Marine Air Base. Most of the components of such a task force, including command and ground elements and CH-53D “Sea Stallion” heavy-lift helicopters, are already in place here. The proposed move would allow medium-lift and assault helicopters needed by the MAGTF to train alongside the other elements of the force.

Although the new aircraft would be based on O’ahu, their presence would be felt across the island chain. The plan calls for training, including gunnery exercises, at Pohakuloa; for refueling facilities and night exercises at Molokai Training Support Facility and Kalaupapa Airfield, respectively; for additional activities at the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai, and possibly for target practice on an islet called Kau’ula Rock, near Ni’ihau.

Perhaps the plan’s most controversial element is the Osprey, a hybrid aircraft with stubby wings that end in two giant propellers that can lift the craft like a helicopter, then rotate to pull the machine forward like an airplane. The Marines want Ospreys to replace their aging C-46 “Sea Knight” medium-lift choppers, which have only about half the Ospreys’ range and speed.

“It’s much more capable (than the C-46) and it’s faster – and faster, for the Marines, is safer,” said a Marine spokesperson at the scoping meeting.

But the Osprey has a troubled history. Based on an experimental craft that gained Bell Helicopter and Boeing a joint government contract in 1983, first flown in 1989, Ospreys remained in development for the next 15 years; along the way, it compiled a long record of cost overruns, mechanical failures and crashes, killing 30 people before the first operational Marine squadron began training in 2005.

“The mishaps that we had in the 90s and in 2000 [when two Ospreys crashed, killing 23 people] were tragic,” said Jason Holder, one of the Marines’ authorities at the scoping meeting in Hilo. But he said that since those incidents, the Marines had brought in “outside experts” to fix the problems that no crashes had occurred in over 80,000 flight hours since 2002.

That statement wasn’t entirely accurate. An Osprey went down under combat conditions in Afghanistan in April of 2010. But that accident occurred during a dust storm and may have been influenced by weather, pilot error or even enemy action. Due to an electronic malfunction, another Osprey took off without a pilot and made a rather unsuccessful landing.

The Ospreys have had enough other problems that the U.S. General Accounting Office recommended last year the Secretary of Defense require a new analysis of alternatives to the aircraft, and that the Marines develop “a prioritized strategy to improve system suitability, reduce operational costs, and align future budget requests.”

“Although recently deployed in Iraq and regarded favorably, it has not performed the full range of missions anticipated, and how well it can do so is in question,” the GAO Web site (http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-09-692T) summarized.

At the Hilo meeting, the Sierra Club’s Cory Harden provided a long list of media references about various problems with the Ospreys, including the aircraft’s inability to glide to an unpowered landing, as helicopters can, and a downwash from its rotors that can be so powerful that during a demonstration at Staten Island, New York, it knocked down tree branches and injured 10 spectators.

In light of such problems, Harden asked that the EIS “evaluate the risks of Ospreys harming military personnel and civilians” in Hawai’i.

Another major concern voiced at the meeting was the continued presence of depleted uranium at Pohakuloa and the risk that increased use of the facility’s target range might have of stirring up radioactive dust. The military has maintained that the number of DU shells fired there, and the risk of the dust leaving the area, were both minimal, while critics claim that thousands of uranium spotter rounds may have been fired, that the dust could spread for miles, and that even a few molecules in the lungs could cause cancer. Albertini pointed out that a County Council resolution had called for a moratorium on any live fire exercises at PTA until an independent assessment and cleanup of the DU there had taken place.

The deployment of the new Marine Aircraft would almost certainly mean more use of PTA’s firing range. The Osprey’s notorious downwash could certainly stir up dust. But while it can mount an optional belly or ramp gun, it is primarily a transport, not a gun platform. A much bigger user of the firing range would likely be the Marines’ venerable Cobras, which have been blasting enemy targets with gunfire and Hellfire missiles since the Vietnam era. Jim Isaacs, another Marine expert running one of the information stations at the Hilo meeting, noted that with the Cobras, “sixty percent of events are ordnance related.” He noted, however, that the Marines’ Cobras did not fire any ordnance containing DU.

The new aircraft probably would create some jobs in the islands – especially construction jobs. Ironically, despite the choppers’ and Ospreys’ go-anywhere mission, one big ticket item involved in moving them here could be the construction of new landing pads at Schofield and elsewhere. Marine spokesperson James Sibley told the Weekly that while there were “no plans” currently for new helipads at Pohakuloa, “Right now PTA can barely support the operators of the helicopters that we have here”: that downwash could potentially lift the existing runway’s steel mesh material, causing damage.

Despite their obvious differences, the Marines joined the protestors in an opening pule, or Hawaiian prayer. A court reporter typed continuously during the protestor’s testimony, apparently taking it down.

Members of the public who missed the meetings are encouraged to visit the project’s website, http://www.mcbh.usmc.mil/22h1eis to submit online testimony, or to mail comments to Department of the Navy, Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Pacific, Attn: EV21, MV 22/H-1 EIS Manager, Makalapa Drive, Suite 100, Pearl Harbor, HI 96860-3134.

Stryker brigade snag

Post Date November 10, 2010

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Author Laurel Mei-Singh

Category 'A'ole Stryker, Depleted Uranium, DMZ-Hawai'i / Aloha 'Aina In the News, Ho’ola Hawai’i – Environmental Justice

Kudos to Joan Conrow for monitoring the depleted uranium (DU) issue at Schofield Barracks and writing a great article in the Honolulu Weekly. The Army tried to move ahead with construction plans for the Stryker Brigade expansion in an area contaminated with DU. But the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) must approve all activity by the Army involving radiological materials like DU. The Army only applied for a permit to “possess” DU, arguing that it intended to leave the material in place and not disturb it by any activities. But recently, the Army planned to burn grass and begin construction in a contaminated area, which would constitute a removal or clean up action, something not allowed under the Army’s requested permit. As Conrow reports, the NRC “snapped”. This may delay the Army’s plans. Furthermore, it reveals the dishonesty of the Army in its handling of contamination and cultural issues.

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Stryker brigade snag

In tense meeting, regulators snap over depleted uranium

Joan Conrow | Nov 3, 2010

Stryker / Plans to construct a Stryker Brigade training area at Schofield Barracks ran afoul of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) because the Army has no license to handle the toxic depleted uranium there.

This was underscored during the Army Corps of Engineers’ Oct. 29 informational briefing to the NRC in Washington, DC. (This reporter attended the meeting via conference call.)

The Corps had planned to begin the $80 million construction project this week with a controlled burn at the range. Instead, NRC staff warned the Corps that it risked sanctions if it proceeded because it has no license to possess, decommission or transport radioactive depleted uranium at Schofield.

Depleted uranium from weapons likely used in training between 1962 and 1968 was discovered at Schofield Barracks in August 2005, according to information available at the NRC’s website.

“I’m putting you on notice that this could constitute potential deliberate violations of NRC regulations,” NRC attorney Brett Klukan told Hans Honerlah, chief of the Corps’ Radiation Safety Office. “We don’t approve of what you’re doing right now. There needs to be a review and approval of what you do. You are outside the process.”

It was also disclosed at the briefing that the Army conducted an unauthorized cleanup of soil contaminated by depleted uranium at Schofield in 2008. Some of that material was already transported out of the state and some remains stored in Hawaii awaiting shipment.

“Under what legal authority did you remove this DU?” Klukan asked Honerlah.

“It was an Army call,” Honerlah said. “We had the choice of leaving it there or properly disposing of it, so we disposed of it.”

“So you didn’t really do that analysis to see if you had legal authority to dispose or transport this material,” Klukan pressed.

Honerlah said the cleanup work was done under the license of the Army’s contractor, Cabrera Services. But NRC staff said the Army, as the owner of the radioactive material, must hold the license.

“This shows the Army has been playing fast and loose with the rules,” said Kyle Kajihiro of Demilitarize Hawaii. “That’s what we’ve found all along. They’ve given misinformation to the public and to the regulators. That’s why we can’t trust that they [the Army] will do the right thing by the community.”

The NRC said it would investigate the 2008 clean up as part of its ongoing review of whether enforcement actions should be taken against the Army for unlicensed activities involving depleted uranium dating back to the 1960s.

The dense, toxic material served as ballast in the M101 “spotting rounds” used in Hawaii and elsewhere for training in conjunction with the Davy Crockett recoilless gun, one of the smallest nuclear weapons ever built.

The Army has applied to the NRC for a license to possess 17,600 pounds of depleted uranium at its American installations, including Schofield and Pohakuloa Training Area on Hawaii Island. But Klukan said the application was for possession only.

“We were never made aware the Army intended to pursue decommission,” he said, adding that the NRC had advised the Army that areas with depleted uranium should not be disturbed.

Klukan said the Army must either amend its application or seek a separate license to conduct the decommissioning work.

Klukan also rapped the Corps for attempting to proceed with the Stryker construction project without first running its plans by the NRC.

“Where did you get the authority to think the NRC wouldn’t need to review the remediation plans?” Klukan asked.

“We didn’t think it was decommissioning,” Honerlah replied. “We thought it was just cleaning up the area to make it safe for construction.”

NRC staff said it typically takes the agency a year to review technical plans.

“Usually an applicant gives us notice of an activity of such magnitude so we can rally resources,” Klukan said. “You guys want to start next week.”

Honerlah said all the plans have been completed in draft form, but only half have been finalized.

“Do we have to notify them [NRC] and get approval of all our activities?” asked a Cabrera staff member of his attorney during a break in the proceedings. The attorney, apparently unaware that his voice was not muted on the conference call, replied: “I guess that depends on how they interpret what we’re doing.”

Klukan also noted that the Army claimed in its application that it did not know how much depleted uranium it actually possesses because it could not conduct a full survey of its ranges.

“But now we’re finding in an area where you want to do a full survey, you can. I’m highly concerned about that. So it is possible to clean up the unexploded ordnance, which we were told was not possible.”

“Anything’s possible,” Honerlah said. “It’s a question of cost.”

Honerlah said he would need to talk to his supervisors about how the NRC’s stance would affect the construction schedule, although he did note “it could take years” to complete the agency’s review process.

Kajihiro said he hoped the delay would support efforts to gain protection for archaeological sites and burials that would be impacted by construction.

Army invited to PUBLIC community forum on Depleted Uranium Monday Aug. 30th in Keaau

Post Date August 14, 2010

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Author Laurel Mei-Singh

Category Depleted Uranium, DMZ-Hawai'i / Aloha 'Aina In the News, Ho’ola Hawai’i – Environmental Justice

Aug 14, 2010

Press Release:

Army invited to PUBLIC community forum on Depleted Uranium Monday Aug. 30th in Keaau

further contact: Jim Albertini 966-7622 ja@interpac.net

Below is a copy of a letter of invitation mailed today to Pohakuloa Commander Lt. Col. Rolland C. Niles from Malu ‘Aina.

Email versions were sent to Celso Tadeo at Pohakuloa (celso.tadeo@us.army.mil) and Mike Egami, Army Public Affairs officer on Oahu (Mike.Egami@us.army.mil) with a request that the invitation be extended up the chain of command to Col. Douglas S. Mulbury. Commander, US Army Garrison – Hawaii. The Aug. 30th DU forum will go on whether or not the Army accepts Malu ‘Aina’s invitation to participate. “The Army promised transparency. We’re still waiting,” said Jim Albertini.

Malu ‘Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action

P.O. Box AB Ola’a (Kurtistown), Hawai`i 96760

Phone 808-966-7622 email ja@interpac.net

Visit us on the web at www.malu-aina.org

+++

August 14, 2010

Lieutenant Colonel Rolland C. Niles

Commander, US Army Garrison – Pohakuloa

P.O. Box 4607

Hilo, Hawaii 96720-0607

Dear Lieutenant Colonel Niles:

Aloha and welcome to our Island home.

We invite the Army to participate in a BALANCED PUBLIC FORUM on Deleted Uranium Health Risk Assessment. Monday, Aug. 30th from 7-9PM at the Keaau Community Center. The Army is invited to start the evening off with a 30 minute presentation followed by a 30 minute presentation from community representatives. Public testimony and Moderated Q & A will follow. The event is free and THE PUBLIC IS INVITED.

Please R.S.V.P. by August 23 to our organization which is the sponsor of the event. Contact information is listed below.

We are aware that the Army has scheduled a presentation on the Depleted Uranium Health Risk Assessment for PTA to be held Tuesday, Aug. 31st at 2PM at Pohakuloa Training Area.

We object that this presentation is:

1. “By invitation only”

2. Not balanced with community representatives being given equal time

3. Held at PTA instead of in the community (preferably forums in Hilo, Kona, Waimea and Na’alehu). The winds, dust devils, and vehicles that travel through Pohakuloa travel around this island. Everyone on this island is potentially at risk from military radiation contamination at Pohakuloa.

We appeal to you to come out of your bunker, your “Green Zone” on Hawaii Island, and meet and treat the people of this island with respect. Democracy is not by invitation only. Furthermore, it is we civilians who are paying for the military budget, including your salaries.

Mahalo for your consideration.

Jim Albertini

President

—

Jim Albertini

Malu ‘Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action

P.O.Box AB

Kurtistown, Hawai’i 96760

phone: 808-966-7622

email: JA@interpac.net

Visit us on the web at: www.malu-aina.org

"Area Unsafe": Depleted Uranium in Hawai'i ranges

Post Date August 11, 2010

Comments 0 Comments

Author Laurel Mei-Singh

Category Depleted Uranium, DMZ-Hawai'i / Aloha 'Aina In the News, Ho’ola Hawai’i – Environmental Justice

http://www.bigislandweekly.com/articles/2010/08/11/read/news/news02.txt

Report: Area unsafe

PTA visitors speak up about having to sign a safety waiver

By Alan D. Mcnarie

Wednesday, August 11, 2010 10:38 AM HST

U. S. Army sources have often contended that the depleted uranium left by spent shells on its firing ranges at O’ahu’s Schofield Barracks and Hawai’i Island’s Pohakuloa Training Area pose no danger to the public.

In 2008, Army officials told the Hawaii County Council that DU did not pose a health risk to the public, even though the Saddle Road passes through Pohakuloa Training Area, where DU shell fragments had been found. In a recent letter to Rep. Mazie Hirono, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army Addison Davis, IV, wrote that “Many independent scientific studies of uranium in the environment show that DU presents no significant ‘environmental health or safety hazard,’ especially at soil concentration of the DU on Hawaii’s ranges.”

“Based on data gathered and careful analysis of the current situation, there is no immediate or imminent health risk to people who work at Schofield Barracks or Pohakuloa Training Area (PTA) or live in communities adjacent to these military facilities from the DU present in the impact areas… Studies conducted by numerous non-military agencies, including the World Health Organization and the Department of Health and Human Services, have not found credible evidence linking DU to radiation-induced illnesses Studies conducted by numerous non-military agencies, including the World Health Organization and the Department of Health and Human Services, have not found credible evidence linking DU to radiation-induced illnesses,” claims the Army’s DU information website, http://www.imcom.pac.army.mil/du.

But the Army took a different position when representatives from several Native Hawaiian groups requested access to the West Range at Schofield Barracks on O’ahu on May 27. Before being allowed into Schofield, all were asked to sign a waiver of responsibility acknowledging, among other things, that they knew DU was potentially hazardous to their health.”

“I fully understand and by my signature acknowledge that I understand, West Range at Schofield Barracks is currently constructing the Battle Area Complex (BAX) which includes clean up of unexploded ordnance (UXO) including potential chemical warfare munitions (CWM) and depleted uranium (DU)…,” the waiver read, in part. “I understand that the ENTIRE RESERVATION IS DANGEROUS AND UNSAFE due to the presence of surface and subsurface UNEXPLODED ORDNANCE and DEPLETED URANIUM; that there may be hazardous conditions and ordnance on or under the surface of the Reservation; and that unexploded ordnance may explode nearby causing serious bodily harm, injury and death and that depleted uranium particles can be ingested from the soil or inhaled by airborne dust that may cause adverse health effects.” [Words capitalized as in original.]

“I signed that form twice,” said Hawaiian activist Terri Mullins, who has made two trips to Schofield because ancient Hawaiian remains had been uncovered during construction of a new training area for the army’s new Stryker attack force — the same force for which rangeland has been purchased for a new training area at Pohakuloa, whose firing range has also been contaminated by DU spotting rounds fired by the so-called ‘Davy Crockett,” a Cold-War-era nuclear artillery piece. Mullins, who represents a Hawaiian group called Kipuka said that on the May 27 trip, she was accompanied by members from the O’ahu Island Burial Council, Hui Malama I Na Kupuna, the Wahiawa Hawaiian Civic Club, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, the American Friends Service Committee, Aha Kukuniloko and Hui Pu. All, she said, were asked to sign waivers. Big Island Weekly confirmed that at least one other activist who had been on that trip had signed an identical waiver.

The reference to the hazards of “inhaled by airborne dust” containing DU appears to echo concerns expressed by opponents who think fine airborne particles of DU, called “aerosols,” could cause cancer and other diseases. The Army in the past has scoffed at such risks. Its application to the NRC to legally possess the DU at Pohakuloa, for instance, states that “available information indicates that depleted uranium metal generally remains in the immediate vicinity where initially deposited, with limited migration over the period that the materials are present.

But critics such as Dr. Mike Reimer, a geologist and radiation expert who lives in Kona, disagree.

“It is an alloy and a study by the U.S. Air Force revealed that various DU alloys, not quite the same as claimed to have been used at Pohakuloa, are 100 percent effective in producing tumors in mice that then metastasize the lungs,” wrote Reimer, in an e-mail to Sierra Club researcher Cory Harden. “Solid (or alloyed) U[ranium] as a respirable absorbed particle in your lung will produce a radiation dose much greater than the same size particle of oceanic basaltic rock containing 0.t par per million [of] uranium [In other words, naturally occurring uranium found in Hawai’i’s rocks].”

The most probable vector for exposure to DU on the Big Island, maintained Reimer, was the inhalation of tiny, windborne particles, or “aerosols”: “As long as bombs drop and winds blow in the spotting round test area, there will be aerosol production and transport of DU. Aerosols may form and drop nearby, but they can be remobilized by constant bombing.

“Any DU residue present is limited to impact areas well within the perimeter of operational ranges,” the Army’s DU website maintains. “These areas are not publicly accessible. Very few range and safety personnel access the impact areas of our operational ranges. Those people that work in these areas are trained to recognize potential hazards associated with military munitions.”

Why, if the danger of DU is limited to impact areas, Native Hawaiians visiting a construction site would be warned about it or told that “THE ENTIRE RESERVATION IS DANGEROUS AND UNSAFE,” remains an interesting question.

"The Army has no plans for the removal of the legacy DU"

Post Date July 01, 2010

Comments 0 Comments

Author Laurel Mei-Singh

Category Depleted Uranium, DMZ-Hawai'i / Aloha 'Aina In the News, Ho’ola Hawai’i – Environmental Justice

Mahalo to Big Island Weekly for continuing to track the Depleted Uranium contamination in Hawai’i.

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http://www.bigislandweekly.com/articles/2010/06/30/read/news/news02.txt

Army official: We never meant to clean up DU

By Alan D. Mcnarie

Wednesday, June 30, 2010 11:08 AM HST

According to a high Army official, the Army never intended to remove depleted uranium ammunition remnants from Pohakuloa Training Area and Shofield Barracks, and it has no plans to do so for as long as the firing ranges at those facilities are still in use.

“The Army requested a license for possession, not decommissioning, of the legacy DU at the affected Army installations,” wrote Deputy Assistant Secretary to the Army Addison D. “Tad” Davis IV to Congresswoman Mazie Hirono on May 26 of this year. Davis added, “Currently the Army has no plans for the removal of the legacy DU. The ranges containing DU are still in use, and most, if not all, of these ranges also contain unexploded ordnance, which is significantly more hazardous than any DU that might be present on these ranges. Should those ranges be scheduled for closure at some future date, the Army will address the DU present as part of the range closure….”

The “legacy DU” referred to in the letter is believed to be fragments of spotting rounds from cold-war-era Davy Crockett nuclear artillery. In 2008, the Army submitted an application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a permit to “possess” the DU; its original permit had expired in 1964. The NRC’s ruling on that application is still pending, though the NRC has criticized the Army’s plan to monitor the DU in the area as ineffective. (See “NRC to Army: DU Monitoring Plan Won’t Work” in the archives at http://www.bigislandweekly.com.) A sub-agency called the Federal and State Materials and Environmental Management Programs is entertaining a petition from Hawaiian activist Isaac Harp to discipline the army over the expired permit. Hirono had asked Davis what the army had done to address public concerns about “environmental, health and safety” hazards that the DU posed.

The Army has repeatedly contended that the DU does not present a significant hazard to the island’s population. Davis’s letter to Hirono continued to maintain the Army’s position. He claimed that the soil concentration of DU at the Army ranges was estimated at 1-4 pCi/g (picocuries of DU per gram of soil), which averaged “much less than the NRC decommissioning levels of uranium in soil (14 pCi/g of Uranium 238, the major constituent of DU), and are not much above soil concentrations of naturally occurring uranium.”

“The Army has collected numerous air and soil samples, none of which indicate that the DU at Hawaii’s ranges has migrated off-range…,” Davis contended.

Not so, says Dr. Lorrin Pang, a former Army doctor and frequent critic of the Army’s handling of the DU issue.

“That’s absolutely not true. Even their own tests at Waiki’i [on the Saddle Road near Pohakuloa] found it [DU] in dust at low levels. I think the correct scientific interpretation is, it was there,” Pang told the Big Island Weekly.

Pang also challenged Davis’s assertion that “Many independent scientific studies of depleted uranium in the environment show that DU presents no significant ‘environmental, health and safety [hazard],’ especially at the soil concentrations of the DU on Hawaii’s ranges.” Pang noted that the NRC itself had criticized the Army’s monitoring protocols as inadequate; he maintained that the Army simply didn’t know, yet, how much DU was located at Pohakuloa.

“You don’t have a system in place to monitor and baseline, and then you’re gonna tell me the risks?” he asked skeptically. “Tad Allen isn’t a scientist. He’s an MBA from Harvard. If he makes these statements, he’d better refer to scientists who will defend them…

First of all, if you say, we never intended to clean it up, how much is there? You don’t even know.”

The proper scientific approach, he maintained was, “First tell me, how much [DU] is there. Then you’ve got to tell, me, what is the risk? Then you’ve got to tell me the response: if you’re going to clean it up or not.”

And the army’s own “friendly fire” studies on servicepeople exposed to DU were so badly flawed, he maintained, that the researchers hadn’t even recorded tumors, so the health risks were also not known. Without knowing either the quantity of DU or the health risk, the proper course of action was impossible to determine.

He added that that appropriate course of action might turn out to be something other than cleaning up the DU.

“Maybe they don’t have to clean it up,” he said. “Maybe they just promise never to use it again. Maybe they keep the dust down.”

Davis’s letter also provoked a response from Cory Harden, who has been monitoring the DU controversy for the Sierra Club. Harden noted that when Davis wrote , “the Army has collected numerous soil and air samples, none of which indicate that the DU…has migrated off range,” he didn’t mention testimony by geologist and radiation expert Dr. Mike Reimer, who had reviewed the Army’s proposed DU monitoring system and found that the holes in the filters on the Army’s detection devices were “ten times too large.”

She also questioned Davis’ statement that the DU disposal problem would be addressed when the firing ranges were finally decommissioned. She noted that after the military took over Kaho’olawe for a bombing range, Pres. Dwight Eisenhower had promised to return the island in habitable condition – but when it was finally returned 50 years later, massive bombing had cracked the caprock, draining the island’s freshwater supply, and most of the island’s land still had not been entirely cleared of ordnance.

What the Army actually does with the DU, however, may depend not on what it intended or intends to do, but on what the NRC tells it to do. Few expect the NRC not to grant the Army a permit to possess the DU – after all, the stuff is already in the ground – but it may well impose conditions on the Army, including a more viable monitoring program and possibly a cleanup strategy.

Time to Cancel the Army's Lease at Pohakuloa over Radiation Contamination

Post Date April 30, 2010

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Author Laurel Mei-Singh

Category Depleted Uranium, DMZ-Hawai'i / Aloha 'Aina In the News, Ho’ola Hawai’i – Environmental Justice, Media Releases

Call from Malu ‘Aina:

Time to Cancel the Army’s Lease at Pohakuloa over Radiation Contamination

1. The Army repeatedly denied the use of Depleted Uranium (DU) in Hawaii.

2. Now it has been confirmed that in the 1960s the U.S. Army used the Pohakuloa Training Area for firing spotting rounds containing DU for the Davy Crockett nuclear weapon system.

3. The DU spotting rounds have created the presence of radiation contamination at Pohakuloa.

4. DU is a chemically toxic and radioactive heavy metal with a half-life of 4.5 billion years.

5. DU emits radioactive alpha particles than can cause cancer when inhaled (and poses health concerns for troops, residents and visitors in Hawaii).

6. Due to poor military record keeping, there may be more DU contamination at Pohakuloa than just Davy Crockett spotting rounds.

7. On July 2, 2008 the Hawaii County Council passed Resolution 639-08 by a vote of 8-1.

8. Resolution 639-08 called for “a complete halt to B-2 bombing missions and to all live firing exercises and other activities at the Pohakuloa Training Area (PTA) that creates dust until there is an assessment and clean up of the depleted uranium already present.”

9. Live-fire continues at PTA and the DU has not been cleaned up. Live-fire and high winds at Pohakuloa risk spreading the radiation contamination off-base.

10. While major potions (more than 84,000-acres) of Crown lands at PTA were taken (without compensation) by Executive orders, PTA has a State General Lease No. S-3849 by the State of Hawaii, Board of Land and Natural Resources – U.S. Lease, Contract No. DA-94-626-ENG-80 – August 19, 1964 (expiration date 16 Aug. 2029) consisting of 22,988 acres for $1.00 for 65 years.

11. In the 1960s when the Army leased State land in the Waiakea Forest Reserve (Hilo’s watershed) for what was suppose to be weather testing, but in fact was chemical weapons testing including deadly sarin gas, Hawaii County residents spoke up and the State lease to the Army was canceled; now, therefore,

THE PEOPLE OF HAWAII COUNTY NEED TO SPEAK UP AGAIN TO CANCEL THE ARMY’S LEASE AT THE POHAKULOA TRAINING AREA AND REQUIRE CLEAN UP OF DEPLETED URANIUM (DU) RADIATION CONTAMINATION.

Let Your Voice Be Heard!

1. Mourn all victims of violence. 2. Reject war as a solution. 3. Defend civil liberties. 4. Oppose all discrimination, anti-Islamic, anti-Semitic, etc.5. Seek peace through justice in Hawai`i and around the world.

Contact: Malu `Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action P.O. Box AB Kurtistown, Hawai`i 96760.

Phone (808) 966-7622. Email ja@interpac.net http://www.malu-aina.org

Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet (April 30, 2010 – 450th week) – Friday 3:30-5PM downtown Post Office

NRC to Army: DU monitoring plan won't work

Post Date April 30, 2010

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Author Laurel Mei-Singh

Category Depleted Uranium, DMZ-Hawai'i / Aloha 'Aina In the News, The Military in Hawai'i (All Islands)

http://bigislandweekly.com/articles/2010/04/28/read/news/news02.txt

NRC to Army: DU monitoring plan won’t work

By Alan D. McNarie

Wednesday, April 28, 2010 12:04 PM HST

The U.S. Army’s plan to monitor the air over Pohakuloa Training Area for depleted uranium has drawn sharp criticism from some Native Hawaiians, environmentalists, activists and independent experts. Now the Army has gotten an admonishment from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

“We have concluded that the Plan will provide inconclusive results for the U.S. Army as to the potential impact of the dispersal of depleted uranium (DU) while the Pohakuloa Training Area is being utilized for aerial bombardment or other training exercises,” wrote Rebecca Tadesse, Chief of the NRC’s Materials Decommissioning Branch, in a recent letter to Lt. General Rick Lynch, who heads the Army’s Installation Management Command.

Tadesse and her staff reached that conclusion after reviewing the draft plan proposed by the Army and ORISE, the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, which would conduct the monitoring for aerial DU contamination at Pohakuloa and at various other locations around the island. The NRC experts concluded that the plan was inadequate in several areas: the number of air samples planned was “insufficient,” optimum locations for monitoring needed to be determined and established, and “Continuous monitoring should be performed during the testing and also prior to and following testing to determine background conditions,” so that the army would have a basis for comparison with any high readings. The letter also noted that the army proposed to conduct its air monitoring specifically during live firing exercises — even though the Army had told the NRC that it would not “use high explosives and bombs in areas where DU is present.”

“If that is true, why would there be an expectation that DU might be dispersed during such training exercises?” Tadesse asked.

The Army’s handling of the DU issue at Pohakuloa is also drawing fire from some independent experts, including retired army doctor Lorrin Pang, Los Alamos National Laboratory consultant Dr. Marshall Bland, and Dr. Michael Reimer, a retired geologist with a background in radiation monitoring. And Sierra Club researcher Cory Harden has used recently released Army documents to challenge the Army’s own estimates of how much DU may have been released into the environment at Pohakuloa.

“The NRC review seems to vindicate Dr. Pang and myself for claiming that the monitoring was insufficient,” Reimer told BIW.

According to the NRC’s Greg Pukin, his agency doesn’t generally have jurisdiction over weapons, but does have authority over DU and other radionuclides. The Army has applied to the NRC for a permit to possess DU at Pohakuloa — a permit that, if granted, could allow the recently discovered remains of depleted uranium spotter rounds from the Army’s cold-war-era Davy Crockett nuclear howitzer on site at the training area — spotter rounds whose presence in Hawai’i the army had denied until a citizen’s group unearthed an e-mail about their discovery in 2006. A group of local residents, including Harden, antiwar activist Jim Albertini, and native Hawaiian activist Isaac Harp had filed a challenge to the Army’s application on the grounds that its monitoring and clean-up plans were inadequate, but were recently denied standing by the NRC. Harp has appealed that denial.

Both Pang and Reimer testified as experts on April 14 at an NRC phone conference to consider Harp’s complaint. In addition to noting Tadesse’s criticisms, Reimer observed that the 5-micron filters that the army planned to use to capture possible DU particles for monitoring were a bit on the coarse side.

“Five-micron size [particles] would fall out within a mile,” he said. “Smaller sizes may be carried by the wind.” He recommended .45-micron filters.

Pang also challenged the army’s general credibility by citing a number of former army statements about DU that Pang said simply weren’t true.

“The Army stated to the Dept of Health Environmental Chief that inhaled DU (from exploding weaponry) was not a worry since DU is heavier than air and would not become airborne, therefore not inhaled,” he noted, for example. He testified that Army consultants, when discussing the amount of DU needed to produce radiation readings reported by civilian monitors at Pohakuloa, had held out their hands to indicate chunks the size of basketballs.

Pang also claims that an Army study setting human safety thresholds for DU inhalation was scientifically flawed.

“That study has been widely, publicly debunked by the scientific community,” he said. “The Army investigators did not count effects like tumors (both malignant and benign) in the exposed group.”

“The kind of air monitoring that the Army is using, they’ll never find it,” commented Harden at the conference call.

Harden also challenged an Army estimate that about 700 Davy Crocket spotter rounds may have been fired at Pohakuloa.

“To back up their claim they quoted from a report, which I only managed to obtained after ten months of repeated requests,” testified Harden. Their quote for the lower number does not match my copy of the report…. For soldiers to follow training manual requirements of that time, about 2,000 spotting rounds would have been needed at Pohakuloa. Now the Army didn’t find 2,000 spotting rounds recently at Pohakuloa Training Area, only four fragments. They speculate that range clearance may have been done, but offer no evidence to support this theory.”

Based on the discrepancies, the Army’s critics argued that the NRC simply couldn’t trust what the Army said about DU in Hawaii – nor could the public.

“Since we can’t rely on the military to shine their light on the hazards its left behind, we need help from NRC,” Hardin concluded.

Citizens denied access to meeting protest outside Pohakuloa Training Area

Post Date March 03, 2010

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Author Laurel Mei-Singh

Category 'A'ole Stryker, Depleted Uranium, DMZ-Hawai'i / Aloha 'Aina In the News, Ho’ola Hawai’i – Environmental Justice

http://bigislandweekly.com/articles/2010/03/03/read/news/news03.txt

Citizens denied access to meeting protest outside PTA

By Heather Nicholson

Wednesday, March 3, 2010 11:38 AM HST

About 30 people concerned with depleted uranium (DU) radiation on Pohakuloa Training Area picketed outside the Saddle Road military base Feb. 24. At the same time, the group received word that their petition to challenge the Army’s license to possess DU was denied.

Jim Albertini, group leader and founder of the non-violent education and action group, Malu Aina, expressed disappointment at the decision handed down from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), who said the petition “lacked standing.”

“It means citizens have nothing to say about this issue,” said Albertini, who went in front of the NRC with three other Hawaii residents in January calling the Army’s assessment of DU hazards inadequate.

Though Albertini and his group were not invited to the U.S. Army’s annual Community Leaders Day, various decision makers were seen in attendance, including Mayor Billy Kenoi. The attendees heard progress updates on everything from Saddle Road construction to depleted uranium.

U.S. Army spokesman Mike Egami said the DU discussion was a review of topics already on the radar, including the Army’s application to the NRC to possess and manage residual quantities of DU at various bases, including Pohakuloa Training Area (PTA).

Repeated attempts to contact Kenoi’s office for information about the meeting went unanswered. When the Army was asked to provide Big Island Weekly with a list of the attendees, we were told the group consisted of “politicos or representatives from various offices from the Mayor’s office, County Council, Congressional offices, business leaders, UH Hilo, school principals, DLNR, hunters, and members of the PTA Cultural Advisory Committee.”

“The community leaders were invited to provide opportunities for each to take back information to their respective organization and disseminate information, as well as receive comments to provide back to the military,” said Egami.

The majority of protesters opposed to the fact that the public was not invited to the meeting and stood across from the entrance of PTA holding signs that read “Where’s the transparency” and “Radiation cover up.” The group tried several times to get inside the base and was denied a list of invited attendees.

“We want this meeting that they are having about our neighborhood to be open,” said Hilo resident Stephen Paulmier. “It’s mainly about transparency in government.”

Ret. U.S. Army Col. Ann Wright stood on the side of Albertini’s picket line, concerned that the politicians invited to the meeting could not be trusted to ask the Army hard questions.

“This meeting undercuts the citizen’s right to know. It’s outrageous that no one can go in since there’s been so much public outcry,” she said.

WHAT IS DEPLETED URANIUM?

Depleted uranium is a waste obtained from producing fuel for nuclear reactors and atomic bombs. DU is extremely dense and heavy, so much so that projectiles with a DU head can penetrate the armored steel of military vehicles and buildings. It is also a spontaneous pyrophoric material that can generate so much heat that when it reaches its target it explodes.

The American military has been using DU to coat artillery, tanks and aircraft for years, and the DU found on Hawaii military bases came from The Davy Crockett, a series of recoilless guns used in 1960s training missions.

When exposed to very high temperatures, DU can go airborne. According to the World Health Organization, DU emits about 60 percent of the radiation as natural uranium. When inhaled, DU particles make their way into the blood stream and can cause health problems, especially to the lungs.

When DU was discovered at Hawaii military bases in 2006, the Army received much backlash after years of denying that any uranium weapons were ever used on island. After military testing of the remaining DU at PTA and Oahu’s Schofield Barracks, the Army contends that the radiation is too low to be a health concern.

Pahoa resident and retired Army pilot Albert Tell agrees.

“There’s more radiation in my house then there is out here,” Tell said.

Tell and about 10 other military supporters comprised mainly of ex-military personnel picketed outside PTA on Feb. 24 also. Brandishing several American flags and dressed in military fatigues, the group said they were there to support the troops, PTA and counteract any misinformation Albertini and his supporters handed out.

“I don’t know anyone who’s died from DU,” said a picketer who refused to give his name. “We have some dying from cancer but they’ve lived other places to.”

IS DU BAD FOR YOU?

It’s true the long-term effects of DU radiation are largely unknown, and while some contend DU is the cause of Gulf War Syndrome there are no tests or reports to support it. Since DU goes airborne under extreme heat, some citizens are concerned that the live-fire and bombing training missions still conducted on PTA are aerosolizing DU and not only putting down-wind communities at risk, but active PTA soldiers as well.

Albertini said he won’t be satisfied until the Army allows independent scientists to conduct their own DU tests on PTA. He also wants all live-fire and bombing sessions on PTA halted until an independent DU test can be conducted.

“We have to know the extent of the health risks,” he said.

Hawaii County Council passed a resolution calling for the halt of live-fire and bombing that may spread airborne DU, however, the Army continues to do so. They said it is highly unlikely that DU will move off PTA and into the community due to military live-fire training.

“The Army has completed most of the DU investigation, but is continuing to monitor the water and air qualities at Schofield Barracks and PTA,” Egami said.

The Army is also awaiting a decision from NRC regarding their license to possess DU.