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Chem. weapons dumped at sea corroding but haven't yet released toxic contents [Hawaii 2010 news] TR
DMZ Hawaii ^ | July 28, 2010 | Kyle

Posted on 04/14/2018 11:25:57 AM PDT by Jyotishi

Full title: Researchers report that chemical weapons dumped at sea are corroding but have not yet released toxic contents

KyleJuly 28, 2010DMZ Hawaii

http://www.dmzhawaii.org/dmz-legacy-site-two/?p=7485 

University of Hawai'i researchers have concluded a three year research project to determine whether chemical munitions dumped at sea off O'ahu pose a threat to the health of humans or the environment.

Documents disclosed by the Army in 2007 reported that approximately 16,000 munitions containing 2,558 tons of chemical agents were dumped at three deep-water sites off Oahu.   The chemical agent included lewisite, mustard, cyanogen chloride and cyanide.

According to the Honolulu Star Advertiser article:

http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/breaking/99399389.html

The School of Ocean Earth Science and Technology research for the U.S. Army reported that even the best-preserved munitions casings are deteriorating, but the observations and data collected “do not indicate any adverse impacts on ecological health” in the study area, known as HI-05, the university said.

Furthermore, the article reports:

The Pentagon does not plan to remove any of the chemical weapons because it said there is no data to indicate any of the dumped munitions pose a threat to human health or the environment.

The conclusion that there is no adverse impact on ecological health is misleading.   Most of the 2000 munitions identified by UH researchers were badly corroded but had not yet broken open to release their toxic contents.

The story on KHNL television was more qualified in reporting the safety of the munitions:

http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/Global/story.asp?S=12881617

Findings show the World War II munitions buried at sea are still intact, but they are corroding, which means one day, they could leak chemicals into the ocean.

The Hawaii Independent provides more in-depth reporting on the study's findings.

http://thehawaiiindependent.com/story/uh-says-military-munitions-sea-disposal-site-not-hurting-ecological-health/

But the news media failed to mention the hidden story related to the funding for the research.   In 2007, politicians were quick to jump on the issue of the chemical munitions dumping because it was politically safe to criticize such an egregious example of the military's poor environmental conduct while steering federal funding to Hawai'i to “study” the impacts.  Funding was funneled through the Indefinite Deliverable / Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) Applied Research Laboratory contract, otherwise known as the controversial Navy University Affiliated Research Center (UARC).  In 2005, a coalition of students, faculty and community staged a campaign to stop the establishment of the classified Navy research center at the University of Hawai'i, which culminated in a week-long occupation of UH President David McClain's office.   Despite overwhelming opposition, the UH Board of Regents approved the UARC, but the program had been severely diminished.

The Applied Research Laboratory has set up a contract vehicle, a pipeline for non-competed military contracts to be directed to UH research projects.    The UH researchers are now set up to seek future funding to study, but not necessarily clean up the toxic mess.

Filed Under: Environmental Impacts, Ho'ola Hawai'i - Environmental Justice, Military Appropriations, Earmarks, O'ahu, Stop UARC / Applied Research Lab

Tagged: chemical weapons, environmental damage, ocean dumping, Stop UARC / Applied Research Lab, uarc, University of Hawai'i


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; US: Hawaii
KEYWORDS: army; ecology; health; idiq; navy; nerve; oahu; ocean; pacific; pentagon; uarc; wwii
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1 posted on 04/14/2018 11:25:58 AM PDT by Jyotishi
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To: Jyotishi

Hmmmm. Not a word about the chemical munitions
dumped in the Atlantic after both world wars...


2 posted on 04/14/2018 11:28:40 AM PDT by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: tet68

Nor those in the North Sea, or the Farallon Islands off of San Fran. Maybe that’s why those White sharks get so big....


3 posted on 04/14/2018 11:36:35 AM PDT by Amberdawn (If Leftists Didn't Live By Double Standards, They'd Have No Standards At All.)
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To: tet68

Mentions WWII munitions dumped...still intact...


4 posted on 04/14/2018 11:36:36 AM PDT by Sacajaweau
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To: Jyotishi

“The Horror of Party Beach” (1964)


5 posted on 04/14/2018 11:38:35 AM PDT by onedoug
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To: Jyotishi

quick google tells you that there are 187 quintillion gallons of water in the Pacific.

This is dumping about 613025 gallons of chemicals.

There’s a math of parts per million to go into, but it doesn’t take a genius to recognize that the amount contemplated is negligible amount.


6 posted on 04/14/2018 11:39:52 AM PDT by Bayard
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To: Amberdawn; tet68

Nor Johnston Island . Pacific Ocean. Radioactive debris due to high altitude tests. Agent Orange. etc. Not on my places to visit...


7 posted on 04/14/2018 11:50:32 AM PDT by donozark (Restraining orders are just another way of saying I love you.)
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To: Bayard

The chemical weapons were dumped close to the shoreline, according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, March 1981 (available free online). Also, Sarin gas was tested on land:

U.S. Military secretly tested Sarin Nerve gas in Hawaii

http://malu-aina.org/?p=4597


8 posted on 04/14/2018 11:51:32 AM PDT by Jyotishi (Seeking the truth, a fact at a time.)
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To: Bayard

Your calculation is certainly correct after complete dilution in all the world’s oceans has taken place, but neglects the reality that the concentration will be quintillions of times higher at the location of the actual leaks, before any significant dilution has taken place. These higher concentrations will easily be lethal to local life in the vicinity of the munitions.

Note also that if companies attempted to dump such chemicals in the oceans, they’d be fined millions of dollars for gross negligence. But, since the government did it, everything’s hunky dory.


9 posted on 04/14/2018 11:52:04 AM PDT by coloradan (The US has become a banana republic, except without the bananas - or the republic.)
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To: Jyotishi

Cyanides are common metabolic products of bacteria and plants. This whole thing is a big nothingburger.


10 posted on 04/14/2018 11:59:51 AM PDT by farming pharmer
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To: Jyotishi

The article doesn’t mention exactly how deep the munitions are. Oahu is surrounded by the Kaua’i Deep to the north, the O’ahu Deep to the west, and the Lana’i Deep to the south. They’re all at least 3 miles deep.

There’s little mixing of such deep waters. The munitions are far below the thermocline.


11 posted on 04/14/2018 12:00:43 PM PDT by Colinsky
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To: Jyotishi

There is so much toxic crap buried in our country and off of our shores that we may never find it all. That’s just the way government did things during WWII and Cold War.


12 posted on 04/14/2018 12:03:45 PM PDT by shanover (...To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.-S.Adams)
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To: Jyotishi

Undersea volcanic vents spew hydrogen sulfide, hydrogen cyanide, and assorted other nasty things... yet there’s life around them, even life dependent on chemicals that would kill people...


13 posted on 04/14/2018 12:16:56 PM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)
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To: Jyotishi

We used to dispose of 20mm overboard, not such a good idea, but cyanide among other things? Isn’t this just wonderful?


14 posted on 04/14/2018 12:19:41 PM PDT by Sasparilla ( I'm Not Tired of Winnings)
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To: Jyotishi

At least when Claudius, Emperor of Rome dumped his grandmother’s chest of poisons (Poison is Queen) into the ocean, shortly after thousands of dead fish floated to the surface. Claudius ordered that anyone eating the fish were to be put to death.- Claudius the God by Graves.


15 posted on 04/14/2018 12:48:02 PM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar
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To: Jyotishi

Meanwhile, Hawaii is about to ban sunscreen because of bad science saying it hurts coral.


16 posted on 04/14/2018 12:50:37 PM PDT by kaehurowing
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To: Bayard
There’s a math of parts per million to go into, but it doesn’t take a genius to recognize that the amount contemplated is negligible amount.

But it would (will) take hundreds, if not tousands, of years to become fully diluted. If that is even possible.

Water exchange in the depths is very slow as there is no wind or sun to power movement as on the surface and in shallows.

In the short term seepage will be concentrated around the leaking containers.

More so at greater depths.

That's probably a good thing as the introduction of leaked chemicals into surrounding waters will be further slowed giving natural processes enen more time to dissipate the poisons.

Still, it is a shortsighted way to dispose of munitions and other dangerous substances.

17 posted on 04/14/2018 12:54:16 PM PDT by Iron Munro (To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize. -- Voltaire.)
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To: Bayard

You would be correct IF the dispersal were uniform over the entire volume. That is not how leaks happen. Coral reefs are very delicate habitats. An entire habitat can be wiped out with a drifting concentration of these toxic brews.


18 posted on 04/14/2018 1:19:33 PM PDT by MHGinTN (A dispensational perspective is a powerful tool for discernment)
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To: Jyotishi

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4otn6892-Rg


19 posted on 04/14/2018 1:42:00 PM PDT by Seruzawa (TANSTAAFL!)
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To: Jyotishi

Didn’t seem to bother or stop the Japanese in Dec of ‘41


20 posted on 04/14/2018 1:57:56 PM PDT by EnglishOnly (Fight all out to win OR get out now. .)
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