Briefs
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ARMY
Money lacking to clear Guam
After a General Accounting Office report said military contamination on Guam deserves more attention from the Pentagon, the Honolulu Engineer District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it would like to conduct more of a cleanup, but has limited money for such projects.
In the past four years, the amount has gone from $4 million in fiscal 1999 to $8.37 million in fiscal 2002.
However, in fiscal 2000, when the Honolulu District was involved in the cleanup of World War II-era chemical agent identification kits on private property in Mongmong, Guam, it spent $2.8 million, or 44 percent of its budget, to clean up that site alone, it said.
"At the current rate of growth, it will take decades to put a dent in all of the (Formerly Used Defense) sites that have been identified throughout Hawai'i and the Pacific," the district office said.
The GAO report said cleanup of military debris on Guam has lagged far behind environmental restoration in the rest of the country. It concluded the Army Corps, which oversees the cleanup effort, ranked Guam projects lower on its priority list.
The Corps said prioritization of sites is based on the "immediacy of threat" to the health, safety and well-being of the public.
At the request last year of Democratic Guam Delegate Robert Underwood, the GAO agreed to review the way the Defense Department identifies environmental contamination and how it records and manages the data. Underwood called for an evaluation of community exposure to chemical risks after discarded military mustard gas test kits were discovered in Mongmong in 1999.
AIR FORCE
Manuwai Canal update planned
The Hickam Air Force Base Environmental Restoration Program will discuss results of remedial investigation of Manuwai Canal at a public meeting, 4 p.m. May 9 at the Ala Moana Regional Park McCoy Pavilion dining room, 1201 Ala Moana Blvd.
The investigation reviewed the environmental quality of the canal for contamination in surface water, sediment and biota, and evaluated the resulting risk to human health and the environment, the Air Force said.
MARINES
Marines top adviser retires
Marine Forces Pacific has bid farewell to its senior enlisted Marine.
Sgt. Maj. Stephen H. Mellinger completed a two-year tour as the senior enlisted adviser to commander of Marine Forces Pacific, Lt. Gen. Earl B. Hailston, and retired last week after 30 years of military service.
He is being replaced by Sgt. Maj. Royce Coffee, who comes to the headquarters from the First Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Pendleton, Calif.
Coffee previously was the Marine Corps Base Hawai'i sergeant major.
JOINT FORCES
Recovery effort to head to Laos
A Joint Field Activity consisting of four recovery teams and one investigation team will deploy to Laos today from Hawai'i with hopes of recovering remains of Americans unaccounted for from the war in Southeast Asia.
The team of 50 mostly Hawai'i-based military specialists from Joint Task ForceiFull Accounting and the U.S. Army's Central Identification Laboratory Hawai'i will be joined by technical representatives from the Lao People's Democratic Republic to begin the investigation in three Lao provinces.
Since 1973, the remains of 653 U.S. service members formerly listed as unaccounted for have been identified and returned to their families. But 1,932 Americans remain on the list, of which 409 are believed to be in Laos.
