Big Island bomb registry proposed
By Kevin Dayton
Advertiser Big Island Bureau
HILO, Hawai'i — Hawai'i County Councilman Bob Jacobson of Puna wants to create a registry to record every site on the Big Island where unexploded bombs, shells and grenades have been found.
Accidents involving unexploded ordnance have killed four people on the Big Island since the 1940s and injured others. Two years ago children digging a garden at Waimea Middle School discovered an old grenade.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has identified about 135,000 acres used for firing ranges and maneuver areas that are littered with unexploded ordnance, not including the 51,000-acre impact area at the active Pohakuloa Training Area.
Jacobson said people ought to be able to check to see if old bombs or shells were ever found on their land. He is proposing a county law to create a registry within the county Civil Defense Agency to record data about such finds.
"I think it needs to be done because there's a lot of unexploded ordnance out there and people really aren't aware of it, not the average consumer and the average person," Jacobson said.
Civil Defense Administrator Troy Kindred said in a written response that the proposal "would be good for our community and children," but compiling and maintaining the records may cost money.
Charles F. Streck Jr., senior program and project manager for the Army Corps in Honolulu, said some information about areas where unexploded ordnance and other debris is available online, and more detailed information is available in Honolulu.
But Streck said that information isn't always easy to use: For example, a person who wants to research a specific property parcel by county tax map key number cannot readily do so now.
A system that could do that would improve public safety, but it might be expensive to set up, said Streck, who is overseeing a project to find and remove ordnance on 123,000 acres known as the Waikoloa Maneuver Area.
The proposed ordinance for the registry does not include any money for the effort.
Jacobson, a member of the Hawai'i Green Party, has been critical of the military and last year introduced a council resolution condemning the invasion of Iraq. But he said the registry proposal is not meant as a dig at the military, and has nothing to do with the failed anti-war resolution.
"You train and this is what happens. I'm not being critical of the military about this at all," he said. "It's just meant to make it easier for everybody. I think a lot of people have records, but I don't know that they're complete. If we have complete records of all that is there, I think we'll all be a lot safer."
Reach Kevin Dayton at kdayton@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 935-3916.
