The U.S. House late last night voted to appropriate $18 million as part of the $459.6 billion 2008 defense appropriation bill that would allow work to begin on cleaning up tons of chemical munitions dumped offshore of O'ahu at the end of World War II, according to the office of Hawai'i Democratic U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie.

The funds also would go toward military research and testing, including studies on the effects of naval sonar systems on whales and dolphins and the development of electronic systems to detect marine mammals in naval training areas.

Abercrombie chairs the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Air and Land Forces.

The bill contains $1 million for continuing research at the Hawai'i Institute of Marine Biology into marine mammal hearing and the effects of underwater sound on the behavior of marine mammals, such as whales and dolphins — a problem that temporarily halted a naval exercise in waters off Hawai'i last year.

The bill includes $3 million for research, development and installation of marine mammal detection systems on Navy aircraft, which would survey training areas before active sonar is used, to avoid harming dolphins and whales, Abercrombie's office said.