A day after the Army issued an alert advising the public not to touch the highly flammable, one-inch bead-like objects floating ashore at Ma'ili Beach, an area diver said he knows where tons of them litter the reef three miles off the Wai'anae Coast.

"I'm not talking about a handful," said Cameron Guadiz, an assistant dive instructor with Captain Bruce Scuba Charters. "We're talking about tons of them at Five Inch Reef."

Meanwhile, an Army spokesman said the pellets are undoubtedly military in origin and that they have likely been in the ocean for many years.

Army officials acknowledged a year ago that tons of munitions were dumped off O'ahu during and immediately after World War II. But Army officials have insisted that they posed no threat to the people of Hawai'i and that removing the munitions would be worse than leaving them.

"That's what they said — there's nothing to worry about," said Guadiz, who attended a special meeting last March at which a high-ranking Army official discussed the dumping. "But now all this stuff is washing up on the beach, and it's flammable when it's dry. So, how can they tell the people in Wai'anae there's no problem? It is if some kid gets ahold of it and lights it up."

Although residents indicate the pellets have washed up periodically over the years, this time they seem to be generating more alarm.

Guadiz said the pellets have been floating ashore from a huge cache of unexploded munitions at two ocean locations near Wai'anae.

"You can see them at Five Inch Reef, about three miles off the coast, and another place is Ammo Reef, right outside the (Wai'anae) Boat Harbor," he said.

Guadiz said the grains are especially thick at the farther reef.

"You find those little, brown pellet things," Guadiz said. "If you stir them up, they float around. And if there's heavy surf pounding the reef, the stuff is so light in the water, the strong current can carry it. That's why it's ending up on the beach."

TARGET PRACTICE

Guadiz said he has shown the pellets to old-timers who have told him they were used by the military as part of target practice in the region during World War II.

The propellant grains became the focus of attention Thursday after a team of Army munitions specialists examined some of the red, brown and green pellets that people at Ma'ili Beach had been collecting, thinking they were beads that could be made into necklaces.

Army officials confirmed that they are, in fact, potentially hazardous, highly flammable propellant grains used in rockets and artillery.

But just because the Army looked into the situation and issued the warning doesn't mean the pellets originated with the Army, a spokesman said yesterday.

Army spokesman Kendrick Washington said the Army was only doing the right thing in issuing the warning.

"We typically get called when there's anything that looks like it has a potential to be flammable, explosive, harmful, that type of thing," said Washington. "They call us because we're trained and equipped to do it.

"Having said that, we do it because we're interested in serving the public and in public safety. However, because we do it doesn't mean we take ownership of it."

Kendrick said it was not possible to determine the origin of the propellant grains that have washed up on Ma'ili Beach or who's responsible for them. Judging by the obvious wear on the pellets, he said, it's certain that they are military munitions that have likely been in the ocean for many years.

He said the Army simply investigated the situation and issued a public warning after it determined that the material washing up on the beach was potentially harmful.

2,600 TONS DUMPED

At a community meeting last March in Wai'anae, a high-level Army official said that tons of munitions had been dumped off O'ahu during and immediately after World War II. He said the military had identified two locations about 10 miles off the Wai'anae Coast where 2,600 tons of mustard, cyanogens chloride, hydrogen cyanide and lewisite were dumped between 1944 and 1946.

However, Tad Davis, the Army's deputy assistant secretary for the environment, assured the community that the munitions did not pose an immediate threat to the health and safety of the people of Hawai'i. After months of exhaustive research into the situation, the Army had concluded that the munitions should not be retrieved, he said.

The problem, he said, was that retrieving the munitions after six decades could cause more harm than benefit to the environment. He said the military would continue to monitor the situation.

Wai'anae resident William Aila, one of the first to alert federal officials about the propellant grains washing ashore at Ma'ili Beach, said he also has concerns about them. He said he has learned that the pellets have also been washing up on Sewers Beach, directly in front of the Wai'anae Sewage Treatment Plant.

"These are munitions that were actually dumped in the ocean," said Aila, harbormaster for the Wai'anae Boat Harbor.

And he wants to know what harm the grains may have caused to the ocean after so many decades.

"It's the product of what used to be best management practices back then, which was to throw the munitions in the ocean after you had no use for them," he said. "And now what we're seeing is the impact of those decisions made 50-plus years ago.

"I'm concerned about the fact that for 50 years or more this stuff has been in the water. What are these grains made of and what has been leaching into the food chain?

"Is it harmful?"

Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com.