Posted:  Sunday, March 19, 2006

Army says there's no toxic threat from dump

By Associated Press

WAIANAE, Hawaii (AP) _ An Army official says that thousands of tons of chemical munitions dumped off Oahu in the World War II era do not cause a threat to Hawaii residents' health.

Tad Davis, the Army's deputy assistant secretary for the environment, also says the military does not think the munitions should be retrieved.

Davis was speaking last night to about 70 people at a neighborhood meeting at the Waianae District Park.

Davis said the military has identified two locations where 26-hundred tons of mustard, cyanogen chloride, hydrogen cyanide and lewisite were
dumped between 1944 and 1946.

The military is looking for people who are still living that might have firsthand knowledge of the munitions disposal.

Davis said that at the time, dumping the chemicals in the ocean was considered the safest way to dispose of the weapons.