11/18/2005

By AUDREY McAVOY  / Associated Press

U.S. Rep. Ed Case said the Army told him Thursday it didn't know whether any of the weapons it dumped in waters off Hawaii decades ago were left near the shoreline.

Case said the deputy assistant Army secretary in charge of environmental issues told him the service would search its records to find out. Case said he asked the Army to locate and properly dispose of the weapons.

"I impressed on (him) on how important I felt it was to immediately complete the identification of potential sites in Hawaii," Case said by telephone from Washington, D.C. "Not only from a public safety perspective but from the perspective of maintaining the good relationship that the military and civilian populations in Hawaii have enjoyed."

Case, D-Hawaii, said a 2001 study of Army records showed the service disposed of chemical weapons in 73 sites around the world from World War I to the early 1970s — including three place off Hawaii.

The Army report said some materials were deposited somewhere off Pearl Harbor and others were dumped five miles off Oahu in 1944.

In the last case — also from 1944 — the Army loaded the weapons onto a ship in Waianae and dumped them at an unknown offshore location.

"The specific concern, immediate concern is the nearshore environment — where people swim, where they anchor their boats, where they go about life. And that we don't know," Case said.

Case said information about the dumped weapons was now attracting attention because fishermen along the East Coast have been pulling up munitions when they dredge clam beds.

The Daily Press in Newport News, Va., reported earlier this month that the Army dumped 64 million pounds of nerve and mustard agents into the ocean, along with 400,000 chemical-filled bombs, land mines and rockets.

The newspaper said the chemical weapons were dumped in at least 26 locations off the coast of 11 states — six East Coast states, two on the Gulf Coast, California, Alaska and Hawaii.

Case said he plans to press the Pentagon to request more funds for munitions disposal in next fiscal year's budget.

He added he felt the military was taking the matter seriously.

The Army public affairs office in Washington, D.C., had no immediate comment on where it dumped chemical weapons off Hawaii.