And in the "no kidding" news, researchers from the University of Hawaii are declaring, after three years of work with submersibles, that the World War II chemical munitions in 1500 feet of water are no threat to the environment or to people in the area. Nothing like solid science to confirm what we all suspected.
The School of Ocean Earth Science and Technology, which did the study for the Pentagon, reported that although even the best-preserved munitions casings are deteriorating, the observations and data collected "do not indicate any adverse impacts on ecological health" in the study area, known as HI-05, the university said yesterday.
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Sediment, water and biological samples were analyzed at UH and independent laboratories on the mainland for munitions components, including TNT, chemical agents and metals.
The analytical methods used to detect munitions components "were effective," UH said.
"With the exception of one unconfirmed detection of mustard, neither chemical agents nor explosives were detected in any samples," the university said in a release.
The risk to human health from the consumption of fish and shrimp collected near the HI-05 Study Area was within Environmental Protection Agency "acceptable risk levels," according to UH.
The munitions aren't coming up out of the water. It would be more risk to the people recovering the munitions and to the undersea environment if the munitions were unstable and started leaking because of the movement. The activists aren't happy, but it's unrealistic to do otherwise.
Here's one of the first posts I had about Hawaii's chemical history in February 2006.
UPDATE: The Associated Press picks up the story. The Army official quoted in the AP article works for the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Environment, Safety and Occupational Health.
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