--- On Sat, 4/19/08, Subject: Waianae is a Down Winder of Schofield Live Fire training & DU & UXO Chemical Weapon. To: Date: Saturday, April 19, 2008, 8:33 PM yikes.... See below AP release and Honolulu Advertiser pieces. Hi, after reviewing this article I'm concerned that as a down winder I was not notified by the Army that this was taking place. What is the emergency plan.  Do we evacuate all of Waianae just in case there is a 'OOPS!.  Or do we get the apology after the fact? Initially the Army said there were no DU and no chemical weapons used in training.  But after the Sryker 'battle area complex forced range clean up, chemical and DU weapons were found on the range.  These are the items needing to be destroyed.  I live just over hill from Schofield.  Every time there is a fire we get the ash that covers our yard and enters our homes and the cloud of smoke that we breath.  How do these chemicals accumulate in our body?  What ages are most vulnerable?  How is our health affected after all these years being a down winder?  What is effect on our property value as a down winder? Think about the number of unexploded ordnance found and what may still be on the range.  How many rounds were really fired at Schofield, Makua, Pohakuloa and the other ranges in the State.  If the DUD rate is 10% the Army fired a lot of chemical or DU weapons at Schofield.  The number could be in the hundreds if not thousands of rounds. What are the cumulative effects of all the years of training on the Down Winders of Wai'anae.  When trades blow all the bad stuff blows over into Waianae.  The Army first denied using DU or Chemical Weapons, then the Army said it was only a isolated incident, now Associated Press report as the largest find of UXO (Unexploded Ordnance) Chemical Weapons found in the entire United States. Every time the Army says trust me, we're good neighbors... I feel ill.  After being given half truths or outright lied to so many time, what can we expect next...our safety is in question.  Our children, elders and our quality of life is at risk. Maybe it's time to find other training areas on the continental US where there are no lives or health or environment to destroy. Sparky Bogus Mainstream Media Articles do not scratch even the surface of the truth about DU and chemical contamination of the Hawaiian Islands and Vieques! Army set to destroy old chemical weapons on island of Oahu By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Filed at 4:23 p.m. ET SCHOFIELD BARRACKS, Hawaii (AP) -- The Army says it is ready to begin Destroying a stockpile of old chemical weapons found during cleanup of a Training range on the island of Oahu. The Army calls it the largest concentration of unexploded chemical weapons ever found in the U.S. Most of the artillery shells and other weapons contain the choking agent phosgene and one holds an agent that causes a reaction like tear gas. The Army says the weapons were produced beginning in World War I and were stockpiled at the Schofield Barracks military base through World War II. Army officials say a system called a Transportable Detonation Chamber will contain the weapons while they are destroyed one at a time with explosives. Heat and a series of filters will neutralize their poisonous contents. HonoluluAdvertiser.com April 9, 2008 Army destroying old chemical munitions By William Cole Advertiser Military Writer The Army is spending $7 million at Schofield Barracks to destroy 1940s-era chemical weapons that were discovered beginning in 2005 during unexploded ordnance cleanup for a new Stryker brigade "battle area complex." At least seven rounds with chloropicrin, a choking agent, previously were detonated in place because they were determined to be unsafe to be moved, the Army said. Approximately 250 munitions filled with liquid were recovered and brought to a holding facility, officials said. Starting Tuesday, the Army plans to destroy 71 rounds that contain chloropicrin and phosgene, also a choking agent. The Army said the remainder of the 250 liquid-filled rounds were not chemical weapons and were detonated on the training range — standard practice with old munitions. According to the Federation of American Scientists, phosgene was first used in 1915 and accounted for 80 percent of all chemical fatalities during World War I. During and immediately after exposure, there is likely to be coughing, choking, a feeling of tightness in the chest, nausea, and occasionally vomiting and headache, according to the organization's Web site. With exposure to very high concentrations, death may occur within several hours. According to an environmental assessment conducted by the Army, the rounds to be destroyed include: # Ten 4-inch Stokes mortars filled with phosgene # One 4-inch Stokes mortar suspected to contain chloropicrin # Thirty-eight 155 mm projectiles with phosgene # Twenty-two 75 mm projectiles with phosgene. Chemical weapons were stockpiled by the U.S. well after World War II. In 1997, the U.S. became a signatory to the Chemical Weapons Convention, which prohibits their use and mandates elimination of existing stockpiles. The unexploded chemical weapons were found buried at the Schofield range. "The Army has been in Hawai'i and has trained on some of those ranges longer than I, or most other people, have been alive," said Col. Matthew Margotta, commander of U.S. Army Garrison Hawai'i. Over about two weeks, the Army will use a Transportable Detonation Chamber with an expansion tank and gas treatment system with air monitoring to destroy the chemical rounds. Denver-based CH2M Hill previously said it had been awarded a contract to use its portable detonation chamber technology to dispose of the Schofield chemical weapons. A charge is used to detonate the munitions and create a fireball. Water bags help absorb the blast. According to the environmental assessment, a 5,600-square-foot ventilation-controlled enclosure will be placed over the detonation chamber. Sixteen tractor trailers are needed to transport the equipment. "The Army's procedures for handling, storing and disposing of recovered chemical munitions begin and end with safety," Margotta said. ===== http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/04/ap_vieques_041808/ Unexploded munitions cleared at Vieques By Yaisha Vargas - The Associated Press Posted : Friday Apr 18, 2008 8:29:23 EDT VIEQUES, Puerto Rico — Observers winced as workers gave the signal Thursday to detonate a pile of old mortar shells and unexploded munitions on this former Navy bombing range that was once the focus of heated protest. "Fire in the area!" came the shout as the first of four controlled blasts shook the ground, as the Navy began its cleanup project in Vieques, a tiny island of 9,000 residents, ringed by beaches and turquoise waters east of mainland Puerto Rico. The 2,647 pounds of weaponry destroyed Thursday is a fiery reminder of the Naval Training Range, which was hammered for decades with live rounds from warships and planes, and is now scattered with piles of mangled metal. The Navy finally agreed to close the range in April 2003, after years of protests against the danger and din of the practice bombing. But thousands of unexploded munitions were left behind, lurking under tropical foliage. Now, contract workers are methodically clearing the site, overseen by the Environmental Protection Agency. The effort, begun in 2005, could take 10 years, and the Navy has set aside $200 million, officials said. Reporters were invited to watch the destruction Thursday. Outrage over the range began in 1999, when a Marine jet dropped two bombs off target, killing a local security guard and drawing the ire of islanders and celebrities including singer Ricky Martin, actor Edward James Olmos and New York politician Al Sharpton. The Navy closed the range four years later, handing it over to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Islanders have since sought to make the area a tourist destination. In the first two years of cleanup, some 4.7 million pounds of scrap iron were recovered and melted down in large furnaces on the island, before being shipped to the U.S. mainland as scrap metal, said Chris Brown, a subcontractor with the environmental services firm of PIKA International Inc. Still, just 775 acres of the 14,500-acre training range have been cleared, said Christopher Penny, head of the Vieques Restoration Program. Two-thirds of the site remains closed to the public because it is still peppered with unexploded munitions.