By Kathryn Bender, Star-Bulletin
Johnston Atoll is home to these 244 containers
of contaminated solution. They have been on
the atoll since 1971.

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Solutions to clean out nerve and
blister agents to move
to safer storage

By Gregg K. Kakesako
Star-Bulletin

The Army today received approval to transfer 244 barrels of hazardous wastewater to newer, stronger containers on Johnston Atoll while it searches for a way to dispose of the material.

Originally, the Army had planned to ship the waste to a Sauget, Ill., treatment plant, until residents there protested.

Gene McCloskey, project manager for the Johnston Atoll Chemical Disposal Facility, said in March that Johnston, 825 miles southwest of Hawaii, wasn't equipped to dispose of such waste.

Mickey Morales, Army spokesman, said the Army still plans to ship the decontamination solution now held in the barrels to a mainland disposal plant -- "but it will be a reduced amount." No decision has been made as to where it will be done.

The approval came from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and will allow the Army to transfer 50,000 gallons of the waste, now stored in old, corroded containers, into "safer double-walled containers."

Julie Anderson, EPA waste management division director, said the agency supports the Army's decision to transfer the material to newer containers "before a spill could occur that would endanger public health or the environment."

The EPA permit will allow the Army to move the waste to a new storage area to transfer the waste material from the corroding barrels to newer vessels. The older vessels will be destroyed on Johnston. However, no weapons or nerve agents will be shipped off island. Federal law prohibits transportation of additional chemicals to or from the atoll.

The old wastewater containers originally came from Okinawa in 1971 and hold decontamination solution that was used to clean containers that were filled with nerve and blister agents.

The EPA said the water contains "heavy metals such as mercury, arsenic and lead. A few of the containers have trace amounts of mustard (a chlorine-based chemical) at levels that would pose no human health risk in the event of a spill."

Since 1990, the Army has destroyed all of the rockets and bombs stored on Johnston Atoll and, in the process, more than three-quarters of the 4 million pounds of chemical and nerve agents there.

The Army expects to finish destroying chemicals during the year 2000.