Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 3, Number 2, 1 February 1986 — Protest Against Kalama Polluiion Builds [ARTICLE]

Protest Against Kalama Polluiion Builds

Office of Hawaiian Affairs T rustee Hayden F. Burgess has informed the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs regarding the United States' disposal of waste from toxic material into the Pacific Oeean at Kalama or Johnston lsland. According to Burgess, he received word recently from the

Marshall Islands that its government is protesting the burning of nerve gases and dumping of brine into the Pacific. The Republic of the Marshall Islands (RepMar) has sent a strongly worded protest to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency oppossing the constmction of a planned ehemieal waste incinerator on Kalama, Burgess reported. Burgess, who also serves as English speaking vice president of the World Council of Indigenous Peoples, has been actively informing Pacific nations of the U.S.'s designs for Kalama. When he brought this eoneem recently before Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs, Burgess said the Australian government was unaware of it. With this revelation, Burgess expects the Australians to be protesting U.S. activities on Kalama. In a 22-page letter and some comments, the Marshall Islands joined the Federated States of Micronesia in criticizing the project on environmental grounds and for violating U.S. and intemational safety requirements. "The Republic of the Marshall Islands opposes designation of this disposal site due to a variety of deficiencies in the draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), including an absence of site specific data for the proposed site, unresolved scientific and technical considerations and a failure to comply with U.S. and international regulatory requirement," wrote Assistant Attorney General John Howard on behalf of RepMar. Burgess reported that a key issue in the letter cited the contamination of migratory tuna by the toxic wastes emmitted during and after nerve gases are burned on Kalama. The U.S., Burgess further reported, also proposes to dump in the oeean off Kalama thousands of gallons of "scrubber brine," waste liquids from the incineration process. But no experiments with this waste brine was conducted in the area selected for disposal whieh is in relatively deep water. Instead, the U.S. is relying on a test of 500 gallons dumped in shallow waters off Kalama whieh formed a very large "cloud" over the half-acre of oeean. Based on this, the EIS claims that the waste products will not sink below 100 meters depth. Yet during actual dumping, the U.S. will be discharging 100,000 to 180,000 gallons per trip into the oeean or a discharge rate of up to 3,000 gallons per minute. RepMar asked the EPA what will be the effect on schools of tuna. The U.S.'s draft EIS admits that "commercially valuable species such as tuna and billfish" are in the area of Kalama, but concludes that there is "presently no commercial fishery in the area."