STAR-BULLETIN FILE
In May 1998, decontaminated projectiles were
re-cased in crates as recyclable scrap metal as part
of operations at the military's chemical weapons
disposal plant at Johnston Atoll.
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Johnston Atoll:
The end of an era
After years of use by the
U.S. military, the remote
atoll is reverting to the wild
By Gregg K. Kakesako
JOHNSTON ATOLL >> After nearly seven decades
of military control, these four small Pacific islands are slowly
going to the birds.
By next summer almost all of the man-made
structures will be gone. Even the 9,000-foot runway, which dominates
the main island of Johnston Atoll, will be closed -- even for
emergency use -- because it will be too expensive to operate.
The only inhabitants will be 20 species of
migratory seabirds, 315 species of fish, 34 species of coral, as
well as green sea turtles and Hawaiian monk seals.
There are no longer armed guards patrolling
the main island. The high-security fences that surrounded everything
-- including munition bunkers and chemical weapons disposal
incinerators -- are gone. The incinerator's two red-and-white
smokestacks are no longer a dominant feature on the south end of the
island.
Gary McCloskey, site manager for the Johnston
Atoll Chemical Agent Disposal System, said it took the Army two
years to build the two-story, 80,000-square-foot facility that
housed the incinerators, testing laboratories and control centers,
"and only two months to demolish it."
COURTESY OF THE U.S.
ARMY
Last month, the plant was destroyed as the Army
prepared to leave.
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Yesterday, with nearly 100 current and
past civilian workers looking on, McCloskey unveiled a plaque on
southwest Johnston Island before a 3-foot coral plateau. That coral
cap, covering more than 50,000 square feet, is the only reminder of
the United States' first chemical weapons disposal facility -- now
eradicated and the site cleaned up.
The only remaining task falls to the U.S. Air
Force, the landowner since 1948, whose job will be to return
Johnston Island -- about 2 miles long and a quarter-mile wide -- to
a near-pristine state.
Johnston Atoll, near the center of the
northern Pacific 825 miles southwest of Honolulu, has been a
national bird sanctuary since 1926. However, in 1934, under an
executive order signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the
military began sharing the atoll with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service.
"Our job is to monitor the wildlife resources
there," said Don Palawski, refuge manager for the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife's Pacific Remote Islands National Wildlife Refuge Complex.
"That allows them to focus on their main mission."
Since World War II the Pentagon's attention
has centered on Johnston Island, which, through dredging and fill,
has grown to 625 acres from 46. The atoll consists of a 9-mile reef
and two modified natural islands: Johnston and Sand. Johnston Island
has been a mid-Pacific refueling and supply center, a nuclear
atmospheric test site and, more recently, the home of the Army's
chemical weapons disposal system.
Not only was Johnston enlarged, the Navy
added two new islands to the atoll: North (Akau) with 25 acres and
East (Hikina) with 18 acres. Twelve acres were added to Sand Island,
enlarging it to 22 acres.
| Carla Heck, who
heads the civilian contractor razing the buildings
on Johnston, reads a plaque marking where an
incinerator once stood. |
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Three years ago the last of 4 million
pounds of bombs, rockets, mines, mortars and explosives were
destroyed. At one time Johnston Atoll held 6.6 percent of the
nation's stockpile of chemical weapons -- 412,000 different types of
explosives. Automated equipment disassembled the munitions, removed
the explosive components and drained the chemical agents. The
chemical agents and the explosives were then incinerated.
Waste was disposed of on Johnston or shipped
to the U.S. mainland, according McCloskey, who managed the disposal
for 13 years.
The incinerators were built in 1985 after
Congress mandated that the Army destroy all of its chemical weapons
-- mainly mustard and nerve agents -- which had been stockpiled on
Johnston since 1971. When the munition disposal began on June 30,
1990, it became the United States' first chemical weapons disposal
facility. The Army spent $120 million a year and destroyed its last
lethal batch Nov. 29, 2000.
More than $412 million was set aside for the
Army to clean up the disposal site.
"They did a very good job," said Palawski.
"They were responsible."
Air Force Lt. Col. Mark Hostletter said the
remaining 150 buildings -- desalination and power plants, barracks
and living quarters, bowling alley, outdoor theater, mess hall,
gymnasium, library and post office -- will be torn down by June.
Seventy concrete bunkers and a three-story command center will
remain.
"We're not sure what we plan to do," Palawski
said. "A lot depends on the Air Force. We're waiting to see what
they plan to do."
One of the major problems still facing the
Air Force stems from the nuclear atmospheric tests in the 1960s. The
accidental explosion of a Thor missile in 1962 contaminated a small
portion of the island with plutonium oxide.
Carol Gaudette, Johnston Atoll manager for
the Air Force, said that $28.4 million has been set aside for
environmental cleanup and another $24.3 million for demolition work.
She estimated that the Air Force cleanup will be completed by June.
Johnston Atoll timeline
A historic look at the atoll:
>> Sept. 2, 1796: Accidentally discovered by
Capt. Joseph Pierpoint when his ship, the American brig Sally, ran
aground.
>> 1856: Claimed by the United States to
harvest guano (seabird excrement) for use as fertilizer. Mined until
deposits depleted in 1890.
>>1858: Annexed by both the United States and
Kingdom of Hawaii.
>> 1926: Designated as a federal bird refuge.
>> 1934: President Franklin Roosevelt places
atoll under Navy control.
>> 1941: Shelled by Japanese after the Pearl
Harbor attack.
>> 1948: Placed under U.S. Air Force control.
>> 1950s and 1960s: Used for atmospheric
nuclear testing.
>> 1971: Army starts to stockpile 6.6 percent
of its chemical weapons, moving them from Oki- nawa under Operation
Red Hat.
>> 1985: Congress orders disposal of all
stockpiled chemical agents and munitions. Construction begins on
incineration plant. Target: 2004.
>> June 30, 1990: Johnston Atoll weapons
destruction operations begin.
>> January 1993: A burster charge or booster
cup of 105 mm artillery shell ignites, but no World War I-era
mustard gas contained in shell is released. No injuries.
>> March 23, 1994: Accidental release of
lethal nerve gas GB, or sarin. EPA fines Army $122,000.
>> Nov. 19, 1994: A 6-foot rocket drained of
chemicals explodes. No leaks reported.
>> January 1995: A U.S. General Accounting
Office report criticizes program's costs.
>> February 1995: Army requests 10-year
extension of EPA permit; granted in March.
>> Nov. 29, 2000: Destruction operations end.
More than 4 million pounds destroyed, involving 400,000 rockets,
projectiles, bombs, mortars, containers and mines.
>> April 12, 2001: U.S. Army Chemical
Activity Pacific closes. Cleanup begins.
Sources: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,
U.S. Army
