Honolulu, Hawai, USA The US military dumped large quantities of mustard and other chemical weapons in the ocean off Hawaii between 1944 and 1946, an Army analysis of military archives said Wednesday.

The Army also found more than 2,000 conventional munitions lying on the seabed about a half mile off the coast of Waianae in an area known in the islands as Ordnance Reef.

Hawaii’s representatives in Washington asked for the accounting after learning of a 2001 Army report saying chemical weapons had been dumped in Hawaii waters in 1944.

The military stopped disposing of unusable munitions at sea in the 1970s. It now only allows ships to dump weapons in the ocean in an emergency.

Reps. Neil Abercrombie and Ed Case, both D-Hawaii, released the military’s five-page report.

It said 1944 War Department procedures required that sea disposal sites be at least 300 feet deep and 10 miles from shore. However, the Army report said it was still researching the location of the chemical weapons disposal.

Case said it was good news that the chemical weapons dumped off Hawaii were of types that wouldn’t pose the biggest threat. One of the varieties was mustard, which is only slightly soluble in water.

But he said he was worried about the conventional weapons the Army found close to shore off Waianae on the west coast of Oahu, because they were in relatively shallow water accessible by people.

Case said the military still needed to finish its investigation, search for any other undocumented munition dumps and clean up the ordnance.

Abercrombie said he would introduce legislation calling for an underwater survey of sites where chemical munitions may have been dumped. Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, said he would introduce similar legislation in the Senate.

Source: saettlepi