Army to begin two month search for unexploded ordnance off Makua Beach

"This is the length of two football fields and it's a depth out in the ocean of one football field," Colonel Stephen E. Dawson, commander of the U.S. Army Garrison-Hawaii said.

Col. Dawson says during World War II the military practiced off Makua Beach, conducting beach landings or artillery trainings.

"And it's possible some rounds landed short of the valley.. of Makua Beach and into the water," he added

As recently as 2016, a recreational diver had found a 5-inch artillery shell wedged into the coral. The Navy could not safely remove the ordnance, so it had to be detonated underwater.

The search area is centered around where that UXO was found. According to Col. Dawson, UXO-qualified divers will use metal detectors and a global positioning system (GPS) to scan the ocean floor. If any more military munitions are detected during the search, they'll be brought to shore and be safely destroyed on Army land.

"They will create a sandbag containment with thousands of sandbags around the ordinance if we have to do this, we'll actually have to shut down Farrington Highway in front of Makua Valley for about 20 minutes or so," he said.

Anything that cannot be removed from the ocean will be detonated in the water, but not until the Army consults with state and federal agencies to corner off the beach and make sure there are no endangered or threatened species in the water.

James Cowles is a member of the Nanakuli-Maili Neighborhood Board and says the search is long overdue.

"It needs to be cleaned up. We have a lot of fishermen that come out here and a lot of fishermen that come out and dive," Cowles said.

Cowles says the surrounding land needs to be searched, too.

"They have had workers get injured just by weeding the grass out there.. they had an ordinance explode," Cowles added.

According to the Army, the project has seen delays because of funding and also because the island's only hyperbaric chamber was out of commission, so any diver injuries would risk going untreated. The project cost is an estimated $3.5 million dollars.

During fieldwork, the search area at Makua Beach will be off-limits to the public during the weekdays. Operations are expected to wrap up by the end of May.