The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has found eight hand grenades and a mortar round in and near Waimea this year while clearing unexploded ordnance from the former Waikoloa Maneuver Area.
At a Tuesday meeting of the Waikoloa Maneuver Area Restoration Advisory Board, Corps project manager Loren Zulick provided an update about the search for unexploded ordnance throughout the former 185,000-acre military site, which was used for live-fire exercises during World War II.
The search for ordnance began in 2002, and has so far more than 2,700 unexploded munitions have been removed from the maneuver area. Surveys of about 4,480 acres in and around Waimea began last July, and is expected to carry on until next spring.
“We’re eating this elephant two bites at a time,” Zulick said during the meeting.
Since beginning work in Waimea, Zulick said the Corps has turned up eight MK 2 hand grenades — the standard-issue fragmentation grenade used by U.S. armed forces in WWII — and one 60-mm mortar round. The specific sites where these weapons were found were not disclosed, although in April Zulick reported that a 60-mm mortar and seven grenades had been found on a rural property immediately south of Waimea.
Zulick thanked Waimea property owners for their forebearance, because the Corps requires owner consent before scanning for ordnance at any given site.
Although Zulick had reported in April that survey work in Waimea was expected to be completed by the end of the year, remedial work is now expected to continue until April 2023, with a report to follow. Currently, the Corps is approximately 65% complete with its Waimea fieldwork.