Showing posts with label Ammunition Ships. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ammunition Ships. Show all posts

Monday, September 21, 2020

West Loch ESQD (safety arc blast zone) Revealed from a Recently Published 2017 Public Document

 Compiled History by Ewa Historian John Bond

West Loch ESQD (safety arc blast zone) Revealed from a Recently Published 2017 Public Document


The West Loch Blast Zone Arc is just 1.4 miles, much smaller than Army MOTSU, NC

For the first time the West Loch Blast Zone ESQD has been found. The Navy in Hawaii has never released this map before. All maps shown and documents used here are from US government publications, project analysis and environmental assessments, and are NOT secret or disclosing anything to China and Russia which actually know a lot more about all this than does the local West Oahu community. The communities near these munitions sites deserve to know this information because all this could have a large impact on home construction, building codes, schools, insurance, evacuations, emergency response and much, much more. This was extensively revealed in the 2018 MOTSU disclosures to the communities near it in North Carolina.

The MOTSU Blast Zone Arc is approximately 3.5 miles or MORE

The Navy in Hawaii disclosed the West Loch ESQD in 2003 in an unpublished report. The Navy very often keeps important community information in unpublished reports documents. Sometimes these documents can be found using a FOIA process (Freedom of Information Act.) However the West Loch blast zone safety arc of 2003 was revealed and can be found in this university thesis: Cost of Compliance on Graduate School of Business & Public Policy Thesis, December 2017, Naval Postgraduate School, Munitions Consolidation from Lualualei to West Loch. This is a US government document and can be seen and downloaded online.

https://calhoun.nps.edu/handle/10945/58904

The thesis is a rationale for moving Army munitions to West Loch and consolidating them all with new Navy Type D storage units that will be built for missiles. In the analysis a number of significant new maps were revealed for the first time in a public document.

Annotated in red shows the existing and planned expansion of munitions and missile magazines in West Loch. The Army and Navy plans also show another ALT site which could later become a phase II missile magazine site. The Navy's missile magazines will go in right next to the "N" Special Weapons storage area. Below the N weapons area is the Navy Mk-46-Mk-48 Torpedo Shop and storage area. The West Loch channel has been dredged and expanded to bring in large T-AKE Navy ammunition ships.


The Box D Type magazine are typically used for "long ordinance" missiles

The Navy 2003 blast zone arc map has been annotated in red to show the public what is currently there and what is planned to go in soon. None of this is classified information and details can be found in public documents on the internet. The Navy policy concerning “special weapons-AKA nukes” is that they will neither “confirm nor deny” that nuclear weapons are stored in a specific location. The obvious indicator most used is to look for a double high security fence around the site. Waikele was once also a known site for storing nuclear weapons and had very high security and double fencing. Today it is generally known that intercontinental ballistic missiles for Navy submarines are stored and loaded in a remote area in Bangor, Washington. There isn't a "boomer" missile submarine loading facility in Pearl Harbor at this time. 



Above shown is an "Alternative 2" type D missile magazine storage site (Phase II?)

https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/lualualei.htm

Global Security: Naval Magazine, Lualualei May 2011 stated this about nuclear weapons: In January 2000 the designation Naval Magazine, Lualualei, Hawaii, was changed to Naval Magazine Pearl Harbor. The name change was a result of the command's recent headquarters move from the Lualualei Branch to Pearl Harbor's West Loch. Fifty W-80-0 munitions for Tomahawk SLCM's and 40 nuclear aerial bombs are stored in the Lualualei Naval Magazine (NAVMAG) at West Loch on Oahu, Hawaii.

Supposedly according to treaties with Russia, Navy attack submarines do not carry nuclear Tomahawks. However, all of this is now changing as all the key treaties are being cancelled to allow a wide range of new nuclear weapons of many types and sizes. The nuclear aerial bombs that possibly are now stored in West Loch are most likely the B-61 type which are generally considered outdated for use against a sophisticated air defense system like Russia or China. The big weapons trend is going to “stand off” missiles.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B61_nuclear_bomb

The B61 nuclear bomb is the primary thermonuclear gravity bomb in the United States Enduring Stockpile following the end of the Cold War. It is a low to intermediate-yield strategic and tactical nuclear weapon featuring a two-stage radiation implosion design.

The B61 is of the variable yield ("dial-a-yield" in informal military jargon) design with a yield of 0.3 to 340 kilotons in its various mods. It has a streamlined casing capable of withstanding supersonic flight speeds, is 11 ft 8 in (3.56 m) long, with a diameter of about 13 inches (33 cm). Basic weight is about 700 pounds (320 kg), although the weights of individual weapons may vary depending on version and fuze/retardation configuration. As of 2020, it is undergoing a 12th modification. According to the Federation of American Scientists in 2012, the roughly 400 B61-12s will cost $28 million apiece.


Lualualei: Why Are Munitions Being Transferred to West Loch and Large New Missile Magazines Being Built by Army and Navy?

 Compiled History by Ewa Historian John Bond

Lualualei: Why Are Munitions Being Transferred to 

West Loch and Large New Missile Magazines 

Being Built by Army and Navy?

Lualualei Naval Magazine


This is Lualualei in leeward Oahu. This naval magazine has gradually been shut down and the last tenant is the US Army which has been keeping its munitions there. Now the army plans to remove all remaining munitions over to a new Army Munitions Complex directly next to the communities of West Loch, Ewa by Gentry, Ewa Villages and Ewa Beach.

The Army is also building many new Type D missile magazines for new missiles and long range artillery shells at West Loch. The Navy is also building new Type D missile magazines at West Loch. There are major new weapons being developed largely in anticipation of the coming war with China. China’s military is making increasingly aggressive military moves in the Pacific with Guam and Hawaii in their bomb sites. The US Military is countering this with a rapid buildup of advanced new missiles to hit ship and island targets in the Pacific.

Cost of Compliance on Graduate School of Business & Public Policy Thesis, December 2017, Naval Postgraduate School, Munitions Consolidation from Lualualei to West Loch

https://calhoun.nps.edu/handle/10945/58904

In 1967, the Naval Ordnance Safety and Security Activity (NOSSA) came out with more restrictive safety standards mandating that the distance between each magazine must be greater than what is currently installed at West Loch (NAVSEA, 2017). Due to the lack of permissible net explosive weight (NEW) allowed per the NOSSA standards, Navy Munitions Command has been using several magazines in Lualualei to store smaller-sized ordnance.

The 1995 Hawaii Military Land Use Master Plan (HMLUMP) recognized the importance of Hawaii’s strategic location as a “bridge to Asia” and, as a result, recommended the release of the Lualualei Annex due to its aging magazines and its consolidation with West Loch pending construction of new facilities.

The 2002 Commander, Navy Region Hawaii (CNRH) Ordnance Facilities Plan, proposed a significant investment in new ordnance infrastructure for new magazines near West Loch. Additionally, in 2003, PACFLT identified that only four out of 299 magazines in Hawaii are capable of storing modern missiles for naval destroyers and submarines.

The two courses of action according to the Navy’s analysis are as follows: Option 1. Navy builds new magazines, Army builds new magazines, and both consolidate in West Loch in accordance with NOSSA standards. Option 2. Current magazines at Lualualei are upgraded to NOSSA standards and current operations remain the same for Navy and Army. Option 1 may sound reasonable but does not take in account the required ESQD – safety zone, according to information made available to the public in 2018 by the Army MOTSU presentations. The Army munitions complex will be just .5 (1/2 mile) from the nearby communities.

Rising tensions in the Pacific with China, North Korea, and Russia could lead to combat operations in the Pacific. The West Loch Hawaii’s will need to store additional prepositioned munitions, hold ordnance for ships undergoing repairs, and resupply more deploying ships to the Pacific. The West Loch channel has already been expanded to handle large newer Navy ammunition ships, such as handled by the Army MOTSU site in North Carolina which has a 3.5 mile ESQD safety arc, compared to West Loch which has a very much smaller ESQD and is located right next to many suburban homes in Ewa West Oahu.

See Figure 3 below for the layout of West Loch and shows the explosive safety boundaries associated with ammunition operations. Unlike Lualualei, West Loch is closer to residential areas. Ordnance operations in both Lualualei and West Loch are contracted out and are renewed annually by the Navy.

 


https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/lualualei.htm

Global Security: Naval Magazine, Lualualei May 2011

The Naval Magazine is located in Lualualei Valley on the leeward side of Oahu, with headquarters a few miles inland from the towns of Waianae and Nanakuli. The shipping and receiving center is located at West Loch. The Naval Magazine is a terminus for the kolekole Pass road which traverses the beautiful Waianae Mountains. The drive extends from the Waianae coast to Schofield Barracks and offers panoramic views. The road is closed to the public, but open to military personnel and their dependents on most days until sunset.

In January 2000 the designation Naval Magazine, Lualualei, Hawaii, was changed to Naval Magazine Pearl Harbor. The name change was a result of the command's recent headquarters move from the Lualualei Branch to Pearl Harbor's West Loch. Fifty W-80-0 munitions for Tomahawk SLCM's and 40 nuclear aerial bombs are stored in the Lualualei Naval Magazine (NAVMAG) at West Loch on Oahu, Hawaii.

In January 2000 Naval Magazine Lualualei held its official ribbon-cutting ceremony for the grand opening of the new headquarters building, located in the West Loch Branch, Ewa Beach. The Commanding Officer, Capt. Shawn Morrissey, kicked off the ceremony with an introductory speech. Following his speech, Lt. Leila Havadtoy provided a blessing for the new headquarters building. After the ribbon was officially cut, all attendees gathered together for a potluck barn-warming celebration, which was held right next to the waterfront and the headquarters.

Lualualei is located on land that consists of a thin layer of alluvial and coastal sediments and reef deposits overlying consolidated limestone. Civilian land use surrounding this facility is largely rural and the site is surrounded by agricultural and small areas of Urban and Conservation Land Use districts. Naval Magazine Lualualei, which occupies 8,105 acres of the valley. The nearest urban area is the town of Maili, which lies approximately 1 mile west of the station. The towns of Waianae and Nanakuli are also located nearby. Kolekole Pass is a narrow mountain road across the Waianae Mountain Ranges that provides vehicular access to Schofield Barracks. Lualualei is approximately 27 miles from downtown Honolulu.

http://archives.starbulletin.com/98/10/05/news/story1.html

The Navy owns more than 9,000 acres in the Waianae Valley. Its radio towers are a familiar sight, but more goes on beneath the earth.

The Navy has used Lualualei as an ammunition depot (initially Naval Ammunition Depot Oʻahu, now Naval Magazine Pearl Harbor) and a communications facility (Lualualei Naval Radio Transmitting Facility) since 1934.

Kolekole Pass forms a low crossing point through the Waiʻanae Mountains.  A prehistoric trail crossed Kolekole pass linking Waiʻanae Uka with Waiʻanae Kai.

Kolekole Pass Road is located on the federal lands connecting these military facilities on Waiʻanae coast of Oʻahu to Schofield Barracks Army Installation in Central Oahu.  The Army's 3rd Engineers corps constructed vehicular passage in 1937.

The Magazine facility, a terminus for the Kolekole Pass road, contains 255 aboveground storage structures capable of housing 78,000 tons of ammunition and explosives.  (hawaii.gov)  The shipping and receiving center is located at West Loch, Pearl Harbor.

Historic documentation Of Lualualei Ammunition facility 
















Honolulu Star-Advertiser Column: Public deserves to be heard on West Loch ordnance facility

 

Honolulu Star-Advertiser Column:

Public deserves to be heard on West Loch ordnance facility

https://malu-aina.org/?p=6915


I urge at least a one-month extension (from Sept. 8 until Oct. 8) for public comments on the draft environmental assessment (EA) for the U.S. Army West Loch Ordnance Facilities at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. Given COVID-19 restrictions and the fact there have been no public hearings or meetings to discuss this matter, there needs to be more time for the community to respond to this potentially dangerous munitions proposal.

For background: I trust many are unaware that in the late 1970s the Navy was planning to build a major nuclear weapons storage and maintenance facility at West Loch, and similar to today, was NOT planning to do a full environmental impact statement (EIS). Only an EA — and of course, the Navy “would neither confirm nor deny” the presence of nuclear weapons.

The Navy was planning to close the Waikele nuclear weapons storage depot in Central Oahu’s Kipapa Gulch due to encroaching urban development. I and others did a lot of research about security requirements for nuclear weapons storage areas — specific signage, double fencing, lighting, etc. We even photographed (from public accessible areas) nuclear weapons being transported via helicopter from Waikele to West Loch — the specific containers distinctive for nuclear weapons.

A lot of this info is in the book, “The Dark Side of Paradise — Hawaii in a Nuclear World,” I co-authored and is in Hawaii libraries. Long story short: Catholic Action of Hawaii, which I coordinated, filed a federal lawsuit to require an EIS. The case was dismissed at the federal court level, but we won at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The court ruled the military could do a hypothetical EIS about the possibilities of accidents, sabotage, terrorist attacks, air crashes into the storage site, etc., to get around the “neither confirm nor deny” policy. The military appealed, and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1983 that military national security nuclear weapons secrecy trumps all. No need to do even a hypothetical EIS about the dangers of nuclear weapons being stored in Hawaii.

The result: 48 nuclear weapons storage bunkers plus nuclear weapon maintenance buildings were built at West Loch.

Have times changed or remained the same? Do people have a right to know about the dangers of military weapons stored in our backyards?

We all need to be reminded of the second Pearl Harbor event, at West Loch in May of 1944 — Hawaii’s second-greatest disaster. An accidental explosion of munitions killed and wounded more than 500 at West Loch. Today the area around West Loch has seen major civilian growth and population build-up — Pearl City, Waipahu, Ewa, Ewa Beach, Kapolei, etc.

The munitions depot at West Loch has gone through multiple expansions since WWII. The power of the munitions has also increased tremendously. Today both the Army and Navy are planning munition depot expansion there: The Army is planning 35 storage magazines and a range of support structures covering over 50 acres; the Navy is planning 24 new box magazines for storage. Both say “no significant impact.” It’s one expansion after another, each with “no significant impact.”

I thought in a democracy that ultimate power rests with the people. A government of, by and for the people. Yet if citizens are kept in the dark about matters for their own defense, who is really wielding ultimate power? Are we really being defended or endangered by these weapons of war in our backyards? Don’t we have a right to be better informed on these matters, ask questions in public hearings, and have a voice in the decision making process? Shouldn’t a comprehensive EIS be done on all the West Loch munitions and how this might impact the lives of people who live in the surrounding area?


Jim Albertini is founder of the Malu ‘Aina Center for Nonviolent Education & Action in Kurtistown (www.malu-aina.org).

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Jim Albertini Malu 'Aina Center For Non-violent Education & Action P.O. Box 489 Ola'a (Kurtistown) Hawai'i 96760 Phone 808-966-7622 Email ja@malu-aina.org Visit us on the web at www.malu-aina.org

 

 

Civil Beat: Military Plan To Move Munitions To West Loch Worries Public

 

Civil Beat: Military Plan To Move Munitions To West Loch Worries Public

The Army says the move will make munitions storage safer, but secrecy and the legacy of a wartime coverup from the past make neighbors of the project uneasy.

https://www.civilbeat.org/2020/09/military-plan-to-move-munitions-to-west-loch-worries-public/

A proposed military munitions depot at West Loch that would begin construction in 2022 has prompted complaints from community members who feel they’re being kept in the dark.

The project would see the Army move its munitions from its current storage magazines at the Navy’s Lualualei Annex near Waianae on the leeward side to West Loch Annex as part of a broader move to consolidate military logistics on the island.

The military argues that in the long term it will be safer and more convenient to move the explosives, but some residents feel that the ordnance will be too close to densely populated communities including Ewa and Waipahu.

Local concerns are colored by the fact that West Loch was the scene of an infamous accidental ordnance explosion in 1944 that killed more than 100 people but was covered up by the military for years. Several neighbors of the project feel that the military hasn’t done enough to inform the public about what it’s doing now and why.

The public comment window originally closed on Sept. 8, but the Navy extended it to Friday when many residents complained they had only just heard of it. Residents can leave feedback online, but local officials and some residents are calling for a public hearing.

“This is a big enough thing that they should hold a public meeting,” said Ewa Neighborhood Board member John Rogers. “I think it’s the courteous thing to do for the community.”

At the beginning of the month state Sen. Mike Gabbard wrote to the Navy at Rogers’ request asking for an extension of the comment deadline and for a public hearing.

Capt. James Meyer, the commanding officer for Naval Facilities Engineering Command in Hawaii responded to Gabbard in an email, telling him that “while public hearings are not required (by the National Environmental Policy Act) in this case, comments are encouraged and this process affords for official consideration and reply to public comment.”

“He didn’t mention anything about a public hearing, which I think is totally lame,” Gabbard told Civil Beat.

One of the main contentions is questions about just what sort of munitions the military will be storing at West Loch, and in what volume. In a joint statement to Civil Beat, Army and Navy officials said that “specific ammunition types and explosive amounts are considered sensitive information, which is why they and the exact (safety) calculations are not disclosed to the public.”

“This is less than a mile from a developed community. And somehow, they just assumed I guess nobody’s going to notice this,” said John Bond, a local community member and military historian. “But this is a big deal.”

Military officials insisted that they have been aggressive in their outreach efforts. They sent the environmental assessment to the neighborhood board chairs for Waipahu, Ewa and Maili/Nanakuli for distribution to their respective boards.

In a joint statement, Army and Navy officials told Civil Beat they also put notices for the 30-day public review and comment period in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Aug. 9, 10 and 11, in the Office of Environmental Quality Control’s August Environmental Notice, and distributed copies of the environmental assessment to the Pearl City, Ewa Beach and Hawaii State libraries.

Local resident Haunani Hess said she’s bothered by the lack of a public hearing. She said that she understands the pandemic presents challenges for holding one, but argued it should be possible to do an event online.

This week the Navy announced it will deliver a digital public hearing later this month for a proposed submarine dry dock.

But Hess also noted that she doesn’t expect public input to have any actual impact on what the military does.

“They’ll take our comments and put them in the trash, like they usually do,” she said.

Move Is 25 Years In The Works

The move from Lualualei is part of a long-planned restructure based on findings of a 1995 land use study the military prepared at the request of the late U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye.

“The study’s findings would require the Army to either relocate its Lualualei Annex functions or to assume management of the Annex,” the environmental assessment notes. “The Army does not wish to assume management of Lualualei Annex, and the Navy may have other future uses planned for the area.”

The Army and Navy agreed on a longterm plan to consolidate at West Loch Annex, eventually moving all ordnance from Lualualei Annex. The Navy is also planning on building 24 new box storage magazines at West Loch. On Aug. 10 the Navy awarded Honolulu construction contractor Nan Inc. $33.5 million to build them.

“The facilities at Lualualei Annex are approaching the end of their useful life and need major revitalization work in order to make them suitable for today’s weaponry,” the assessment states. The current facilities were built between 1932 and 1942 and were originally designed for a railway transport system.

The environmental assessment also presented renovating the Lualualei facilities as an alternative, but moving munitions to West Loch is the military’s strongly preferred solution.

While critics of the move argue that stockpiling munitions at West Loch poses a threat to surrounding communities, the Navy’s assessment found the move would have a beneficial impact on public safety.

The assessment argued that “residential communities would remain located outside of explosive safety zones” and “the proposed storage of ordnance at West Loch Annex would reduce the transportation of ordnance on public roadways.”

In their statement, military officials noted that the safety buffer zone is “determined by the design of the magazine and amount of explosives permitted to be stored inside.”

Rogers, a Navy veteran who served aboard submarines, said that the lack of information in the environmental assessment is very different than other military documents he’s read, even those meant for public release.

“Normally they give some methods of how they determine that,” he said of the safety calculations. “There’s very little of that here.”

Rogers also questions whether this project will actually cut down on the movement of munitions on roads as the military will still need to convoy them from West Loch to training areas around Schofield Barracks. He wants to know how the military determined it would cut down on traffic.

“They don’t justify that claim at all,” he said. “I understand that some of that is sensitive information, but you can provide just some basic statistics.”

Hess said that ultimately, she considers the military’s safety zone calculations irrelevant when it comes to public comments if the public doesn’t know what they are.

“If we don’t know what they’re storing we have to just blindly trust that it’s in compliance with this blast radius,” she said. “To me that’s inconceivable. This is a densely populated area.”

A Secret Disaster

On May 21, 1944, sailors, Marines and soldiers were all working on several vessels docked at West Loch loading munitions to support Operation Forager, the invasion of Japanese-occupied Saipan.

At 3:08 p.m. something caused an explosion aboard the troop carrier LST-353 near the bow where soldiers were handling mortar rounds. More blasts of increasing intensity followed, raining burning debris on nearby vessels. The debris ignited fuel and munitions stored on their decks, setting off an explosive chain reaction.

Some vessels managed to navigate their way to safety. Others were abandoned and allowed to drift in the channel leaking oil. The oil spread across the water and caught fire, igniting piers and shoreline. The fires raged for over 24 hours before more tugboats and salvage ships from Pearl Harbor managed to contain the spreading fires.

The military ordered a press blackout. Survivors were explicitly ordered not to mention the incident in letters home or to speak of it. Four days after the incident officials released a notice acknowledging an explosion had occurred causing “some loss of life, a number of injuries and resulted in the destruction of several small vessels.”

Six LSTs sank and several others were heavily damaged. The military’s official investigation determined that the most likely cause of the explosion was mishandled ammunition, probably a soldier dropping a mortar round and causing a chain reaction.

Officially, 163 died and 396 were injured, though some historians believe shoddy record-keeping by the Army in a rush to keep Operation Forager on track could have left more than 100 uncounted. The disaster ultimately delayed the attack on Saipan by only one day.

About a third of the casualties that day were Black members of the Army’s segregated 29th Chemical Decontamination Company. During the war Black troops were often assigned menial, but sometimes dangerous, tasks.

Bodies that were too badly burned or mutilated to be identified were buried at 36 grave sites at the Punchbowl cemetery. The headstones were originally marked simply “Unknown,” but have since been updated with the inscription “Unknown, West Loch Disaster, May 21, 1944.”

Two months after the West Loch disaster another munitions explosion killed hundreds more service members at Port Chicago in California. A munitions loading accident led to explosions that killed 320 sailors and wounded 390, most of them Black. A month later Black sailors at Port Chicago mutinied due to continued unsafe conditions.

Changing Communities

The West Loch and Port Chicago disasters led the Navy to change the way it handled munitions, as well as helped spur the military to begin desegregating its ranks. But the West Loch disaster would remain secret until the military finally declassified all files on the incident in 1962.

Bond said that in collecting oral histories of the war years, locals who lived nearby told him they remembered the sounds of the explosions and smoke, but knew little of what was going on.

“Their teachers made everybody, you know, close the curtains and look away, because they all knew you weren’t supposed to ever talk about anything,” Bond said.

Hess said that the history of the West Loch disaster is on her mind when she thinks of weapons being stockpiled there. She can see lights from the West Loch Annex at night from her home. “These sorts of accidents do happen,” she said.

While the Navy has conducted operations in Pearl Harbor continuously over the years, the surrounding communities have grown and changed significantly. Nearby Ewa Beach, once a relatively small rural seaside community made up of local agricultural workers, service members and their families has become a growing residential center.

Hess said that she believes tension between the U.S. and China over Taiwan and the South China Sea is driving the military to streamline its systems to prepare for faster deployments.

“I get how at one time it made sense to use that port,” said Hess. But she said times have changed and that the military has to acknowledge that.

“It’s dangerous to try to fit that sort of military might, that destructive power, in such a small area,” she said.

Bond said that the rapid growth of communities around West Loch coincided in part with the end of the Cold War when it felt as though the military was downsizing. He believes the military’s renewed focus on confronting China is prompting a buildup in Hawaii that’s clashing with communities that have grown in areas where military planners aren’t used to being challenged.

Hess is Native Hawaiian but comes from a military family; her father is a retired infantry officer. She said she understands the military’s desire for secrecy and its logistical challenges.

“I get the dilemma,” she said. “But does that make it okay? I don’t think so.”

Gabbard expressed more sympathy for military officials when it comes to secrecy around the exact makeup of the munitions the Army will store, acknowledging security concerns.

But he also stressed that with unease and rumors floating around the community it would benefit both the military and the community to hold a public hearing.

“That way we can deal with the facts,” Gabbard said.

 

 



Honolulu Star-Advertiser: Plan to upgrade, expand West Loch munitions annex has neighbors on edge

 

Honolulu Star-Advertiser: Plan to upgrade, expand West Loch 

munitions annex has neighbors on edge

https://www.staradvertiser.com/2020/09/15/hawaii-news/plan-to-upgrade-expand-west-loch-munitions-annex-has-neighbors-on-edge/?HSA=f56431b918182c8b582fa3b0d66a5c6b0d5a6e78

In 1944 a munitions accident triggered an explosion that rocked West Loch, leaving 163 men dead and nearly 400 wounded in what is considered Pearl Harbor’s second-worst disaster in terms of fatalities.

Today, 76 years later, a military plan to expand the munitions depots at West Loch has left some people in neighboring communities wondering whether they could be exposed to similar danger.

A draft environmental assessment describes a new Army munitions storage complex at the Navy’s West Loch Annex within Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. The project would be built over several phases of construction, the first of which is scheduled to begin in 2022.

The complex would be home to 35 storage magazines and a range of support structures over 50 acres, allowing for the relocation of existing Army munitions operations at Lualualei Annex in Waianae.

In addition, the Navy is building a new munitions facility at the same West Loch Annex featuring 24 new box magazines for storage of Navy ordnance.

Last month Naval Facilities Engineering Command Hawaii awarded Nan Inc. a $33 million contract to build the magazines by September 2022.

Some community members, meanwhile, are a bit nervous about the plans. The military is being far too quiet about the latest project, they say, and the public needs to be better informed about what’s going on.

“I think they should put this on pause,” said Will Espero, a former state senator from Ewa Beach who is running for Honolulu City Council. “A lot of people don’t know about this.”

Even those who do know about the project are wary.

“The plan contains too much uncertainty and undisclosed materials,” said Poka Laenui of the Institute for the Advancement of Hawaiian Affairs. “The public is unable to effectively participate in this process or to condone an action which it does not understand.”

Laenui said a full environmental impact statement should be done, given the impact of the proposal.

Haunani Hess, a Native Hawaiian who lives on the Pearl City Peninsula, said the 1944 munitions disaster shows what can happen at such a facility.

What’s more, the historical targeting of Pearl Harbor because of its location and capacity “should stand as an obvious telltale sign,” especially with so many densely populated communities surrounding West Loch, Hess said.

“West Loch will be receiving and storing new magazines, and will most likely transport to and from Lualualei Valley. Is it possible to predict accurate calculation for moving explosives?” she said.

Ewa Beach historian John Bond said he believes a vast area of West Oahu, from Waipahu to Kapolei to Iroquois Point, could be vulnerable in an accident.

“There are very major impacts to the Ewa/West Oahu community, and there have been no hearings or presentations made for the public to understand what is going to happen literally in their backyards,” Bond said.

Bond said he thinks the military is using old blast zone data, and he says he can prove it using a United Nations software program, plus Department of Defense data and Army blast zone calculations released during a 2018 public review of a similar project at a base in North Carolina.

By his calculations, the potential blast effects at West Loch could extend out more than 3.5 miles, affecting Kapolei, Ewa, Kunia-Waipahu, Ford Island- Hickam, Haseko, Ewa Beach and Iroquois Point.

The blast wave, he said, could send shrapnel across the region and result in broken windows farther out and casualties and flattened buildings closer in.

Bond said he believes West Loch will only grow in size in the coming years as larger munitions of increasingly powerful explosives and missiles are needed to counter China and Russia.

Asked to comment on concerns from the community, NAVFAC responded with written answers from both the Army and Navy perspectives.

“Safety is always paramount. The preferred alternative in the draft EA maximizes the continued safe storage of ammunition at this site without negatively impacting the neighboring communities. In fact, this and concurrent Navy projects would improve safety by providing state-of-the-art magazine storage and significantly reducing the movement of ordnance on Oahu roadways.”

All new and rebuilt magazines, NAVFAC said, would be within the existing West Loch Annex Explosive Safety Quantity Distance arcs that extend across uninhabited Navy-owned land.

“The safety of community residents is of the utmost importance, and explosive safety is calculated with extreme care and scrutiny,” NAVFAC said.

The ESQD arcs represent a safety buffer zone determined by the design of the magazine and amount of explosives permitted to be stored inside the magazine, according to the response.

The military wouldn’t say what ammunition types and explosive amounts would be stored at West Loch, calling it “sensitive information.”

“However, as stated in the Draft EA, magazine storage capacity would be limited to maintain the current ESQD arc” within Navy property, and residential areas would not be affected, it said.

State Sen. Mike Gabbard asked the Navy for a public hearing, but it told him an environmental assessment was sufficient.

However, the Navy did say the deadline for the 30-day public review and comment period, which originally ended Sept. 8, has been extended to Friday.

In the meantime the draft EA is available online at  808ne.ws/2ZEj5NN and at the Ewa, Waipahu and Hawaii State libraries.

The public can submit comments through mail to Code: EV21AS Naval Facilities Engineering Command Pacific, 258 Makalapa Drive, Suite 100, JBPHH, HI 96860; or by email to NFPAC-Receive@navy.mil.

 

The West Loch disaster remained classified top secret until 1962


Compiled History by Ewa Historian John Bond

 The West Loch disaster remained classified top secret until 1962


https://www.stripes.com/news/2nd-pearl-harbor-kept-top-secret-until-1962-commemorated-1.410773

The West Loch disaster remained classified top secret until 1962.

According the Navy’s history of the disaster, 34 ships were assembled in West Loch on May 21, 1944, to load ammunition and supplies in preparation for the invasion of Saipan. Twenty-nine LSTs were docked closely along six berths. And then a series of huge explosions. However the disaster was kept a secret and it happened again two months later in California at Port Chicago under almost the same conditions.

Only because of a subsequent mutiny and national press coverage were significant changes made, ultimately influencing the much larger safety arc (ESQD) around Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point, established in 1955. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_Ocean_Terminal_Sunny_Point

The catastrophe served as the genesis for the safety arc around MOTSU. On July 17, 1944, military munitions exploded at Port Chicago near San Francisco. The fireball soared nearly two miles into the sky and port was flattened, every building in the neighboring town was damaged, and the rumble was felt as far away as Nevada. 

NOTE: MOTSU doesn't mention the 1944 West Loch explosion because it was kept SECRET until the early 1960's. MOTSU was established in 1955. 

This begs the question that too much secrecy means the wider MOTSU safety arc (ESQD) confidentiality apparently didn't cause the Navy West Loch Ammunition Depot to expand its safety arc (ESQD) when they could have in the 1960's while the Ewa Plain was still mostly sugar cane fields. 

By the 1990's it was widely believed that with the Cold War over the Navy and Army likely would not need lots of weapons storage magazines. Areas next to the old West Loch arc were allowed to develop into large suburban communities. Now in the 2020's a new Cold War has begun and large amounts of new missile systems will all be stockpiled into new missile magazines at West Loch directly next to thousands of homes and community centers.

The MOTSU Blast Zone Arc and criteria to determine it revealed 

to the local public for the first time in 2017-2018

The so-called “blast zone” arc is confined to land owned outright by the federal government, inside the “buffer zone” on Carolina and Kure Beaches. This arc represents the minimum distance that can be safely maintained between an explosive site and habitable building.

Last year, after initiating the JLUS, the military terminal shared the radius of its previously undisclosed blast safety arcs. https://capefearcog.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/November-Policy-Committee_web.pdf

Local news coverage:  https://portcitydaily.com/local-news/2019/07/14/what-motsu-wants-u-s-army-presents-53-recommendations-for-local-governments/

Note: IBD radius is approximately 3.5 miles and the K88 Distance radius is approximately 6 miles.

Public community meetings revealed that at roughly twice the size of the Inhabited Building Distance (IBD), the K88 quantity-distance arc includes areas with a high probability of glass breakage in the event of a terminal explosion. According to its former commander, Col. Marc Mueller, the K88 has remained unchanged for MOTSU, but the distance was new to the public when the military released it in 2018. There is also criteria for community emergency evacuations for initial response to an incident involving ammunition/explosives. Distance applies to any given facility – docks were used as an example.

MOTSU Provides Important Clues About Planned Army West Loch Munitions Storage Complex

Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point (MOTSU) is one of the largest military terminals in the world. In 2018 the long secretive and mostly classified facility used a $270,000 Department of Defense grant with $30,000 local matching funds for a Joint Land Use Study (JLUS) designed to improve military and community collaboration. The 209-page study acknowledges MOTSU can improve its communication efforts with the public and outlines ways municipal partners can consider the military’s mission while managing the NC region’s explosive growth. (i.e. like Ewa West Oahu)

MOTSU Blast Safety Arcs (ESQD) Are More Than DOUBLE 

That Of Old West Loch Arc Radius Of 1.4 Miles

The K88 arc ESQD of approximately 2.8 miles is an area where there is “enhanced” glass breakage if there was a 1,000,000 kg (2,204622.62 pounds) Hazard Division 1.1  Explosive event in Ewa West Oahu.


West Loch MK46/ MK48 Torpedo Shop Shows Off Mk 48 Torpedo's As Seen In Google Earth

Compiled History by Ewa Historian John Bond

West Loch Mk46/ Mk48 Torpedo Shop Shows Off Mk 48 Torpedo's As Seen In Google Earth

The Navy is not shy about showing off their conventional munitions. You can zoom right in on the Torpedo Shop facility next to the N-Storage and see a bunch of Mark 48's sitting outside. 


Go up to pier 4-5 and see the Virginia class attack sub taking on 12 Tomahawks and a lot of Harpoon missiles.


The Mk 46 Torpedo


New Missile Magazines: Navy Expanding Munition Wharfs On West Coast And Soon To West Loch Oahu

Compiled History by Ewa Historian John Bond 

Navy Expanding Munition Wharfs On West Coast And Soon To West Loch Oahu


Navy gets go-ahead for $150 million plan to move ammunition 

wharf at Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach

https://www.ocregister.com/2019/07/02/navy-gets-go-ahead-for-150-million-plan-to-move-ammunition-wharf-at-naval-weapons-station-seal-beach/

Construction could begin by the end of the year, with completion by 2025.

*********************************************************************************

New missile magazines proposed for 

Naval Magazine Indian Island

https://www.peninsuladailynews.com/news/new-missile-magazines-proposed-for-naval-magazine-indian-island/

PORT HADLOCK — The U.S. Navy is asking for public comment on its plans to build new missile magazines at Naval Magazine Indian Island.

The Navy is proposing to replace three World War II igloo-style magazines on the west side of the island with five new high explosive magazines, according to the draft environmental assessment.

The Navy wants to build five new magazines specifically engineered for storage of missiles, construct a pre-engineered metal building to store inert materials, provide a two-stall charging station for two forklifts and construct about 3,500 feet of new road.

Construction would begin this summer and end in 2020, according to the draft environmental assessment.


Coming Soon: Much harder to defend against Hyper Sonic Missiles Reportedly 17 Times Faster

 Compiled History by Ewa Historian John Bond

Coming Soon: Much harder to defend against Hyper Sonic Missiles Reportedly 17 Times Faster


A Hypersonic Missile War Could Be Over In 10-15 Minutes
There would be no time to take cover or put out a missile alert

https://interestingengineering.com/how-hypersonic-missiles-work-and-why-theyre-starting-a-global-arms-race

The world's superpowers are developing an array of hypersonic missiles that can travel across the world faster than Mach 5, or 3,800 miles per hour.  These weapons could provide almost immediate weapons response capabilities for the countries that have them. So much so that developing new hypersonic tech is creating a new arms race around the world.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/16/politics/pentagon-hypersonic-missile/index.html#:~:text=Hypersonic%20missiles%20are%20traditionally%20defined,of%20operating%20at%20varying%20altitudes

Given their tremendous speed and ability to maneuver in the atmosphere, hypersonic missiles are seen as particularly hard to defend against using conventional missile defense systems, which are designed to counter and intercept traditional ballistic missile threats, the trajectory of which are much more predictable than their hypersonic counterparts.

"Trying to defend against a hypersonic vehicle, that uncertainty in trajectory, becomes very difficult to deal with and defenses become very difficult because you've coupled very high speed with uncertainty in flight trajectory," a senior US defense official told CNN.
Tremendous range
The boost glide system, which was the system tested in March, places a maneuverable glide vehicle atop a ballistic missile, giving the missile much enhanced maneuverability at hypersonic speed.
The weapon is seen as having tremendous range, 1,000 miles or greater, but is more expensive and larger than the cruise missile variant.
The other kind of hypersonic missile the US is working on is a hypersonic cruise missile and is much more like a traditional cruise missile such as the Tomahawk missile, a weapon long used by the military to strike enemy targets.
The hypersonic missiles would travel up to ten times faster than the Tomahawk missile currently in the military's arsenal.

The vast majority of illegal Hawaii fireworks come in shipping containers. The money goes to Chinese Communist Party

  Compiled by Ewa Historian John Bond The vast majority of illegal Hawaii fireworks come in shipping containers. The money goes to Chinese C...