Source: https://governor.hawaii.gov/newsroom/

(Honolulu)  Balancing public safety, while providing a high level of protection for the aquatic environment are the overarching considerations being discussed by the Hawai'i Dept. of Land and Natural Resources and the Hawai'i Dept. of Health, for the safe remediation of two WWII-era bombs off of Molokini Crater in Maui County, in state ocean waters.

Recent social media postings have suggested, that the U.S.Navy, with the State's concurrence, plan to "blow up Molokini." DLNR Chair Suzanne Case said, "We continue a careful and deliberative process to identify the best strategy to render this unexploded ordnance (UXO) safe while protecting the marine environment. This process began more than six months ago, and no final decisions have been made and will not be made without public engagement. It's important we hear from stakeholders."

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Washington, D.C. The EPA finally released its final report on Alternatives To OB/OD of energetic hazardous wastes after studying the topic for nearly two years. The report merely presents an overview of alternative treatment technologies organized by the following categories:

• case opening technologies for what EPA classifies as thick and thin cased munitions;
• energetic material removal technologies;
• energetic material destruction technologies; and
• decontamination technologies.

  The report presents information on several specific technologies or approaches within each category that have been used in CONUS or internationally and included technologies that were "widely tested, but had limited success."

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Tooele, Utah After discovering that a 17-ton cache of ordnance was at risk of self-ignition, the Tooele Army Depot detonated 28,000 target simulators over nine days this month, even on days when particulate pollution blanketed the Salt Lake Valley.

According to Rick Page of the Utah Division of Solid and Hazardous Waste, State officials granted the munitions depot an emergency permit to explode the simulators when it was discovered that some explosive material was crystallizing on the outside of the packaging. This set up a conflict between public safety and public health in which officials determined that it was necessary to continue detonating the old ordnance and open burning on days when the "clearing index," a measure of atmospheric mixing, is low and conducive to pollution buildup.

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The following article was posted on an EPA Website related to Vieques.

The EPA announced today the finalization of a federal facility inter-agency agreement (FFA) with several agencies and jurisdictions for the cleanup of portions of the Island of Vieques and its surrounding waters. The agreement is between EPA, the U.S. Department of Navy, U.S. Department of the Interior, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and it lays out the roles that the various agencies will play as the cleanup continues. EPA's Regional Administrator Alan J. Steinberg was joined by Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy Donald R. Schregardus, as well as Carlos W. López Freytes, President of the Puerto Rico Environmental Quality Board and Susan Silander, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Project Leader for the Caribbean Islands National Wildlife Refuge Complex, at EPA's offices in San Juan, Puerto Rico to mark the finalization of the agreement.

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The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) Department of Public Safety have finalized an agreement and a proposed permit for managing and treating waste munitions in CNMI.

As part of the agreement, the EPA is proposing to issue a federal permit for storage and treatment of waste munitions at the Marpi Point open detonation area. The EPA and the CNMI government will be holding a public meeting on Dec. 11 at the Division of Environmental Quality on the proposed permit. The public then has 45 days from the date of that meeting to provide comments on the draft permit.