At least some of the chemical weapons dumped off O'ahu after World War II may be farther from shore and in deeper water than previously estimated, and preliminary indications from the Army are that they may not be recoverable, said U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie.

"Some of these issues may be moot in the sense of, out of sight, out of reach," Abercrombie said yesterday.

However, the information he has received appears to contradict data found within an official Army report on the subject, which suggests there are chemical weapons dump sites both nearer shore and in shallower water than Abercrombie was told.

Abercrombie, a member of the U.S. House Armed Forces Committee, was briefed on the chemical weapons dumping this week by Tad Davis, assistant secretary of the Army (Environment, Safety and Occupational Health), said Abercrombie's press secretary, Mike Slackman.

(The Advertiser two weeks ago submitted a series of questions to the Army on the chemical weapons dumping issue, but the service has not yet responded, other than to say that the Army believes there is no danger of chemicals washing up on shore.)

Abercrombie told The Advertiser that the Army is conducting a detailed search of its records on the extensive chemical weapons dumping around the world after World War II. An Army report dated 2001 indicated that more than 8,000 tons of corrosive or toxic chemical munitions were dumped off O'ahu—some off Pearl Harbor and some off Wai'anae—in 1944 and 1945.

"These issues are being, I think, researched rather assiduously," he said. The Army expects to have a preliminary report on the chemical dumping issue "between Thanksgiving and Christmas."

Abercrombie said Davis told him that chemical weapons were disposed of 10 miles from east O'ahu and 10 miles from the Wai'anae Coast. Water depth was believed to be between 1,800 feet and 6,000 feet.

That suggests there are dumping sites other than the three identified in the 2001 report, or that the records the Army is now reviewing are providing different information than that report contains.

The 2001 report, "Off-Shore Disposal of Chemical Agents and Weapons Conducted by the United States," prepared by the Army's Historical Research and Response Team, says that the Army disposed of 16,000 mustard bombs in 1944 five miles from shore off Pearl Harbor.

In 1976, a research vessel's crew suffered caustic chemical burns from canisters dredged up in 1,200 feet of water, three miles off Honolulu Harbor. The Army report said a second 1944 dump of 4,220 tons of "unspecified toxics" was "probably the source" of that material.

Neither of those dump locations listed in the 2001 report appears to coincide with either of the deep-water sites Davis told Abercrombie about—since both are off south-central O'ahu and both are much nearer shore than Davis' disposal sites.

Slackman, who sat in on the meeting between Abercrombie and Davis, said that Davis told them "he did not believe there had been any monitoring" of any of the known chemical weapons dump sites off Hawai'i.

Abercrombie expressed disappointment, Slackman said, that the House Armed Services Committee did not learn of the 2001 report when it was issued, and at "having to learn of this from the news media."

Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com.