WASHINGTON — The Pentagon would spend about $372 million on Hawai'i-based programs — including $2.4 million to research the chemical weapons dumped off O'ahu shores in the 1940s — under a bill Congress is expected to approve this week.

The University of Hawai'i and Hawai'i businesses, under a contract with the Army, would use the research money to characterize and assess the impact of the ordnance in the ocean. The munitions — blister and nerve agents — were dumped off the Wai'anae Coast in 1944 and 1945.

The Army has said the weapons pose no health risk, but the state's congressional delegation pushed for a more comprehensive study.

The defense bill also includes $1.1 million to develop technology for detecting unexploded weapons, which ultimately could help in clearing Department of Hawaiian Home Lands land formerly used for military training.

The Hawai'i money is part of a $447 billion defense spending bill for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. Both the House and Senate are scheduled to vote on the bill before leaving Washington at week's end for election campaigning.

The total amount for Hawai'i is about $41 million less than defense spending in the state this year.

INOUYE SATISFIED

U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, D-Hawai'i, one of the negotiators on the final spending bill, said Hawai'i did well, given the tight budget situation this year.

"The Hawai'i-related defense projects ... will help to ensure that we as a nation will be well prepared for any challenge we may face in the Asia-Pacific region or any other part of the globe," said Inouye, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee.

The largest single amount of money for Hawai'i in the defense spending bill — $25 million — would go to the Maui Space Surveillance System, which houses the Defense Department's largest telescope.

The surveillance system, the University of Hawai'i and the Maui High Performance Computing Center also would receive another $11.5 million to develop new large-aperture telescopes.

The bill contains another $20 million to assist local communities, the state and others in acquiring conservation easements around military bases and ranges, including O'ahu and the Pohakuloa Training Area on the Big Island.

MISSILE RANGE FUNDING

The Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kaua'i would receive about $14.6 million for upgrades and equipment. Another $12 million would be used for testing new Navy radar at the range, and $6.8 million is slated for a project to upgrade radar processing with commercial technology.

Inouye said up to $622 million in additional military-related spending for Hawai'i — including money for efforts to stop brown tree snakes from arriving on military aircraft and money to set up new health programs at Tripler Army Medical Center — may be included in another bill that pays for military construction. That bill probably won't be completed until Congress returns in November.

WEAPONS DUMPING

News reports about the U.S. military's practice of dumping chemical and conventional weapons at sea decades ago first appeared last year. They divulged data that 4,220 tons of hydrogen cyanide were dumped somewhere off Pearl Harbor in 1944. During that year, the military also dumped 16,000 100-pound mustard bombs "about five miles off of O'ahu."

In 1945, off Wai'anae, the Army dumped thousands of hydrogen cyanide bombs, cyanogen chloride bombs, mustard bombs and lewisite containers. NOAA charts identified some as being in 1,600 feet of water.

An Army Corps of Engineers survey in 2002 at Ordnance Reef identified more than 2,000 military munitions at depths ranging from 15 feet to 240 feet, with the majority observed deeper than 60 feet.

Reach Dennis Camire at dcamire@gns.gannett.com.