WAI'ANAE — Wai'anae Coast residents are demanding that the military clean up thousands of tons of explosive and chemical munitions dumped off the Wai'anae Coast decades ago.

That message has been building momentum since the release last week of a study conducted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that concluded that about 2,000 rounds of ammunition, including .30-caliber rounds and three-foot artillery projectiles, pose no danger in the shallow and deep waters of the area known as Ordnance Reef off Poka'i Bay.

Since then, community leaders have expressed no confidence in the NOAA report and say they want a cleanup.

The Wai'anae Coast Neighborhood Board on Tuesday unanimously approved a motion stating emphatically that the community wants the Army to start removing munitions in less than a month.

"What we said was, 'We demand that the Army clean up the Wai'anae Coast reef, and shoreline and ocean starting June 1st, 2007,' " board chairwoman Patty Teruya said. "The community has made a strong statement. We're not asking. We're not waiting. And we're not pleading. We are demanding."

Teruya and others repeated the opinion of Senate President Colleen Hanabusa, D-21st (Nana-kuli, Makaha), who said if the dumped munitions are safe, then the military should remove them from the ocean floor.

Even before the NOAA report, the dumped munitions issue had been percolating within a community increasingly frustrated with the military's response to its concerns. The matter escalated in early March when it was discovered that highly flammable propellant grains used in munitions and rockets had been washing ashore for years and collected by people who mistook them for coral beads.

While the NOAA study was confined to Ordnance Reef, its conclusions were indicative of other areas off the Wai'anae Coast where World War II-era munitions are known to have been dumped.

Teruya and other board members have said they want a cleanup to include dumped munitions of every type, including about 2,600 tons of chemical mustard, cyanogens chloride, hydrogen cyanide and lewisite the Army now says was dumped at two locations 10 miles off the Wai'anae Coast and Pearl Harbor between 1944 and 1946.

The Army has acknowledged that thousands more tons of chemical munitions were dumped at another unknown site off the coast of west O'ahu in fall 1945. Those munitions were loaded in Wai'anae to avoid moving them through more densely populated areas, according to military at the time.

On March 17, 2006, a high-level Army official from Washington, D.C., told a community meeting that after an exhaustive study of the problem, the Army had concluded that chemical munitions "do not pose an immediate threat to the health and safety" of the people of Hawai'i.

The official also told the community that the military does not believe the munitions should be retrieved.

"The issue is the cost factor," neighborhood board member Jo Jordan said. "It is not cheap to go out there and pick it up and dispose of it properly. But that's not the issue in the community's view. You dumped it, you still need to clean it up regardless of what it costs."

Jordan and Teruya said the community is fed up with studies and wants the Army to take action. They said the way of the predominantly Hawaiian community is for people to clean up after they make a mess.

"We're trying to get the military to work with the community and to be good people," Teruya said. "They need to be pono and be good neighbors of ours. I mean, they already have all the wonderful prime lands. Come on now, don't do this to our ocean. That's all the resources we have."

Although neighborhood boards are advisory only and their actions have no force of law, area activist William Aila said the military would do well to listen closely.

"They have some contentious issues in Wai'anae, so they have to pay attention," Aila said. "They can't ignore it. The board and the community may not have any leverage on the military per se, but they have leverage on the people who appropriate money for the military — meaning our congresspeople and our legislators."

The Army, which has repeatedly stated its concern about the dumped war munitions and says it intends to monitor them, has yet to respond to the board's demand. The Army directed requests for comment to a March 27 statement by the Army's Pacific Public Affairs Office regarding the NOAA report.

"DoD's initial review of the survey's results indicates that the munitions present do not pose an immediate threat to human health or public safety," the statement said. "The Department of Defense will work with state and federal offices to determine the next appropriate course of action."

Teruya said her next step is to put pressure on the military to speak to the whole community as soon as possible at a larger venue, such as the all-purpose building at Wai'anae District Park. She said she has asked the Army for such a meeting but has yet to hear back from them.

"They need to apologize to the community of Wai'anae," she said. "For all the delays and for beating around the bush. We kept asking and asking, and we got nothing. Now, we're not going to stop. We're going to get vocal."

Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com.