Coast Guard disposes of hazardous waste.
An environmental cleanup prompted by the Coast Guard will continue until mid-November as the last of the hazardous waste is removed from a cliff at Ilio Point and shipped to the mainland.
For nearly two weeks, workers have been using a large vacuum to suck up the remains of equipment that was dumped by a Coast Guard station while it was active prior to 1966.
“The Coast Guard dumped [the materials] there, so it’s our responsibility to clean it up,” said Gene Maestas, public affairs officer for the U.S Coast Guard 14th District in Honolulu.
Testing of the site in 2009 showed high concentrations of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, in the soil. When testing was conducted offshore, however, no contaminants were found in the water, sediments, invertebrates or fish.