Purpose:

The Department of Defense (DoD) is currently involved in a number of UXO site remediation efforts where a rapid transition of advanced detection and discrimination technologies can substantially reduce the amount of time and the costs associated with site characterization. One of the most prominent of these efforts is the UXO cleanup of the Kaho'olawe bombing ranges in Hawaii. A major difficulty with this effort is that the high permeability of the soils at the Kaho'olwe sites makes traditional magnetometer-based surveys practically useless, and even electromagnetic induction surveys are subject to large numbers of false alarms from geologic sources. The focus of this project is to demonstrate advanced UXO detection and discrimination technologies at a site with high magnetic noise levels. This project plans to rapidly transition the most promising technologies from the Jefferson Proving Ground Phase IV (JPG IV) demonstrations through more realistic evaluations and ultimately to an actual cleanup operation at Kaho'olawe.

Description:

The proposed project is a joint Navy (NAVEODTECHDIV) and Army (WES, AEC) effort to design, conduct, and analyze a series of realistic demonstrations that build upon the results of the JPG IV demonstrations and provide cost and performance data needed to determine if these advanced technologies are ready to deploy to difficult UXO environments such as the Kaho'olawe sites. The recently concluded JPG IV experiments concentrated on determining the discrimination potential of various sensing and processing technologies in a difficult target/clutter environment. Clutter items (munitions fragments) were obtained from actual UXO cleanup sites, and inert UXO items were made available to demonstrators for extensive signature collection and training. This approach will extend the results of JPG IV to address a real-world UXO environmental remediation problem. Under this project, the top performers at JPG IV will demonstrate their detection and discrimination capabilities at three sites at the JPG which contain suitable ranges of munitions and realistic clutter items representative of those found in Kaho'olawe. Demonstrators will be required to survey the three 1-hectare sites to detect, locate, and discriminate the buried UXO. Survey and analysis time will be monitored to obtain accurate production rate and cost information. Demonstrator deliverables to the government will include raw and processed data, prioritized dig sheets with confidence levels, and estimates of object size, location, and ordnance type. The best performer(s) from this demonstration will be selected to participate in controlled field demonstrations at Kaho'olawe during fiscal year 2001 and, if successful, will proceed to live site testing later that year.

Benefits:

Results of this effort will provide the DoD with the cost and performance data needed to determine if advanced UXO technologies can reduce the amount of time and the costs associated with remediation at difficult clutter sites, as compared to standard "mag, flag, dig" approaches. Successful demonstration of enhanced UXO detection and discrimination technologies for the Kaho'olawe sites can result in significant cost savings and will show that the DoD is committed to employing the most advanced technologies to solving difficult environmental problems. (Anticipated Project Completion - 2005)

Contact:

Mr. Scott Steward
Naval Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technology Division
2008 Stump Neck Road
Indian Head, MD 20640
Telephone: (301) 744-6849 ext. 292
Fax: (301) 744-6947
E-mail: steward@eodpoe2.navsea.navy.mil