But nobody wants to own the contaminated body of water because of liability worries.
An unusual geological feature in ʻEwa Beach may hold the key to unlocking the mysteries of when Polynesians first arrived in Hawaii and what impact human arrival had on the native habitat. Unfortunately, the U.S. Navy's cavalier treatment of the site has complicated efforts to explore its secrets.
A 1.2-acre sinkhole located inside the former Barbers Point Naval Air Station contains about 57 feet of sedimentary material, naturally deposited in thin, precise and discrete layers known as "laminations," creating a kind of time capsule. This allows scientists to go far back into history, almost year by year, studying environmental changes reaching back to the Holocene era, a time when glaciers were melting and sea levels were rising.
One study there in 1999 analyzed a sample sediment core and found evidence of the introduction of charcoal, a marker of human-made fires used for heating and cooking, and new pollens, representing crops introduced by travelers who arrived in canoes. This early analysis suggests that humans arrived sometime from 940 to 1130 AD. But additional comprehensive study is needed: Updated technology developed in the past 25 years would produce much more new information.
Archaeologists say the sinkhole, known as Ordy Pond, may be the most revealing site of its kind, not just in Hawaiʻi, but in all of the central Pacific Ocean.
"Ordy Pond is, in my career, which is now quite extensive, the absolute best place for a record that stretches from pre-Polynesian times up through Polynesian times," said Thomas Dye, an archaeologist in Hawaiʻi for more than 40 years. "For an archaeologist, it's a dream situation because the sedimentation at the bottom of the pond, which is not connected to the ocean, is very finely laminated so it records very short periods of time, so we have a chance there to really start to thin down things we have been trying to get at as a discipline for a long time."
Dye, a former official with the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, has called the site "nirvana for archaeologists."
Similar sinkholes exist elsewhere in the Pacific, including in the Southern Cook Islands and in the Society Islands, but they are inferior sites archaeologically, Dye said. Ordy Pond is special because it does not drain and has no outlet to the sea, which means its sedimentary contents have been relatively undisturbed, he told his colleagues at the Oʻahu Historic Preservation Commission last month.
His enthusiasm is shared by other veteran archaeologists including Steve Athens, who called Ordy Pond "a more or less unique repository of detailed information about environmental changes," in a white paper submitted to the commission. He said the sinkhole provides information going back 7,500 years.
Sadly, the water in the sinkhole was contaminated by the Navy, which used it as a dumping ground for unexploded ordnance, outdated weaponry and corroded artillery shells in the 1960s and 1970s. That's how the sinkhole got the name Ordy Pond.
A lot of similar debris was left behind when the Navy decommissioned Barbers Point in 1999 as part a federal budget-cutting effort called Base Realignment and Closure. The Navy began parceling out the land, some 3,700 acres in all. Much of the residential-quality land went to a large Texas-based defense contractor, Hunt Companies.
The area, which includes several new residential subdivisions built by Hunt, is now a master-planned community called Kalaeloa.
But the Navy has had problems finding takers for some of the other acreage, including the parcel that holds Ordy Pond. The Navy spent about $1.35 million detonating the discarded weaponry and cleaning up the site, according to news reports in 2013. But nonprofit groups and government agencies have been wary about taking possession of it because of fears of lingering toxic contamination, and the possibility of lawsuits against them.
In June, the Hawaiʻi Community Development Authority unanimously voted to "reject and decline" an offer of three parcels of land from the Navy, including Ordy Pond, because of liability concerns that outweighed the value of the gift. Officials expressed concern about potential legal exposure "for contaminated soil and presence of munitions," and because the site's "archaeological and historical significance ... will require protection and preservation."
This issue has been kicked around now for two decades.
Archaeologists who have studied the site, located off Tripoli Road near White Plains Beach, believe that if it can be cleaned up, it would be possible to initiate further academic study.
Similar sinkholes have been hugely important for archaeological studies in places like Central America.
The Oʻahu Historical Preservation Commission thinks the site needs to be studied and protected. The commissioners would like to see it preserved as a cultural site to explore how ancient Hawaiians lived, using scientific information gleaned directly from investigations there.
They would particularly like to see it named to the National Register of Historic Places. The nine-member commission has unanimously agreed that a historical designation of that kind is fully merited and would provide an additional layer of protection.
But it is impossible to obtain a national register designation without the permission of the owner, in this case the U.S. Navy.
The commission is preparing a letter seeking the Navy's support for placing the site on the national register. They have been deliberating over who to approach and the best tone to take, given that the Navy is sensitive to criticism in the wake of the public relations disaster that erupted over the tainted water at the Red Hill fuel storage tanks. The commission's members have been directed to approach the Navy cautiously.
Ordy Pond is not the only historical site at risk in the area surrounding Barbers Point Naval Air Station. In addition to housing some of the earliest Polynesian voyagers, ʻEwa also played a particularly significant and often overlooked role in World War II. Japanese fighters attacked ʻEwa Field minutes before they struck Pearl Harbor. At least four Marines were killed. More than 50 civilians who worked at nearby ʻEwa Plantation were injured; a six-year-old girl, Yaeko Oda, was wounded and later died.
Preservationists, most notably ʻEwa historian John Bond, have long decried the governmental apathy that has allowed many historic and archaeological sites there to be destroyed, vandalized or fall into ruins.
ʻEwa Plain Battlefield was placed on the national historic register in 2016 for its role in the Pearl Harbor attack and aftermath. But by that time, not much was left. Almost all the military buildings and structures that were there on Dec. 7, 1941, have been torn down; only runways and some infrastructure are still visible. One surviving building was demolished to provide dramatic footage for an attack scene in the 1970 movie "Tora! Tora! Tora!"
The neglect of Ordy Pond is one more example of historical amnesia in Hawaiʻi.