Despite Kure’s remoteness and lack of permanent human populations, there are a full range of environmental and man-made stressors. Pollution reduction focuses on both historic and present-day terrestrial/marine pollution that has plagued and inundated Kure’s community.
From the early 1970s, there were separate government plans within each agency addressing marine debris.
The “Interagency Task Force on Persistent Marine Debris”, formed by the White House Domestic Policy Council, developed a report exemplifying the need for research, reduction measures, and alternative actions to address plastic marine pollution.
The Marine Plastics Pollution Research and Control Act (MPPRCA) was passed to amend the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (APPS) to specifically implement the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL) Annex V.Regulations for the prevention of plastic discharge from ships are covered under MARPOL Annex V.
MPPRCA recognized the size of the problem and authorized engaging volunteer groups to help monitor, report, and clean up ocean and shoreline plastic pollution.
1996 a program (name of the program) was created by NOAA to specifically address the problem of marine debris in the NWHI.
The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) took the lead on an extensive multiagency program that removed 492 metric tons of derelict fishing gear from the Northwestern Hawaii Islands (Friedlander et al., 2005).
The Interagency Marine Debris Coordinating Committee (IMDCC) was set up by the Marine Debris Research, Prevention, and Reduction Act in response to the mounting problem of marine debris.
Several remediation projects over the past 25 years (1991, 1992,1993,1994, 2008-2009, 2011) had failed to correct elevated levels of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) contaminates in the landfill. In 2016, the U.S. Coast Guard Civil Engineering Unit Alaska and their contractor Environmental Elemental, LLC (located in Hawaii) excavated 400-600 cubic yards of contaminated PCB soil from the landfill and reburied it in a more secure location on Green Island.
The reburial project on Kure temporarily disturbed highly productive seabird nesting and monk seal pupping habitat. Removal of vegetation was necessary to access the contaminated soil and rebury it. Per agreement with the USCG–and in an effort to prevent erosion from wind, rain, tidal surge, invasive weeds, and flooding–the DLNR field crews re-planted the area once the USCG PCB Soil Remediation was complete.
