Albany, NY - With its hiking trails recently cleared of undetonated artillery shells, the debate continues over reopening Storm King State Park, closed since 1999.

Two hiking groups said Thursday they want the U.S. Army to clear the entire 1,900-acre park of shells and only then open it to the public.

"This is not some formerly used defense site out in the Nevada desert," said Neil Woodworth, legal counsel for both the Adirondack Mountain Club and the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference. "This is within an hour's drive of a huge metropolitan population."

The shells were fired for decades by the Army from the West Point Military Reservation adjoining the park and were discovered in 1999, as the intense heat from a forest fire caused some to detonate.

"We have essentially asked them for a commitment to clean up all the artillery shells, or the maximum number possible, by the end of 2004," Woodworth said. "We're concerned that it be safe for everybody, most especially firefighters."

The entire park, 50 miles north of New York City, will remain closed until the Palisades Interstate Park Commission, which operates the land, declares it open. The commission planned to hold a hearing Thursday night.

"I think the result is going to be we will be able to open portions of the park both for hunting and hiking," commission Executive Director Carol Ash said. "But there will be a portion of it that will have to wait."

A parcel of 450 acres in the park has yet to be cleared of shells. Until a surface clearance, estimated to cost between $5 and $7 million, is completed, the Army Corps of Engineers is recommending that section of the park remain closed, said Jim Moore, a New York District project manager for the corps. Moore did not speculate when that could occur.

"My response would be that we're opening up two-thirds of the park, which will give them hiking access to Storm King," Moore said. "Regarding that last 450-acre parcel, if hikers stay on the trails it's safe for them to go there as well. However, no one can guarantee that hikers aren't going to go off the trails."

Most of the park and all 8 miles of trails, including those on the uncleared parcel, are free of shells for 25 feet on each side, Moore said. The danger on the uncleared parcel would come with hunters and hikers who stray, he said.

Ash said the corps and the commission are committed to clearing the entire park, but Congress will have to appropriate money. The already cleared section probably will open in a few months, she said, after the corps makes signage and brochures telling people to stay on the trails and what unexploded ordnance looks like.

It is also recommended that firefighters stay off the parcel, even after it's cleared, Moore said. The corps is recommending that if a fire starts on the uncleared land it should be allowed to burn.

"The reason for that is even with the best technology we have to remove unexploded bombs, we still can't get 100 percent," he said. "Our estimate is that we get 95 percent."

The shells were fired at the Crow's Nest, a mountain on the border between the military reservation and the park, when the Army used it for a target between the 1880s and the 1960s.

The shells that missed their mark buried themselves in the soil of the park, known for scenic overlooks of the Hudson River. The shells were undetected until heat from the 1999 fire caused some to detonate, Woodworth said.

"The poor firefighters in '99 were battling fires in there and all of a sudden they had explosions all around them," Woodworth said.

* * *

Copyright (c) 2002, The Associated Press