Storm King Mountain State Park will be closed during the summer so that unexploded ordnance can be removed nearly five years after a forest fire caused some of the objects to explode.

The nearly 1,900-acre park, which is administered by the Palisades Interstate Park Commission and situated near Cornwall in Orange County, features rugged terrain that draws scores of hikers and nature lovers from throughout the region.

The loss of the park's trails during prime hiking season dismayed Ed Goodell, executive director of the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference, but also brought relief that a full cleanup would begin.

"There's a liability issue here and therefore those who are liable - the government - need to clean it up and I'm glad they're taking steps to do that," Goodell said.

Helen Kim, who works in the environmental programs and project management division for the Army Corps of Engineers' New York District in Manhattan, said preliminary cost concerns meant that ordnance from only part of the park would have been removed. Estimates were in the $6 million range.

But new technology led to lower-than-expected bids being submitted by companies that do this kind of removal work. The job has been awarded to American Technologies Inc., which is headquarted in Orange, Calif., she said. The company will be paid $1.8 million to locate, remove and destroy ordnance from all areas where it has been detected, she said.

Kim, who serves as project director for the ordnance removal, estimated that work would begin July 1. The project will likely last into November. A public information session will be scheduled for June, she said.

The now-defunct Cold Spring Foundry, which was on the eastern side of the Hudson River in Putnam County, fired ordnance toward Storm King Mountain starting in the 1820s, the Corps of Engineers said. The foundry produced heavy ordnance for the U.S. Navy in the 1800s.

More ordnance was fired at the mountain during target practice by the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, which is just south of the park. The target practice continued into the 1960s, according to a previously-released information sheet by the Palisades Interstate Park Commission.

The park was immediately closed after the August 1999 forest fire caused some ordnance to explode.

Within weeks, a removal project was launched that identified and led to the removal of objects within 25 feet of the eight miles of trails and roads in the portion of the park that lies closest to the West Point boundary.

That job was completed by mid-October 2001 and included the investigation of 235 items that rested no deeper than a foot below the surface. Twenty-three ordnance items were actually recovered and destroyed, including 16 75 mm shells. The removal cost about $1 million.

A full evaluation was conducted to determine the extent of the ordnance. The park was divided into sections A, B and C. Section A was determined to contain only a few scraps of metal, and section C contained nothing, Kim said. Section B, the same section where the 235 items were identified, was found to contain additional ordnance, she said. The evaluation cost about $1.3 million.