KAILUA — A nearly completed housing project on Marine Corps Base Hawai'i will add 212 units on the Windward installation, opening more homes to Marine families on a waiting list.

The $50 million project for junior enlisted personnel at Pahonua, near the back gate of the base, is a year behind schedule. It also has raised concerns about chlordane contamination in the soil and prompted Walter Chun, the project's safety and environmental consultant, to ask the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for an investigation.

The EPA standard that triggers a need for further investigation for chlordane contamination is 1.6 parts per million. Navy Environmental Health Center experts determined that as much as 32 ppm in the soil is safe for families living in the units, said Don Rochon, spokesman for Naval Facilities Engineering Command Pacific.

The state Department of Health was contacted about the chlordane levels in the soil, but it was never part of the Navy's risk assessment nor did it evaluate the assessment, said Keith Kawaoka, program manager for the Hazard Evaluation & Emergency Response Office.

The EPA guideline is only a guide and each site must be evaluated to determine potential hazards and whether anything needs to be done, Kawaoka said. Without seeing the Navy's risk assessment, the department can't be sure if their conclusion is correct, he said.

"We wanted to talk to them some more but it never happened," Kawaoka said.

When the project was awarded in 2002, the contractor was required to test the soil for chlordane and found nothing, Rochon said. But new tests last year found levels ran from zero to 104 ppm, he said, adding that anything above 32 ppm is being removed or paved over.

He said those measures added $602,914 to the project's cost.

The EPA guidelines are a trigger for further investigation and the Navy did that, Rochon said. There was only one area where contamination levels were high and that area will be a basketball court when the project is completed, he said.

"The Navy is taking steps to make sure this housing project is safe for families," Rochon said.

But Chun, the consultant for the project, argues all contaminated soil above 1.6 ppm should be removed. The Navy is taking the worst soil out, replacing it and covering it with asphalt, Chun conceded. But it is spreading the lower contaminated soil around the project and will plant in it, he said.

"It defies all common sense and logic," Chun said. "It's above EPA guidelines. Why are we leaving it there?"

The project is expected to be completed in September, bringing the number of Marine housing units to 2,157.

About 6,000 people live in the housing at Manana, Camp Smith and Marine Corps Base Hawai'i in Kane'ohe, said Lt. Binford Strickland, Kane'ohe Marine spokesman.