Just two months ago we concluded the 25th Rim of the Pacific Exercise here in Hawaii as the key host site for Commander, U.S. Third Fleet and Commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet in Hawaii.
RIMPAC 2016 brought more than two dozen nations and 25,000 men and women to our islands to build capable, adaptive partnerships. Our Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility fueled RIMPAC’s success on and above the sea.
Red Hill continues to provide fuel to the entire military team in Hawaii — all services — as well as the National Guard.
Of course, Red Hill helps fuel Hawaii-homeported ships that deploy throughout the Pacific. Working with partner nations, men and women aboard our forward-deployed ships and aircraft help maintain stability and security in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region. They keep sea lanes open and commerce flowing. Ninety percent of goods consumed in Hawaii arrive by ship.
Working with the Coast Guard, your Navy conducts rescues and enforces international fishing laws. We respond to disasters and provide humanitarian assistance in times of need.
In other words, our national security interests and continued prosperity depend, in part, on our ability to operate Red Hill safely, both within the facility and for the environment.
That’s why, since 2006, we have invested more than $200 million to modernize Red Hill to improve operations and safeguard the drinking water.
We are committed to keeping our drinking water safe.
As in the past, testing and independent lab results clearly indicate that all drinking water near Red Hill — including neighboring drinking water used by the Honolulu Board of Water Supply — remains safe and meets all federal and state safe drinking water standards.
Over the summer — during RIMPAC 2016, in fact, — Navy engineers and contractors installed two more groundwater monitoring wells to bring the number of monitoring sites to 12, and we will install two more by early next year.
Along with the Defense Logistics Agency, we continue to work closely with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Hawaii Department of Health. We continue to make substantive and meaningful progress as agreed to in the Administrative Order on Consent and Statement of Work (AOC/SOW) as we continue to modernize Red Hill.
From the time the AOC/SOW process began, including at meetings every day this week, we have been participating in cordial, professional and productive face-to-face discussions with regulators and stakeholders. To date, we are on schedule to meet all key planned milestones and, where feasible and allowable, we will push ahead of schedule.
The Tank 5 fuel release occurred in 2014, and our inspections and repairs continue. We are applying — and will continue to actively apply — what we learned to improve our processes. We will only return Tank 5 to service after certifying it is safe.
While Red Hill accounting records prior to the current regulations established in 1988 are incomplete, we are aware of reports about fuel releases. The key point is: Your Navy takes environmental stewardship very seriously and complies with modern standards and reporting requirements.
We are fully committed to modernizing and upgrading the Red Hill facility as long as we operate it, and we are equally committed to exploring options that reduce our reliance on fossil fuels in the future.
Until then, we need to fuel our current ships and aircraft, and as RIMPAC recently reminded us, Red Hill remains a national asset and critical enabler that cannot be replicated.
We will continue to work in a transparent and collaborative manner with regulatory agencies and local stakeholders to develop enduring, science-based and practicable solutions that continue to safeguard both this vital facility and our precious drinking water.
Rear Adm. John Fuller is Navy Region Hawaii commander, overseeing Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam on Oahu and the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai.
