Much about the Red Hill fuel-storage facility crisis remains unresolved, with no clear disclosure of exactly how part of the Oahu water aquifer became contaminated in the first place.
That is why the state’s most recent efforts to keep the Navy on task to defuel the underground tanks are so crucial to the protection of public health.
On Friday the state Department of Health issued a new emergency order that sets a number of critical deadlines. One gives the Navy until May 15 — this coming Sunday — to submit the report of the contractor’s assessment of the incident, something that should have been provided to the state long ago.
Just as important, Navy officials now have until June 30 to give the department a plan for defueling the tanks, and then another by Nov. 1 for closing the facility completely.
It was a relief to see the Navy on Monday issue its own statement that it would waive its right to contest the new order. This should enable the process of removing the contamination threat without further unnecessary administrative or legal delays.
But it also must be underscored: None of this would be happening without the continual pressure put on the Navy by the public outcry, and the intervention of local water officials as well as elected representatives.
A story published Tuesday in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser noted just how much affected families have been frustrated by the military’s foot-dragging to this point. In May 2021, according to Navy documents, a fuel transfer was interrupted by an explosion, and then leaking fuel from a pipe poured into a tunnel.
One military couple told reporter Sophie Cocke that they learned only last fall that they had been drinking water laced with jet fuel. The wife was into her second trimester of pregnancy.
The late disclosure of even the most basic information shocked the community, witnessing the disruption of family lives through the holiday season, and public schools contending with emergency water supplies.
The Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility made headlines in 2014 when 27,000 gallons of fuel leaked from one of 20 tanks within the underground facility. The potential of contamination led to an oversight agreement among the state Health Department, the Navy and the federal Environmental Protection Agency.
But there was no concerted push for relief then by federal officials, including Hawaii’s congressional delegation, and no long-term fix was urgently launched. The hoped-for reinforcement of the tanks had not occurred by the time actual disaster struck.
And by then it was too late — and public fears of wider water contamination rightly grew. Already, the Honolulu Board of Water Supply has closed three wells to avoid drawing the contamination further into the aquifer. Its customers have been called to voluntary water conservation, but the water board is not at all sure mandatory restrictions can be avoided, as a dry summer approaches.
The Health Department, which has been the principal driver for change all along, finally got traction. Local officials pressed for relief, despite the Navy’s initial resistance to compliance orders, and Hawaii’s delegation beat the drum for funding to enable defueling and a facility shutdown.
At this point, with both chambers of Congress and the White House under Democratic control, it was time for Hawaii’s leadership in the same party to speak up, loudly. The upcoming midterm elections likely will diminish their influence.
The planning and mitigative actions for Red Hill must continue on pace, and with thorough transparency to the public. The defueling process presents its own hazards and complications, so keeping the community safe is still not assured. This is not over, not by a long shot.
