In the latest disappointment by the Navy in addressing the Red Hill catastrophe, the deadline was missed for a report on what caused at least 1,300 gallons of toxic aqueous film forming foam (AFFF), used to extinguish fuel fires, to spill from a pipe at Red Hill on Nov. 29.
The military says that report will be submitted to Joint Task Force-Red Hill leadership today, a week late — but don’t hold your breath expecting details: The Navy also won’t commit to a timeframe for releasing it to the public.
Pair the delay with continuing lack of true transparency, and community anxiety spikes with each new development.
Above all, it’s incredibly troubling that this investigation was spurred by a hazardous spill of AFFF, which contains manufactured “forever” chemicals that persist in the environment and within organisms, and would pose a serious hazard if contaminating Oahu’s water supply. That the AFFF spill occurred, completely draining its holding tank and contaminating open ground before it was detected, shows that proper oversight has not been applied.
Oahu’s drinking water is fed by an aquifer just 100 feet below the Red Hill fuel storage facility. Maintaining the purity of this resource must be Hawaii’s, and the Navy’s, top priority. However, trust that the Navy is applying all due diligence to this mandate has eroded.
The AFFF spill happened during what was supposed to be routine maintenance of the fire-suppressant tank and delivery system by a Navy contractor, Kinetix. That operation had not been under the supervision of Vice Adm. John Wade, commander of Joint Task Force-Red Hill, who is charged with the safe defueling and decommissioning of the massive fuel tanks and underground pipelines. Perhaps it should have been.
The AFFF was on site specifically because of the fire threat posed by the diesel and jet fuel held in the Red Hill tanks and pipelines. And notably, a previous, undetected spill of fire suppressant played a key role in causing the 2021 failure of Red Hill’s infrastructure, when a cascading number of errors led to petroleum contaminating Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam’s drinking water system. Hundreds of people were exposed and potentially sickened.
Adding to concerns, as evidence of a lack of transparency, the Navy has refused to release its video of the AFFF spill. This foot-dragging is not justified by national security concerns.
Further, video cameras within the Red Hill facility are inoperable, and the Navy says it will take another year or more to replace them. It is unacceptable for the Navy to ignore the need for these cameras, indispensable for maintaining safety at a highly hazardous facility, especially after the 2021 fuel spills. Or that in an emergency situation such as this, there is no sense of urgency for a backup plan.
All the errors, delays and opaqueness intensify distrust in the Navy’s credibility in guaranteeing safe procedures, as well as in its assurances that the process it is following to remove millions of gallons of fuel from Red Hill’s massive tanks is truly the best and fastest response.
Looking forward to the time when all fuel has been removed, the Board of Water Supply chief Ernie Lau and representatives of Hawaii’s Sierra Club have called on the military to either remove the tanks and pipelines, or disable them so that no substance can be introduced to the vulnerable system, ever again.
Given the damage already caused and potential for more, the Navy must go beyond its pledge to decommission the fueling operation and assure Hawaii that the aging tanks and facility, more than 80 years old, will be fully disabled.
