On Tuesday the Red Hill Water Alliance Initiative — or WAI — unveiled its final report, which calls for aquifer remediation and an integrated approach to resolving the water crisis.
The WAI, a working group made up of state and city leaders, was formed in May for the remediation of the Navy’s Underground Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility, which sits just 100 feet above a critical aquifer most of Oahu relies on for drinking water.
After fuel from the aging World War II-era facility contaminated the Navy’s Oahu water system, which serves 93,000 people, in November 2021 — including military families and local civilian residents — the Pentagon eventually agreed to defuel and close it. The Navy had been storing 104 million gallons in massive underground tanks there, but since October the main tanks have been mostly drained.
But defueling isn’t set to be finished until 2024, and the long-term remediation of the facility and the aquifer are expected to take much longer.
“It is urgent that a way forward be established to address the damages that the Red Hill fuel facility has
inflicted on our aina and wai,” said Honolulu Board of Water Supply Chief Engineer Ernie Lau, a member of the WAI working group, during a news conference Tuesday.
“Long-term oversight, transparency and accountability on this environmental crisis created by the Navy’s Red Hill fuel facility must be created to ensure that these resources will be remediated and available for generations to come. This report’s recommendations provide a starting place for this effort.”
The WAI also included Gov. Josh Green, Mayor Rick Blangiardi, City Council Chair Tommy Waters,
University of Hawaii President David Lassner, House Speaker Scott Saiki, Senate President Ronald Kouchi and Chair of the Commission on Water Resource Management Dawn Chang.
The Red Hill crisis came as Oahu was already grappling with drought conditions and a water shortage. The contamination of the Navy’s Red Hill water well prompted BWS to shut down several nearby wells to prevent further contamination. As the drought continues two years later and water resources become more strained, the BWS voted Monday to adopt rate hikes of over 50% for most customers.
Saiki called the Red Hill water crisis an “existential threat to life in Hawaii.”
“Throughout the past six months, we have been working on two fronts,” he said. “First, a unified call for remediation of the aquifer, and second, creating an integrated approach to resolving the water crisis, while unifying state, city, and regulatory agencies. The Red Hill WAI group recognizes that immediate action needs to happen to ensure clean water now and in the future for Hawaii’s residents.”
The report criticized arguments by some Navy officials that if fuel hasn’t been found in the water table, then it likely hasn’t reached the aquifer, as well as arguments that fuel would naturally degrade as it interacts with microbes in the soil.
The report said that while it’s true the fuel will degrade “as a matter of science,” it charged that there is “insufficient research to show how efficient degradation occurs in the specific environment beneath the tanks, more than 500 feet below the surface and 100 feet above the aquifer, and whether degradation to the level of neutralizing harm and becoming suitable for human consumption will occur prior to the fuel reaching the saturated portion of the ground.”
The report also raises the issue of whether fuel spills from the 1940s and ’50s would have degraded by now, and concluded that “evidence from other
parts of the Pacific says
otherwise,” citing instances where military fuel from the 1930s and 1940s have been found in American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands and Palau.
The report notes that 5,000 sites in Northern California are being reassessed and that “as the sea rises, previously unaccounted for surface and subterranean flooding can cause movement of contaminants into other areas, including aquifers. This is a cautionary example of what can happen when sites are not remediated, and a direct forewarning of our situation at Red Hill which is in a coastal area likely to be impacted by sea level rise.”
The report also said while the documented amount of fuel that has potentially leaked into the ground around Red Hill is 180,000 gallons spilled over 80 years in 70 incidents, after speaking to experts the WAI concluded that “a number significantly higher … must be assumed for the purpose of risk assessment and remediation strategies” and that it believes the real number could be as high as
1.94 million gallons.
The report called for access to all the Navy’s monitoring wells, as well as to step up testing. It also concludes that the federal government is liable for the damage and should pay for all cleanup efforts and reimburse the state, county and individual Hawaii residents who incurred costs as a result of Red Hill. Last week, on the second anniversary of the contamination from the November 2021 fuel spill, Lau announced that the BWS filed a $1.2 billion claim with the Navy to recover costs of the agency’s response under the Federal Tort Claims Act.
“We want the public to know that we all will continue to insist on transparency and accountability beyond the defueling process, as all people who live in Hawaii deserve pure, clean drinking water,” said Green. “It is incumbent upon all of us in positions of leadership in service to the
people of Hawaii to do everything in our power to
collaborate with all stakeholders, toward the common goal of clean drinking water for our future
generations.”
The Red Hill crisis has strained the relationship between military commanders, particularly Navy leadership, and Hawaii residents. It’s prompted many in the islands to rethink their relationship with the large military presence in Hawaii. It has also brought up bitter memories of previous controversies, such as the Navy’s decades-long use of the island of Kahoolawe as a bombing range that over time cracked the island’s aquifer.
“It is critical that Red Hill does not end up like Kahoolawe, where cleanup was promised but was not followed through,” said state Sen. Jarrett Keohokalole, who participated in the WAI. “These efforts ensure that our expectation of the Navy is a restoration of our wai and nothing less.”
A Navy spokesman said that “the Navy remains committed to the safe and permanent closure of the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility and long-term environmental remediation of the site. Partnership and collaboration are key to the success of these endeavors, and we share the same goals as the people of Hawaii: protect the environment, the water, and the community. We will continue to share information with elected officials, stakeholders, and the public, reinforcing the importance of transparency and our enduring commitment to Hawaii.”
During the news conference Lau said that Hawaii’s congressional delegation would need to push the federal government to fulfill its commitments and ensure more oversight.
In a joint statement released Tuesday afternoon, U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono, U.S. Rep. Ed Case and U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda said, “As we’ve worked to secure the federal resources needed for defueling and closing Red Hill, we have consistently pushed to ensure DOD, EPA, and other federal agencies are responsive to community input. This report underscores the importance of continued collaboration between all levels of government throughout this process to ensure we protect the environment and Oahu’s drinking water. As this process moves forward, we will continue working as a delegation to ensure Hawaii has the resources it needs and that the federal government, working with the state and local governments in Hawaii, meets its obligation to keep our communities and environment safe.”
