Two-and-a-half years after the disastrous Red Hill fuel spill that contaminated the area’s water,
people who were sickened then — and claim ongoing health problems even now — are in the midst of a landmark lawsuit trying to make the Navy pay. Literally, and dearly. Their stories of trauma and injury are compelling, especially given the military’s now-revealed patterns of obscurification, alarming fuel-facility negligence and lack of urgency.
Trial for the class-action lawsuit, which started last week, is a stark reminder of the health issues plaguing hundreds, if not thousands, of those exposed to contaminated water from the November 2021 water crisis. The stories of enduring pain — including surgeries for some, esophageal burns for others — surely should resonate with U.S. District Judge Leslie Kobayashi, who is hearing the case without a jury, and will decide the level of compensation.
Still. While the government admits responsibility for the jet fuel leak and that it has some liability, its lawyers dispute that plaintiffs’ medical problems were from exposure to the contaminated water. Government lawyers essentially argue that the crisis was overblown, that Navy officials acted promptly and that some plaintiffs hadn’t been exposed to enough fuel to make them ill.
So despite the medical angst of the plaintiffs — the causes of which Kobayashi has curbed expert testimony on — the amount awarded will come down to evidence of direct cause and effect.
“What remains at issue is causation and damages,” said Rosemary Yogiaveetil, a U.S. Department of Justice attorney, in last week’s opening statement.
“Under the law, science matters,” she said. “Plaintiffs cannot demonstrate a causal link between their injuries and spill of Nov. 21.”
What must be noted, however, is how the Navy itself blurred that link from the get-go. How the Navy was slow to stand up clinical support and testing for people with symptoms. How the Navy dumped 1,000 water samples taken in the wake of the 2021 leaks without testing them; that’s now a point of legal contention by affected families. The military has defended its decision not to test the samples, saying testing for total petroleum hydrocarbons was not required. But it should have been, for the sake of full knowledge and scope of what toxins were in the tainted water going to 93,000 users; the crisis forced evacuations and shut down the civilian Halawa water shaft.
In trying to show that the Navy “quickly responded” to the spill, Yogiaveetil said that “on the night of Nov. 27, 2021, the United States Navy received a handful of reports laying concerns about water quality on the base … within hours. In the morning of Nov. 28, the Navy had mobilized and began to investigate those complaints. … And even before the test results came back, the Navy shut down the Red Hill well within 24 hours of those initial reports as a precaution.”
Unbelievable. Recall that the U.S. Pacific Fleet’s own investigation found that when Navy officials first became aware of the Nov. 21 spill, they chose not to inform superiors or state officials. It was only in following days, as families reported concerns, that it was the state Department of Health that put out a health advisory about the water. Navy officials had actually asked the Health Department to rescind the advisory, before eventually acknowledging its water was contaminated with fuel.
Closing arguments in this trial are expected Monday. The amount of compensation for these bellwether plaintiffs — the first 17 claiming medical, emotional and financial injuries from the Red Hill water taint — will set the tone for others to come. Another 7,500 plaintiffs are involved in other lawsuits.
Very unfortunately, the body of Navy actions during, and after, the water crisis speaks to deep culpability. There is hefty “causal link” here. The Navy should not get off lightly — essentially being rewarded — for not doing all that it could have, should have, to determine the level of toxicity in the water at a critical time. Earlier intervention to inform medical care could well have eased the hurt
suffered by many.
