Nearly 105 million gallons of military fuel stored 100 feet above a key aquifer have now been removed from Red Hill — good — but unfortunately, threat of serious contamination from residual toxins lingers. Public pressure must ramp up to have the Navy start weekly monitoring for chemicals in area water wells, using an independent third party, as well as for official monitoring agencies to likewise adopt a sense of urgency for timely data.
On Wednesday, the City Council, aided by the Honolulu Board of Water Supply (BWS), laudably took the lead on the public-pressure front, unanimously approving Resolution 24-216 urging the Navy and Department of Defense to immediately implement weekly testing of all of the Navy’s Red Hill monitoring and drinking-water wells for all chemical contaminants stemming from past fuel and hazardous materials at the storage-tank facility.
But because the resolution has no force of law, the state Department of Health (DOH) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency also must step up and exercise their oversight authority over the Navy facility to compel the expanded testing.
That’s necessary, given the Navy’s bad track record on Red Hill over many years — and the public’s deep distrust is reflected in most of the 330-plus pieces of testimony supporting Resolution 24-216. As noted by Council Chair Tommy Waters: “The U.S. Navy’s slow and inadequate response to reporting the aquifer contamination following the initial and devastating (2021) fuel leak into our water supply at Red Hill was unacceptable.”
The current alarm over possible water contamination was sounded in early summer, when the BWS detected a plume of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) at its closed Aiea Wells in water samples collected in May and June. PAHs, chemicals that occur naturally in coal and petroleum products, are known to cause cancer, respiratory issues and other health effects. The types of PAHs detected at the Aiea Wells were also detected at a Navy monitoring well in samples collected in June, suggesting a contaminant plume may be heading west of the Red Hill facility — but without more real-time monitoring and data, no one knows what’s occurring underground. That’s a big problem.
The Navy is “trying to tell us that this could not have come from Red Hill … but we don’t know for sure,” BWS Manager Ernie Lau said at Wednesday’s Council hearing. “So the question is, if this is indeed a plume moving westward, what’s going to be our decision with Kaamilo Wells, which is about a half a mile to the west of Aiea Wells? Should we shut it down? Should we install a treatment system? What do we do?”
Lau strongly implied that for the safety of Aiea water users, Kaamilo Wells could well be shut down, affecting about 1 million gallons of water per day. But that cautionary move could be avoided with more data to make an informed decision.
The Sierra Club-Hawaii, for one, was exactly right in stressing that uncertainty about the source of the PAH plume calls for more data, not less, as multiple potential sources of contamination only heighten the need for more information about what may be happening in the aquifer.
Unfortunately, and in bad form, no one from the Navy’s Closure Task Force-Red Hill attended the Council hearing on Resolution 24-216 — though it did submit written testimony countering BWS’ claims.
The Navy said it has coordinated with the DOH and EPA on “a robust and comprehensive groundwater sampling and testing program. At the start of defueling, the Navy increased to bi-weekly sampling of its network of more than 40 groundwater monitoring wells in and around the Red Hill facility … To date, this extensive sampling indicates the contamination continues to be isolated directly underneath the Red Hill tank gallery.”
But memories of the November 2021 Red Hill fuel spill remain vivid, amid the military’s history of negligence over the fuel facility and the environment it sits upon. It’s abundantly clear to residents — though not to the Navy — that military platitudes have long since worn thin. If the reassurances are not backed up with meaningful actions to get more answers, they could prove harmful to Oahu’s people and our water.
