30 gallons of water and fuel spill at Red Hill storage facility
About 30 gallons of fuel and water spilled from the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility this afternoon during maintenance work at the facility’s underground storage tanks.
The Navy in a news release said the fuel release took place in the vicinity of tanks 13 and 14 at around noon during the maintenance work to remove water from the tanks, which the state Department of Health said in its own release is an environmental control to avoid corrosion of the tanks. The DOH said the fuel and water mixture release came from a maintenance line connected to Tank 15.
The department’s preliminary observations are consistent with the 30-gallon release the Navy had reported.
The health department was notified of the spill at around 3 p.m. and said that its on-scene coordinators observed Navy personnel using “absorbent material to recover the fuel and water mixture.” The Navy said its response teams have finished recovering the spilled mixture.
The DOH said the mixture was recovered in Sump 2 and that fresh staining was observed around it, but the staining appeared to be localized.
“DOH responded to the incident immediately after we were notified,” said Kathleen Ho, Deputy Director of Environmental Health, in a statement. “Today’s event underscores the importance of DOH and other regulatory agencies having oversight of Red Hill activities, especially around defueling and decommissioning the facility.”
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There have been no reports that the spill has affected the Navy’s water supply.
The health department in March lifted a “do not drink” advisory for the final areas of the Navy’s water supply on Oahu, which serves about 93,000 people and for months had been contaminated with petroleum products from the Red Hill storage facility. Residents reported smelling and seeing fuel in the water they were using, and also reported that it had made them sick.
The DOH issued the advisory in November, and since then the Navy, in coordination with a team made up of federal and state representatives, has been flushing and testing the water to make sure it is safe to use again.
The Pentagon in March announced that the Red Hill facility will be closing permanently.
