U.S. NAVY / 2015
Navy officials, members of the Honolulu Board of Water Supply and others visited one of the empty fuel tanks at the Red Hill Underground Fuel Storage Facility near Pearl Harbor in 2015.
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The Navy’s inaction on the leaky Red Hill fuel tanks is appalling (“Navy plan for Red Hill tanks in question,” Star-Advertiser, Sept. 10).
In 2014, a 27,000-gallon leak discharged toxic fuel into the ground underneath the tanks. After more than four years of studies, monitoring and very big reports, the Navy has decided to do nothing except continue its regular maintenance and repairs.
The original massive leak happened in spite of regular maintenance. Now the Navy wants five more years to figure out how much fuel it really needs.
Since 1999, per Hawaii state law, underground fuel tanks must have secondary containment. The Navy has no plan to follow Hawaii law almost 20 years later.
These tanks should be shut down. Who will defend Hawaii’s clean water? Not the Navy.
Alison Bhattacharyya
Nuuanu