Sierra Club presses for upgrade of Navy fuel tanks at Red Hill

The Hawaii Sierra Club is pressuring state officials to require massive underground fuel storage tanks operated by the Navy be upgraded faster to protect a critical source of drinking water for Oahu residents.

In a 68-page petition submitted to the state Department of Health on Wednesday, the environmental group argues that the department’s current underground storage tank regulations violate the state Constitution and a 1992 state law that required storage tanks be replaced or upgraded no later than Dec. 22, 1998, to prevent spills.

“The time for the Department of Health to act is now,” according to the petition. “More than two decades after the state Legislature ordered the department to enact rules to ensure that underground storage tanks are upgraded to prevent spills, the department has failed to do so.”

The petition asks the Health Department to revise its rules to reflect this requirement. The department has 30 days to either accept or deny the petition.

The environmental group may consider suing the state if it doesn’t grant the petition, Sierra Club Director Marti Townsend said.

Health Department spokeswoman Janice Okubo said the department needed more time to review the petition before commenting.

“At this point it is just too early for us to talk about it,” Okubo said. “Until we have really reviewed and evaluated their request, there isn’t really much we can say at this point.”

In January 2014, about 27,000 gallons of fuel leaked from one of 18 active underground tanks at Red Hill operated by the Navy and regulated by the Health Department.

Subsequent media reports revealed there had been dozens of leaks over the years at the aging, World War II-era facility, likely resulting in hundreds of thousands of gallons of leaked fuel. State documents also showed the military for years had been concerned about deteriorating conditions at the facility and the possibility of a catastrophic failure at one of the tanks.

The fuel tanks, each big enough to envelop Hono­lulu’s Aloha Tower, sit just 100 feet above an aquifer that supplies 25 percent of urban Honolulu’s drinking water. The military also faces a serious problem if there is a major failure at the facility — a Navy drinking water well that supplies water to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-­Hickam sits just 3,000 feet makai of Red Hill.

“Storing millions of gallons of fuel in rusty, old tanks just 100 feet over our aquifer is foolish,” Sierra Club member and volunteer Erynn Fernandez said in a news release announcing the petition. “My family and I, like thousands of others, drink this water ­every day. These tanks need to be immediately and completely upgraded or ­relocated because our groundwater is too important to be put at risk like this.”

In October 2015, the Navy entered into an agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Health Department that lays out a series of studies and requirements for upgrading the tanks over the course of 20 years. But the Sierra Club says that’s too long to wait, particularly with looming EPA budget cuts under the Trump administration.

“Ultimately, on the Red Hill situation especially, the Sierra Club feels that 20 years is too long of a period to update the tanks and more urgent action is needed,” Townsend said.

Any new Health Department rules relating to fuel storage tanks would not supersede the agreement between the Navy, EPA and and Health Department, Townsend said. But she noted there is nothing in the agreement that bars the Navy from completing upgrades faster. The rules would apply to all underground storage tanks storing hazardous materials, not just those at Red Hill.

EPA officials said in a status update released earlier this month that drinking water in the area remains safe and continues to meet federal and state safety standards. They also noted that expanded groundwater monitoring in the area is underway and that recent tests had not detected any fuel leaks at the tanks.

However, Navy and environmental regulators still have not come to an agreement on one of the more contentious issues facing the facility, which is how the tanks will actually be upgraded. Since the 2014 leak, some state officials have argued the tanks should be retrofitted with double walls, but the Navy has expressed concerns in the past about the cost.

A study is currently underway to assess single and double-walled tank upgrades and a final report is due to regulators in January 2018.

Officials from the EPA, Health Department and military also have scheduled a public meeting to discuss the Red Hill facility for the evening of June 22 at Moanalua Middle School.