There are few resources as critical to Hawaii, and deserving of protection, than its freshwater supply. It’s out of this concern that Senate Bill 1259 was introduced in an attempt to buttress the state’s environmental protection against fuel leaks that could infiltrate the aquifer on Oahu, near the Navy’s underground Red Hill storage tanks.
The bill — which would require the military’s Red Hill fuel tanks to have secondary, or double-walled, containment by 2027 — has advanced to second reading after being heard by two Senate committees dealing with environment and military affairs.
The legislation should get heard jointly by its final two panels in the chamber — Commerce, Consumer Protection and Health and the Ways and Means Committee— and be refined after fuller discussion there.
The issue arises out of an episode more than three years ago, when 27,000 gallons of fuel oil leaked out from one of the 20 mammoth tanks in the Red Hill Underground Fuel Storage Facility. The tanks are stored in relatively close proximity to the aquifer that supplies much of Oahu’s drinking-water needs.
Instead of assessing penalties or taking other enforcement actions, the state Department of Health and the federal Environmental Protection Agency came to the table with the Navy and negotiated an Administrative Order on Consent (AOC), finalizedit in September 2015.
Among the terms of that agreement was the development of a “Tank Upgrade Alternative” study to weigh various alternative solutions to ensure containment. That’s a concern for a facility of World War II vintage.
Ideally, state action at the Legislature would await the completion of that study, due out at year’s end. But state Sen. Laura Thielen, among the advocates for SB 1259, believes the state needs some statutory protection — and that there’s a window of opportunity now to nail it down.
Even should the bill pass, it may not be insulated from challenge, given the argument that the tanks are essential to military operations and thus national security. It is opposed by the Navy and the state health department, which argue in favor of letting the AOC play out and the solution of studies be completed.
Still, Thielen makes a credible case that the state would be wise to have some statutory urgency and protection of its own on the books, and that now is the time to do so.
Under the agreement, she added, the EPA will have the final say about the standard of protection that will be funded and enforced.
The public should not put its faith in the EPA to be much of a guardian, Thielen said, if Scott Pruitt is confirmed as its director, as expected. Pruitt is the Oklahoma attorney general who has spearheaded lawsuits against the EPA over the “fracking” of natural gas and its potential impact on water supplies.
“We needed to pass some legislation that allows the state to rely on state law in the event that the EPA, under this new director, accepts substandard upgrading of the tanks,” she said — and it’s a compelling aspect.
The bill is favored by the Honolulu Board of Water Supply, which has long expressed worry, rightly, that the long time frame for completing fuel-tank improvements is risky, given the age of the facility. Water officials also have protested the fact that the tanks have been found to be exempt from stricter federal regulations requiring more fortified insulation.
Thielen is proposing that the final bill require an upgrade to double-wall “or an equivalent standard,” to allow flexibility if a safe alternative solution is found. Another rational approach would be to set a delayed effective date to accommodate the study findings later this year.
At a minimum, passage of SB 1259 in some form would send an important message that Hawaii will accept a timely and appropriately robust protection for its water supply, and nothing less.
