Select an option below to continue reading this premium story.
Already a Honolulu Star-Advertiser subscriber? Log in now to continue reading.
A resolution urging federal and state agencies to block the Navy from using a single-wall upgrade for massive jet fuel tanks at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel
Storage Facility won approval from a Honolulu City Council committee Wednesday.
Resolution 18-266 urges the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the state Department of Health to reject approval of a
single-wall tank upgrade for the 18 tanks, which each can hold up to
11.5 million gallons of jet fuel and sit 100 feet above a major Oahu aquifer that provides drinking water for much of urban Honolulu.
In 2014, one of the tanks leaked an estimated 27,000 gallons of fuel, an event that led to an agreement
by Navy with the Health Department and the EPA to improve tank safety and assess whether the facility should be relocated.
The resolution was
approved Wednesday by the Council Public Infrastructure, Technology and Sustainability Committee without much discussion after the issue took up more than an hour of the panel’s time Tuesday. The matter is expected to be up for a final vote of the full Council March 8.
At the committee’s a meeting Tuesday, Honolulu Board of Water Supply
officials stressed that the existing tanks retain fuel within a steel lining that’s only a quarter of an inch thick. They want a secondary containment or double-
lined tanks, or for the facility to be relocated.
A representative from the Sierra Club of Hawaii said the group believes the relocating the tanks should be the top option.
Navy officials said secondary containment would pose major engineering challenges and cost billions.