David Shapiro: Enough lollygagging on upgrading old Red Hill fuel tanks

One of the few things the current generation of government leadership excels at is passing vexing problems to future generations.

The latest example is further delay in shoring up fuel storage tanks at the Navy’s Red Hill facility, which caused alarm in 2014 when 27,000 gallons of fuel leaked just 100 feet above the aquifer that provides drinking water to residents from Moanalua to Hawaii Kai.

Though the aquifer wasn’t contaminated then, it raised fears of future leaks of the rusting World War II-era tanks that could spoil much of Oahu’s drinking water for decades.

Ernest Lau, chief engineer of the Honolulu Board of Water Supply, has repeatedly called for urgent action to either upgrade underground tanks to double-wall containment — a tank within a tank — or move the fuel to secure above-ground tanks.

“The potential for catastrophic environmental and economic damages caused by fuel releases from one or more of the 20 field-constructed tanks at Red Hill is quite high,” the BWS has warned.

But in 2015 the state Health Department and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency agreed to give the Navy until 2038 to upgrade its tanks, with promises the improvements could actually occur much sooner.

Instead, the Health Department and EPA now appear poised to give the Navy more time, until 2045, to provide secondary containment or remove the fuel, despite public pleas for faster action at recent hearings on the new rules.

Until then the Navy promises only better cleaning, inspecting and repairing of tanks that hold up to 250 million gallons of fuel.

The slow walk has enjoyed support from top local officials so far. Gov. David Ige praised the controversial 2015 agreement as “the start of long-overdue action to make Hawaii safer,” while U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz called it a “pragmatic step forward to protect Oahu’s drinking water.”

The Navy is right that the tanks can’t be reinforced or moved overnight, but it doesn’t take 25 years, either, when the potential risk is so high.

In Washington state last year, the Navy got approval to replace a smaller array of troublesome underground tanks at Naval Base Kitsap-Manchester just a year after the issue arose, with above-ground tanks to be phased in over six years. A similar upgrade of the Navy’s Point Loma fuel tanks in San Diego was completed in 2013.

Who knows what competing priorities we’ll be facing in 2045 as climate change and other challenges bear down on us?

The Red Hill solutions are relatively straightforward and needn’t be a can kicked down the road.

Comments on the proposed rules can still be sent to the Health Department until Dec. 16 by email to DOHustprogram@HawaiiOIMT.onmicrosoft.com or postal mail to UST Rules, 2827 Waimano Home Road No. 100, Pearl City, HI 96782.

Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com.