New ‘citizen suit’ takes aim at aging Red Hill fuel tanks

The Wai Ola Alliance, an “environmentally and culturally focused” community group, said it’s issuing a 90-day notice of its intent to sue the Navy in federal court to speed up major repairs to the Red Hill fuel farm.

The “citizen suit” will allege that the Navy is in violation of the Resource Conser- vation and Recovery Act by contributing to “handling, storage, treatment, transportation and/or disposal of solid waste in a manner that presents an imminent and substantial endangerment” to human health and the environment, according to the group.

Maui resident, Native rights activist and alliance member John Miller said to be able to sue, the 90-day notice is required, “so this is the first step in a federal lawsuit.”

A letter to that effect was drafted and is being sent to the secretary of defense, Navy secretary and commander of U.S. Pacific Fleet, among others, the group said Monday.

The Wai Ola Alliance said in that letter that it “seeks the immediate abatement of existing and imminent releases through installation of tank liners, the replacement of pipelines and a leak detection system capable of preventing fuel releases” while longer-term solutions are negotiated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and state Department of Health.

The 20-page letter is signed by lawyers from San Francisco-based Sycamore Law Inc. and Hawaii-based Margaret Wille &Associates. Sycamore Law said on its website that it “represents nonprofits, tribes and foundations” in environmental advocacy.

The notice comes after the Navy’s “continuing violations” of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, chiefly through “70 documented spills, the most recent occurring in May of 2021,” a release from the group said. The lawsuit will seek to “immediately address” the threat of catastrophic failure.

“When state and county elected officials fail to protect their citizens from a clear, imminent and catastrophic disaster of this magnitude, then we the people must step up and fight to protect our families,” Kim Coco Iwamoto, a former Board of Education member and a plaintiff in the case, said in the release.

Mike Andrews, deputy public affairs officer for Navy Region Hawaii, said in response to the planned legal action, “Because the Navy has not received the notice of intent to file suit, it would not be appropriate to comment.”

The Navy already is embroiled in separate complex consultations with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and state Department of Health over ongoing operations at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility.

Located 2.5 miles from Pearl Harbor, Red Hill has 20 vertically arrayed 250-foot-tall underground tanks that were constructed between 1940 and 1943, with each tank capable of holding 12.5 million gallons of fuel.

The Navy says they are “critical to the national security of our nation,” but they are built 100 feet above Oahu’s sole-source groundwater aquifer, the Southern Oahu Basal Aquifer, from which the Board of Water Supply draws 77% of the island’s water.

Those single-wall tanks have leaked for decades — at least 200,000 gallons since 1943, according to the Sierra Club of Hawaii, which has called for their shutdown.

An “advisory order on consent” with the EPA requires approved leak protection by 2037. The Navy alternatively wants “double-­wall equivalency” by 2045.

Separately, the Navy is seeking a five-year operating permit from the state. Final documentation is due by Nov. 19, the Navy said.

In the coming 90 days, the Wai Ola Alliance said, it will seek a negotiated solution before it files the lawsuit.

Using the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act “allows us to get to the table in the federal court system and start negotiating an actual solution,” Miller said.

He added, “The Sierra Club and everyone is pushing for long-term solution, and I’m fully supporting a long-term solution, even moving the tanks. I think that’s great. But the timeline is something that we can’t afford.”

He believes the major improvements can be effected in a year to 18 months for up to $100 million. Melodie Aduja, Clarence Ku Ching, Pete Shimazaki Doktor and Mary Maxine Kahaulelio are also on a plaintiffs list that is expected to grow.

The Wai Ola Alliance said it intends to seek “legal and equitable” relief including an assessment of past, present and future response; remediation, removal and cleanup costs; and attorney’s fees.