Emilee Carpenter, who lives in military housing in Salt Lake, started getting headaches and stomachaches about a week ago that grew progressively worse. She says her husband, who is in the military, broke out in hives a couple of days ago after taking a shower.

Then early Sunday morning, she says, she detected an odor in the water coming from the taps in their bathroom.

“It smells like someone dumped just a bunch of pool chemicals into our toilet bowl and our water,” she said, adding that the water has a metallic and “chemically” taste to it.

Carpenter is particularly worried because she’s 17 weeks pregnant.

Her friend who lives nearby is also scared. She’s been using the water in her baby’s formula.

“My tap smells like a gas station in Moanalua Terrace,” she wrote in a social media post.

The friend asked that her name not be used out of fear that it would put her husband’s military job at risk.

Cheri Burness, who lives in military housing in nearby Halsey Terrace, said she too began smelling an odor Sunday.

A week prior, she said her dog started refusing to drink the water, began throwing up and had diarrhea. Burness says she later began experiencing stomach pain.

“The day before yesterday it got really bad, to the point where I’m walking around bent over in pain,” she said.

Burness is sure that it’s jet fuel that’s in the water.

“Coming out of the faucet, smells like fuel,” she said. “When the sprinklers come on, it smells like someone sprayed fuel all over our grass. There is no denying it.”

Late Sunday night the Navy issued a news release saying that it was investigating reports of a “chemical smell” in drinking water at several homes at Joint Base Pearl Harbor- Hickam. The Navy said there was no “immediate indication” that the water wasn’t safe and that tests were ongoing.

By Monday morning, social media was erupting with stories from families living in surrounding military housing about suspected water contamination. Three schools also detected a chemical smell in their water.

Holy Family Catholic Academy, which enrolls students in preschool to eighth grade, canceled school and told parents to immediately pick up their kids.

Celeste Akiu, the school’s principal, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that the academy, which has a mix of military and nonmilitary families, made the decision unilaterally. Akiu said that as of noon Monday, no one from the Navy or the state Department of Health had contacted her.

Nimitz Elementary and Red Hill Elementary also reported a chemical-like odor coming from their water lines Monday, prompting the schools to tape off their sinks and bring in bottled water. School menus were adjusted to serve food that doesn’t require water for preparation, such as frozen food.

Throughout most of Monday neither the Navy nor DOH responded to numerous questions from the Star-Advertiser about whether it was safe for area residents to use their tap water and whether the odors might indicate that a spill at the Navy’s nearby Red Hill Underground Fuel Storage Facility had contaminated the Navy’s water system.

Meanwhile, area residents say they were receiving conflicting information from the Navy and DOH.

On Monday afternoon Capt. Erik Spitzer, commander of Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, sent a note to residents of military housing reiterating that there were no immediate indications that the water was unsafe.

“My staff and I are drinking the water on base this morning, and many of my team live in housing and drink and use the water as well,” wrote Spitzer.

He said that the military was taking the concerns seriously, but “we have not recommended any schools to be closed, and we have not sent out any notifications telling people to not use the water.”

By contrast, a DOH employee sent out very different advice in a message that began circulating on social media and was provided to the Star-Advertiser. “DOH strongly recommends finding an alternative water source for all water uses, including drinking water, cooking, hand washing, dishes laundry, etc,” according to the message.

The slow and conflicting guidance frustrated residents in military housing who spoke to the Star- Advertiser.

Frances Paulino, who lives at Aliamanu Military Reservation, said residents are largely getting their information from social media and not official sources, like the military and DOH.

“There is not a mass distribution of information that is sufficient enough for the severity of what people are worried about right now,” she said. “So unfortunately, there is a game of broken telephone.”

Amid the dearth in official guidance, Paulino and other members of military families were getting ready to distribute bottled water throughout military housing Monday evening. The bottled water is being paid for by a nonprofit called Armed Forces Housing Advocates, a national nonprofit that advocates on behalf of residents living in privatized military housing. Paulino is a board member of the organization.

Rachel Christian, the organization’s director, told the Star-Advertiser that she believed the military would be putting out a plan for families to access water. But in the meantime her organization was trying to assist.

“We unfortunately have more families needing water than we can access,” Christian said by email Monday afternoon. “I just wanted to give you this perspective, as there are hundreds of military families without access to water today without any acknowledgement by the Navy or assistance to get them clean water.”

At about 6:30 p.m. Monday, DOH finally put out a news release recommending that all Navy system water users avoid using water for drinking, cooking or oral hygiene. DOH said Navy water system users who detect a fuel odor from their water should, in addition, avoid using the water for bathing, dishwashing and laundry.

DOH said initial test results received Monday afternoon were inconclusive and did not detect a contaminant, but that samples also have been sent to a drinking water testing lab in California, and more detailed results are expected by the end of the week.

Concerns raised about Red Hill

A number of area residents, as well as the Hawaii Sierra Club, said they’re concerned that a fuel leak at the Navy’s Red Hill Underground Fuel Storage Facility about a week ago may have contaminated the water system in the Pearl Harbor area.

On Nov. 20 about 14,000 gallons of fuel and water was released from a fire suppression drain line, according to the Navy, which said that all of the fuel had been captured and moved into a storage tank. At the time of the spill, the smell of fuel around the neighborhoods of Foster Village and Aliamanu was strong enough that several residents called 911, and multiple units from the Honolulu Fire Department and Federal Fire Department responded.

It’s still not clear what caused the release, which the Navy says it’s investigating.

But past fuel releases at Red Hill, which includes 20 massive underground fuel tanks, have raised ongoing concerns from environmental regulators that fuel could contaminate drinking water wells. Potential contamination is believed to pose the greatest risk to a nearby Navy well that supplies drinking water to about 65,000 people at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, according to Navy reports and correspondence filed with DOH in past years.

Wayne Tanaka, director of the Hawaii Sierra Club, said in a news release that regardless of whether fuel was coming from Red Hill, the response from Navy officials was disappointing.

“Is this the response we should expect if and when we see the water supply for all of south O‘ahu, from Moanalua to Maunalua, become contaminated from Red Hill?” said Tanaka. “Gaslighting and the downplaying of real community concerns?”