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Hawaii’s congressional delegation wants Gov. David Ige to request a presidential emergency declaration over the Red Hill contaminated-water crisis.
In a joint message, U.S. Sens. Brian Schatz and Mazie Hirono and U.S. Reps. Ed Case and Kai Kahele, all Democrats, said Friday it is “clear that the Navy has failed to manage its fuel operations, including Red Hill, to a standard that protects the health and safety of the people of Hawaii.”
On Thursday night Navy officials said testing has confirmed that petroleum contaminants were found in the Red Hill tank that supplies water to thousands of military and nonmilitary families in the Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam area.
“The Navy must immediately identify, isolate, and fix the problems that have allowed the contamination of the drinking water. … That includes a wholesale change in an organizational culture that has allowed too many accidents to occur without any accountability,” the joint statement said.
In closing, the statement said, “We urge the governor to request that the president declare an emergency as soon as possible so that the state has access to every resource available to make families whole and protect the people of Hawaii from future leaks.”
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In a statement issued Thursday, Ige said he “urged the Navy to conduct a thorough investigation immediately and to take every precaution necessary to keep the community safe. I’ve also ordered the State Department of Health to continue independent testing and to be prepared to take immediate action to protect our drinking water.”
During a media briefing held Friday, Hirono said the delegation has also requested an Inspector General investigation of “all of the operations at Red Hill.” Additionally, Hirono said she has asked for a classified briefing on the military’s fuel needs in Hawaii.
Meanwhile, former Govs. John Waihee and Neil Abercrombie called for the closure of the Navy’s Red Hill fuel storage facility, which is suspected of contaminating drinking water in neighboring homes, leaving residents unable to bathe or drink from their taps.
“I think the Department of Health ought to close the place down,” Waihee told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s “Spotlight Hawaii” livestream program Friday in a joint appearance with Abercrombie.
“The military always takes the position that they can’t do without something. They can’t do without it, there’s no better way to do anything. … They couldn’t do it without Kahoolawe (which the Navy used for target practice), they couldn’t do without Barbers Point (Naval Air Station), and yet they have done without it. …. Yeah, we ought to close the place down. How much more do you need to do to demonstrate that those facilities are no longer viable?”
As a Hawaii congressman, Abercrombie spent two decades on the House Armed Services Committee and toured the Red Hill storage tanks, which he said are vulnerable to leaking fuel into the underground aquifer from even a minor earthquake.
“We’re one minor earthquake away from having the water for the island of Oahu and everybody on it being destroyed. It makes no sense at all. It should be shut down today,” Abercrombie said.
He said Navy officials are “not on top of anything. … That aquifer is in danger. It needs to be shut down now.”
In another call for action, J. Kuhio Lewis, CEO of the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement, sent a letter to the White House in which he asked President Joe Biden for his “assistance in addressing this pressing issue and doing everything in your power to relocate the Navy’s fuel away from our groundwater aquifer and drinking water supply before more harm befalls our community.”
In his letter Lewis said, “The Native Hawaiian community, as well as many others, have struggled for many years to hold the U.S. Navy accountable to its trust responsibilities to safeguard the environment and operate with best stewardship practices. After so many years of warning, issues that we have long feared are now upon us, with no signs of relenting. It is only a matter of time before the damage done is irreversible and more gravely catastrophic.”
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Staff writer Sophie Cocke contributed to this report.
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