U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said Monday he is “personally monitoring” efforts to mitigate contamination of the Navy’s water supply on Oahu, which serves some 93,000 people.
“Nothing is more important to me or to this Department than the health, safety and well-being of our people and their families, as well as that of residents living near our installations,” Austin said in a news release.
Austin said that he has asked Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks to visit the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility this week during a visit to Hawaii. Hicks is also slated to meet with Navy leaders and state officials as well as affected military personnel and their families.
Top officers with the Navy’s Pacific fleet told Hawaii lawmakers during a joint session of the Legislature on Friday that they believe the contamination of the Navy’s Red Hill well stems from a Nov. 20 release of JP-5 jet fuel from the fuel storage facility’s fire suppression system.
The Navy estimates about 3,200 families have been displaced from military housing and are living temporarily in hotels. Thousands have been evaluated by medical staff. While the contamination has mostly affected military housing areas, several schools and commercial operations also use the Navy’s water system.
“We take this very seriously. I am personally monitoring our progress and our mitigation efforts,” Austin said. “Navy leadership updates me daily on the measures they are taking to care for affected military personnel and families, to restore the safety of the water system in military housing, and to coordinate with local authorities — in particular the Hawaii State Department of Health — about the best way forward.”
The Navy has temporarily suspended fueling operations at the Red Hill facility. Currently, a team of Navy salvage divers is working in the Red Hill well in an attempt to clear out contaminants, and the Pacific Fleet has launched an investigation.
“I fully support the Navy’s decision to suspend operations at the Red Hill Underground Storage Tanks while investigative efforts continue and their commitment to conduct an independent study of operations and system integrity at Red Hill,” Austin said.
But Hawaii lawmakers and community groups have increasingly called for the Navy to do more. Gov. David Ige issued an emergency order Dec. 6 calling for the Navy to empty the massive Red Hill tanks and prove to state officials the facility is safe before resuming operations, an order the Navy said it intends to fight.
Meanwhile, activist groups have loudly called for the permanent closure of the facility at rallies around Honolulu. Days after the Nov. 20 spill, a coalition including the Sierra Club Hawaii Chapter and other organizations announced the launch of a lobbying effort aimed directly at the White House and the Pentagon.
“We’ve lost all faith in the local Navy command and we are launching a grassroots ground campaign to reach out to the president and the top brass at the Pentagon,” Wayne Tanaka, the director of the Sierra Club’s Hawaii chapter, said at Nov. 24 news conference in front of the Honolulu Board of Water Supply.
The state Health Department and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have been working with the Navy since 2015, when they entered into an administrative order of consent after the Navy disclosed that 27,000 gallons of fuel had leaked from the Red Hill fuel farm in 2014. Supporters of a permanent closure maintain that the consent order has not delivered adequate environmental safeguards.
The World War II-era Red Hill facility, which can hold up to 250 million gallons of fuel for military ships and aircraft, sits above a critical aquifer that provides much of Oahu’s drinking water. The Board of Water Supply has shut down its Halawa well as a precaution and last week said it may have to remain closed for years.
The current water crisis comes after a series of emails leaked to local media showed that Navy officials sought to downplay concerns and keep problems raised by Navy personnel from becoming public.
Moving forward, Austin said in the release: “My expectation is that military leaders in Hawaii will continue to do everything they can — as fast as they can — to return residents safely back to their homes and to communicate clearly and frequently the steps they are taking to do so.” Austin noted that “Adm. (Samuel) Paparo, the Pacific Fleet Commander, is now the on-scene commander and understands those expectations.”
In closing Austin said, “We will solve this problem, and we will do so safely, expeditiously and transparently.”
Correction: The Navy estimates about 3,200 families have been displaced by the Red Hill contamination and are living temporarily in hotels. An earlier version of this story had a lesser estimate,
