Navy, state officials spar over safety of Red Hill fuel tanks

The Navy on Monday argued that its robust response to the current fuel contamination in its drinking water system negates any imminent peril that its Red Hill fuel farm poses to health and the environment, and therefore the state has no statutory authority to order it to drain its massive fuel tanks, among other requirements of an emergency order.

“There is a lot to do to return to normalcy, but plans are in place and they are being carried out to do just that,” Craig Jensen, an attorney for the Navy, said in his opening remarks during a hearing in which the Navy is contesting the emergency order that the state Department of Health issued earlier this month.

Jensen and other Navy representatives detailed a litany of response measures that are expected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars as it strives to restore clean drinking water in communities around Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, clean up its Red Hill drinking water shaft and aid more than 3,400 families that have been displaced by the water contamination. About 93,000 people who are on the Navy’s system are still being warned not to drink the water as the cleanup effort stretches into the holidays.

“The Navy is taking care of people in extraordinary ways, as well it should,” said Jensen.

James Balocki, a principal adviser to the secretary of the Navy, told parties in the case that the Navy has isolated two of its drinking water wells, provided safe water and hotel rooms to thousands of affected people, flown in extra medical staff and created a registry to track any long-term health effects from ingesting or having contact with petroleum-contaminated water. He also said the Navy is looking to install a permanent water-cleaning system at its Red Hill shaft which could cost upward of $300 million, in addition to millions it is spending on 24 cleaning systems to help flush its drinking water distribution system.

“The Navy has taken every action to ensure the health and safety of people, to prevent damage to the environment, and I’m confident those actions were appropriate and timely,” said Balocki, who was called to testify by the Navy.

But officials with the state Department of Health, Honolulu Board of Water Supply and Hawaii Sierra Club, which are all parties in the case, painted a different picture in a hearing that stretched on for more than 13 hours and included more than a dozen other witnesses, including members of military families who say they and their families got sick from drinking and bathing in the contaminated water.

State health officials and other witnesses described an aging World War II-era facility that has long posed a risk to a major source of drinking water not just for the Navy, but southern Oahu. Regardless of the Navy’s response to the current crisis, they argued that the Red Hill fuel facility has woefully inadequate leak detection and maintenance protocols, and that the threat of future fuel releases from the facility is inevitable.

State health officials, who were called to testify, described corrosion in the 20 massive underground tanks, each of which can hold 12 million to 12.7 million gallons of fuel. Two of those tanks have been taken out of use. Health officials, who regulate Red Hill, said the Navy has been unable to accurately determine the thickness of the tanks’ steel plates, which protect against major and chronic leaks into the environment, and that years go by without tank inspections that could identify areas of thinning and corrosion. Eight of the tanks haven’t been inspected in more than 20 years, according to DOH, and three of those haven’t been inspected in about four decades.

They pointed out that a Navy analysis in recent years also found high levels of risk for future fuel releases. It can be expected that 1,000 to 30,000 gallons of fuel could leak about once every three years and that chronic, undetected leaks could be releasing about 5,803 gallons of fuel a year. A major release of more than 120,000 gallons could happen once every 240 years.

David Norfleet, an engineering consultant who was called as a witness by the Honolulu Board of Water Supply, said he had identified as many as 76 fuel releases from the facility from historic records for Red Hill that date back decades, totaling about 175,000 gallons of fuel, and that the tanks were entering their end-of-life phase.

“It’s not just possible that there are going to be future releases; it is imminent,” he said.

The Hawaii Sierra Club also called witnesses who are on the Navy’s system who say they were sickened from drinking and bathing in the water. They testified that their symptoms began days before the Navy alerted the public that there might be contamination.

Carly Lintner, whose husband is in the military, broke down in tears as she talked about the strain that the contamination has placed on her family, which includes a 16-month-old son. She said that her son broke out in a rash Nov. 22 and that on Thanksgiving she and her husband, as well as their guests, all developed stomachaches. Lintner said her dog refused to drink from his water bowl and would go outside and hunt for water puddles to drink out of. She said her dog began vomiting.

Kimberly Charters, whose husband is in the Army, also began to choke up as she described how she, her husband and their dog got sick. She said that they have since been going back and forth between a hotel.

“It’s hard not being able to shower or do anything — to cook, to brush my teeth, to wash my face, to wash my hands safely. I have to do all these things with bottled water,” she said. “I don’t think I really realized how much I do use water until this all happened.”

The Navy says that it first started receiving complaints from residents on Nov. 28 about a chemical or fuel smell in the water, and that they shut down their Red Hill shaft that evening. The shaft is essentially a water tunnel at the top of the aquifer where the Navy pumps water into its drinking water system.

Attorney David Henkin, who is representing the Hawaii Sierra Club in the contested case hearings, said the current contamination has been “horrendous,” but noted that it could be much worse if contamination from Red Hill affects wells used by the Honolulu Board of Water Supply, which provides water to the majority of Oahu.

It’s “just a cautionary tale of what happens with continued inaction in the face of an existential threat,” he said.

Closing arguments are set to begin at 9 a.m. today, after which a decision, possibly within days, is expected from the Department of Health on whether the Navy has to comply with the emergency order, including draining the fuel from the Red Hill tanks.