U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz on Tuesday pressed the Navy to release its full investigation into what caused the fuel contamination in its drinking water system, saying that it is essential that the public “has a full accounting of the multiple failures at Red Hill.”
The investigation was turned over to Adm. Samuel Paparo, commander of U.S. Pacific Fleet, on Jan. 14. But Navy officials told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser earlier this week that they would be releasing only a summary of its conclusions to the public and have not responded to questions as to the timeline for doing so.
“There’s no reason to redact or retract anything that’s not classified,” said Schatz. “We need full transparency as the Navy implements the governor’s defueling order. Hawaii’s citizens and service members deserve to know every detail, and to see public accountability.”
Paparo ordered the investigation after jet fuel contaminated the Navy’s Red Hill shaft in November, polluting the drinking water used by residents, businesses and schools in neighborhoods in and around Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.
As part of that investigation, Paparo instructed an investigating officer to include any connection between a May 6 fuel spill at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility and a Nov. 20 fuel release.
Prior to the water contamination, Navy officials had said that all but 38 gallons of fuel was recovered following the May 6 spill and that there appeared to be no fuel released into the environment following the Nov. 20 spill. Those statements now appear to be false.
Also on Tuesday the state Department of Health released updated data obtained from the Navy that shows heightened levels of total petroleum hydrocarbons in both soil vapor and groundwater around the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility in the months following the May 6 fuel spill. The sampling was conducted between May 12 and Jan. 3.
The data shows detections of total petroleum hydrocarbons associated with diesel and oil exceeded the state’s safe thresholds dozens of times in the lead-up to the November fuel contamination. However, DOH said the detections do not paint a clear picture, noting that the Red Hill facility has been the site of multiple fuel spills over the decades.
“The recent detections are intermittent and do not present a clear pattern in occurrence or concentration,” according to a DOH news release. “For instance, elevated detections of fuel products in groundwater and soil vapor monitoring in individual sampling locations may drop to normal levels and then show up again in days or weeks.”
DOH stressed that there is no indication that the Honolulu Board of Water Supply’s drinking water has been affected. BWS supplies water to the majority of Oahu residents, while the Navy’s system serves about 93,000 people.
“I want to emphasize that for residents of Oahu who are on the BWS system, the water remains safe to drink,” said Kathleen Ho in a news release. “The long-term remedy to this issue is to render the Red Hill facility safe by removing fuel from the underground storage tanks. It is imperative that the Navy comply with DOH’s order.”
The updated data can be found at bit.ly/348sLWb.
