Hawaii State Senate committees consider measure prohibiting underground fuel tanks near aquifer

The Senate Committees on Health and Agriculture and Environment held a hearing Wednesday afternoon to consider a bill that would prohibit the operation of and renewal of permits for underground fuel storage tanks within a half-mile of an aquifer. The bill could have big implications for the Navy’s underground Red Hill fuel storage facility.

SB 2172 was introduced by state Sen. Glen Wakai and co-sponsored by several Senate members.

“We appreciate and support the intent of this measure,” Kathleen Ho, deputy director of Environmental Health, told lawmakers.

A fuel leak in May tainted the Navy’s Red Hill drinking water system, which serves about 93,000 residents in neighborhoods in and around Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. The facility sits above a critical aquifer that supplies Oahu with drinking water.

The Hawaii Department of Health and Honolulu Board of Water Supply testified in favor of the bill along with several community groups.

The Navy initially fought a Department of Health emergency order issued in December to drain the Red Hill tanks, which can store up to 250 million gallons of fuel. But earlier this month Navy officials told Congress they would comply with the order. The emergency order, however, allows the Navy to refill the tanks later if the service can meet certain requirements to demonstrate it can operate them safely.

State and federal agencies, including the Navy, have been working around the clock on trying to clean out and decontaminate the drinking water system. In addition to thousands of military families, the Navy’s water system also serves several schools and businesses.

“What’s important is the community came together to help those schools impacted, but … the teachers are so concerned that with COVID and tainted water, how are we supposed to get our students up to standards?” testified Laverne Moore of the Hawaii State Teachers Association. “It is important that we deal with this issue to provide safe water not only for our keiki, our teachers, the public schools but also for everyone who lives in Hawaii.”

The measure received broad support, but several witnesses called for amendments and changes to the bill’s language out of concern that it left open loopholes that could allow the Navy to continue operating the Red Hill facility, as well as language that could affect civilian businesses nearby the aquifer.

In written testimony, Honolulu Board of Water Supply manager and chief engineer Ernie Lau said he supported the proposal with amendments.

“The need to preserve and protect groundwater quality and quantity now and into the future outweighs the continued operation of large field-constructed USTs (underground storage tanks) without secondary containment,” Lau said in a statement.

Eric Lee of the Hawaii Petroleum Marketers Association noted that the organization had “concerns that this bill as currently drafted will have unintended consequences on member retail stations and convenience stores.”

Lee said there’s a growing desire to replace the existing hydrocarbon fuels with clean fuels or biofuels.

“The logical storage for those fuels would be in underground storage tanks to support the retail community,” Lee said. “The alternative would be above ground storage tanks which brings in other issues regarding the safe operation of that facility due to possible vandalism or terrorism.”

“It only talks about new tanks and that the permits will go on to 2050,” Samuel Mitchell, who worked as a maintenance mechanic at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard for 38 years, told lawmakers. “The bill doesn’t do anything about the Red Hill facility that needs to be changed.”

Mitchell testified that as far back as the 1990s he recalled problems being common knowledge at the facility, but said that he and other workers were often kept from knowing the full scope of the problems despite working directly for the Navy and possessing security clearance.

“This problem it’s been around for years. It’s been a manning problem,” Mitchell said. “It’s been a facility maintenance problem. It’s across the board. So it needs to be looked at. And it needs to be discussed with people that have insights into what’s going on.”

State Senate members agreed to make a series of amendments and to further discuss the bill.

Watch a replay of the livestream video at Hawaii State Senate at youtube.com/hawaiisenate.