Hawaii health officials lift drinking water advisory for Red Hill housing

State health officials announced Monday that residents in Red Hill housing can resume drinking and cooking with their tap water. It’s the first of 19 zones to be declared safe after jet fuel from the Navy’s Red Hill fuel facility polluted the drinking water system that serves Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam and surrounding neighborhoods in November.

The zone, labeled I1 by the Navy, includes 135 Army-managed homes and Red Hill Elementary School.

Gov. David Ige said Monday during an online news conference that the state Department of Health made the determination after a tho­rough review of lab results and flushing operations.

“While this announcement is a step forward in the state’s emergency response, we have a long way to go,” said Ige. “Families remain displaced. Keiki are having their learning disrupted. Businesses remain closed. And we must not forget that this disaster shouldn’t have happened in the first place.”

DOH continues to warn the majority of residents on the Navy’s drinking water system not to consume the water as it continues its review of the Navy’s test results.

The Navy has completed flushing and testing its distribution system and is nearly done with flushing individual homes, according to its online maps. Its test results, which total thousands of pages, are being reviewed by the Interagency Drinking Water System Team, which is made up officials from DOH, the EPA and military.

The Navy said residents and occupants in Red Hill will be provided with details about transition plans, including returning to their homes.

“Today is an important milestone as the first of 19 neighborhoods is restored to safe drinking water standards,” said Rear Adm. Blake Converse, deputy commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet, in a news release. “We truly appreciate our residents’ patience and the hard work of both the DOH and EPA in this effort.”

He said the Navy “will continue to pursue the goal of restoring every neighborhood to safe drinking water standards in a safe and efficient manner.”

It’s been a long three months for thousands of local residents who have had their lives upended by the water contamination, hundreds of whom reported getting sick. Many military families have been living out of cramped Waikiki hotel rooms, battling long commutes to work and their kids’ schools, and are growing weary of takeout meals and trips to the laundromat.

Still, families told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that they remain worried about the prospect of returning home.

“Our days are very long,” said one military spouse, who asked that her name not be used out of fear that her husband would face retaliation. She’s been living out of a hotel room with her husband and school-age daughter after they began experiencing painful symptoms in late November, including mouth sores, rashes and extreme nausea. But she says she doesn’t feel safe moving back to the Red Hill housing, where she thinks fuel is still present in the water.

“I don’t have any plan at all. Obviously, we can’t afford to stay in a hotel,” she said. While the Army and Navy have been covering the costs of hotel rooms and other expenses, those reimbursements are expected to end.

Other residents in surrounding neighborhoods also expressed concerns about the prospect of resuming water use.

Davie-Ann Thomas, who lives in Navy housing at Pearl City Peninsula, said she remained distrustful after she and other residents of her neighborhood were initially told that their water was safe and that they weren’t affected by the contamination. She said that as a result she continued to drink the water for days.

“I’m very scared and extremely paranoid,” she said of the idea of resuming normal use.

Veronica Crescioni, who lives in Hale Na Koa on Hickam, said she’s concerned that the Navy is testing only 10% of the homes in each neighborhood.

Lindsey Wilson, who lives in Aliamanu Military Reservation, across from Red Hill housing, said she was also concerned about testing so few homes, as well as levels of dichloroethyl ether, or BCEE, which has been detected in numerous water samples above the state’s environmental action level. The contaminant is classified by the EPA as a probable human carcinogen, though it isn’t regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act.

DOH told the Star- Advertiser last week that it is working with national experts to learn more about BCEE and understand any health implications of the detections.

Other residents continue to report that they are detecting fuel odors and worry that they are still experiencing health effects.

“We understand that many are wary, and we will continue to investigate complaints and hold the Navy accountable to provide safe drinking water,” said DOH Deputy Director of Environmental Health Kathleen Ho in a statement. “DOH will act methodically, based on science, and in a manner that is protective of public health as we evaluate the remaining Navy water system zones.”