Navy secretary, visiting Red Hill, to leave today
COURTESY U.S. NAVY
U.S. Navy Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro, left, met U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Norma Ozuna at the Red Hill neighborhood Saturday to discuss concerns about fuel contamination of water after the Red Hill bulk fuel storage facility.
COURTESY U.S. NAVY
Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro, left, is briefed on well operation and recovery initiatives from Capt. Burt Hornyak, commanding officer, Fleet Logistics Center Pearl Harbor during a tour of the Red Hill Well in Aiea this weekend.
Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro is wrapping up a visit to Hawaii today as the service continues to work to resolve the months-long contamination of its water system that serves 93,000 people on Oahu, including military families, schools, businesses and civilians living in former military housing areas.
The Navy’s underground Red Hill fuel storage facility is the source of the contamination, which occurred when fuel spilled into the facility’s fire suppression system in May, causing a rupture that brought jet fuel into the Red Hill water well. The Environmental Protection Agency announced last week that it would investigate the facility.
Military families affected by the contamination reported unusual rashes, vomiting and other ailments in the days after the spill.
Del Toro has been on Oahu since Friday. A Navy news release said he held a town hall with families, toured the Red Hill facility and visited affected Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam neighborhoods to talk to residents.
After months of system flushing and other efforts, the state Department of Health has determined water in Red Hill housing and Pearl City Peninsula housing is now safe to drink again, but the rest of the Navy system remains tainted.
“This situation will remain unacceptable until all of the zones are within EPA and HDOH standards and all of our families are no longer impacted,” Del Toro said in the news release. “Our families in Oahu deserve transparency from their leadership at every step of this process.”
The Navy is part of the Interagency Drinking Water System Team formed in response to the contamination crisis and is working with DOH, EPA and the Army “to restore safe drinking water to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam housing communities through sampling and flushing, and the recovery of the Red Hill well.”
The Navy has been fighting a DOH emergency order issued in December that required the Navy to drain the facility’s tanks, which sit above a critical aquifer that provides much of Honolulu’s drinking water. The Pentagon has argued the state doesn’t have the authority to make that order.
The Navy is facing growing political pressure to shut down the Red Hill facility permanently. While in Hawaii, Del Toro also met separately with members of Hawaii’s congressional delegation and Gov. David Ige.
