Concerns are multiplying — and intensifying — about the Navy’s error-riddled operation of its Red Hill fuel tanks, and about the Navy’s honesty and ultimate trustworthiness in responding to resident concerns.
Last week, late on Friday before a three-day weekend, the Navy released a redacted assessment of Red Hill fueling operations prepared by contractor Simpson Gumpertz &Heger.
The report “paints an alarming picture of deteriorating and aging pipelines, corrosion and faulty valves,” wrote Star-Advertiser reporter Sophie Cocke, with a continuing danger of fuel spills and water table contamination.
Alarming, indeed — as is the fact that these hazards were not even divulged before a disastrous Nov. 20 spill, which poisoned drinking water in the Navy water system, affecting approximately 93,000 Oahu residents and sickening many.
Equally alarming is the ever-expanding revelation that information about these hazards and accidents was withheld from the public, during a period when we now know the fuel system posed a danger to both the Navy’s and Honolulu’s drinking water.
The danger is far from over. That’s why the Navy must be pressed to proceed with urgency in defueling and closing down the Red Hill Fuel Depot, as ordered by the Pentagon on March 7. Hawaii’s Department of Health has ordered Navy officials to produce a plan for defueling the tanks by June 30, and then another by Nov. 1 for closing the facility completely. This timetable must be followed as closely as possible.
Going forward, it will be imperative that Hawaii’s incoming governor and state Department of Health leaders, along with the city Board of Water Supply, continue to monitor operations, press for progress and demand transparency.
The Red Hill crisis came to light after a May 6, 2021, explosion, interrupting a Navy fuel transfer at the underground fuel storage facility. Leaking fuel poured from a pipe into a tunnel. Then on Nov. 20, another spill of water contaminated by the May 2021 breach polluted the Navy’s drinking water system, exposing about 93,000 people to water laced with toxic fuel.
Soon after, Hawaii’s DOH ordered the Red Hill facility closed. Overruling a Pentagon appeal, and amid great public outcry, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on March 7 ordered the fuel depot shuttered.
The Navy’s redacted report released on Friday discusses a Sept. 29 “near-miss event,” defined as a potential catastrophic release of a highly hazardous chemical. Even though the assessment states that similar incidents could “cause a fire, asphyxiate workers and pollute the groundwater with fuel,” the Star-Advertiser reported, there was no system for investigating or even reporting this kind of potentially “catastrophic” event.
Just weeks after that “near-miss event,” which wasn’t reported to the DOH, the Nov. 20 spill released 16,000 gallons of water and jet fuel. Thousands of families living in the area reported the smell of fuel coming from their household water taps. Many fell ill.
The Navy’s new report makes clear that conditions at the Red Hill fuel facility were allowed to deteriorate as all the while, the Navy made assurance after assurance that all was well.
The new assessment states that the fuel facility needs extensive repairs in order to safely drain its fuel, as operating the tanks in their current state might allow a catastrophic release that could further pollute the groundwater, cause a major fire or potentially injure or kill workers.
Having been misled before, Hawaii’s DOH must thoroughly review this new report, to parse what repairs are crucial and which are not, to dispense with unnecessary delays. Any interim progress must be pursued to remove and neutralize this hazard to Hawaii’s groundwater.
Far too many of our neighbors have already been exposed to hazards. Oahu residents demand and deserve a complete explanation of the Navy’s actions, along with commitment to a full cleanup, without delay.
