Pearl Harbor-Hickam gets $15 million for water projects

Joint Base Pearl Harbor-­Hickam has been awarded nearly $15 million for watershed projects that aim to protect drinking water resources that serve the base and much of Honolulu.

The money comes from an annual Department of Defense competitive funding program on the heels of the Red Hill water contamination crisis.

The $14,881,880 awarded by the DOD’s Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration program is the most ever given to a DOD installation in the 10 years of its Challenge program.

Protecting the upland forest is identified in the Red Hill Shaft recovery and monitoring plan, which was prepared by the Navy, the state Department of Health and the Environmental Protection Agency in January.

The state Department of Land and Natural Resources announced the monetary award in a news release Thursday.

“We appreciate the Navy’s advocacy to obtain funding of this critical project,” DLNR Chairwoman Suzanne Case said. “The native forests are the source of drinking water for Navy personnel at JBPHH and protection of the watershed also provides a buffer from major storm events that can cause erosion and flooding. These Koolau forests are an enormous asset — yet they are disappearing due to feral pig damage and invasive weeds.”

The funding is expected to support a number of projects, including fencing to keep out wild pigs, weed control, coconut rhinoceros beetle surveys and control, strawberry guava biocontrol, and base yard improvements.

Capt. Randall Harmeyer, public works officer at Pearl Harbor-Hickam, said the projects not only will improve the quantity and quality of water that serves the base but also areas where DOD employees and their families live, work and go to school.

“Protection of the forests above (the base) helps ensure there will be aquifer replenishment in the future not just for Pearl Harbor- Hickam, but also for much of Oahu’s residents,” Harmeyer said.

Officials said the watershed effort will prevent portions of the forest from being converted to invasive plants and bare ground, which will help the landscape to better filter rainwater.

Because native forests absorb rain at higher rates, erosion and potential flooding at the base will be reduced. Coral reefs, native stream animals and critical habitat for endangered plant species will benefit as well.

A fencing project in the Waiawa area of the Ewa Forest Reserve is underway and set to encircle 1,400 acres to lock out the damaging affects of feral pigs. The project is funded, in part, by Coca-Cola ($200,000) and the Honolulu Board of Water Supply ($100,000) in an effort to safeguard drinking water resources.

Thirteen DOD installations were awarded money in this year’s REPI Challenge, a competitive funding program that this year targeted activities that promote “land conservation or management activities that limit incompatible development, enhance military installation resilience to climate change and extreme weather events, or relieve current or anticipated environmental restrictions at locations hosting key capabilities of strategic importance to DOD.”

Two other Hawaii installations were awarded money: $1.9 million to the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai for climate resilience to mitigate flood impacts, and $2.4 million to the Poha­kuloa Training Area on Hawaii island for climate resilience through wildfire management.

Pearl Harbor-Hickam’s award was more than $11 million more than the next highest award — $3.6 million to Beale Air Force Base in Yuba County, Calif.

The Pentagon announced earlier this year that it would permanently shut down the Navy’s Red Hill fuel facility after fuel from the facility leaked into its drinking water system that serves about 93,000 Oahu residents in neighborhoods surrounding Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.

It was nearly seven months ago that military families in and around the base began complaining that their tap water smelled of fuel and reported skin rashes, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and headaches.

More than 4,000 families left their military housing due to the contamination and an estimated 3,400 spent some time living in hotel rooms.