Toxic fuel and fire suppressant spills at the Navy’s Red Hill fueling facility have grabbed the headlines, and cleanup and shutdown of the facility to prevent further contamination of Oahu’s water supply remains an urgent task. But the stresses to the water system caused by the Red Hill spills are just part of the island’s water troubles. For the sake of public health, swift actions and sharper mitigations must prevail on various fronts:
>> Kunia Village, a small community of about 650 people in the midst of current and former agricultural land in central Oahu, has moved into a state of high alert after water in two wells tested positive for “forever chemicals,” per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAs) linked to cancers and other health problems. The issue is particularly troubling because residents were at first told the water was safe to drink; then, last month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed much stricter limits on the contaminants because of their high toxicity. Since April, the community has relied on the Army to provide water from one of its wells, and residents are provided with bottled water — but no long-term solution to the problem has yet been identified.
>> The Joint Task Force-Red Hill (JTF-RH), established to carry out defueling of the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility after its 2021 fuel spills, reports that it is on track to complete the work by June 2024. But despite heavy criticism for withholding information, the Navy has yet to give an accounting of how hundreds of gallons of fuel-fire suppressant spilled at Red Hill on Nov. 29, 2022, contaminating a wide swath of soil with hazardous PFAs. JTF-RH has scheduled a press conference for today to release the investigation’s findings.
>> Iroquois Point Elementary School is one of seven public schools on the Navy’s Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam drinking water system, which was contaminated by Red Hill jet fuel in November 2021. Then, this past August, the state Department of Health (DOH) found that 13 out of 83 sinks and drinking water fountains were producing water contaminated with lead, which is particularly hazardous to children.
It was determined that the unsafe lead levels arose from the fixtures themselves, and some water outlets were removed or shut down. While the DOH assures school users the water is safe, many remain spooked by the incidents, understandably.
Listening — and responding — to community concerns is an important first step in easing fears and in finding solutions. At Iroquois Point Elementary, the missing drinking fountains continue to spur rumors of water contamination. The state Department of Education (DOE) says it’s completing a statewide effort to identify hazardous fixtures, and expects to have replacements installed by the end of summer break — but that information hasn’t trickled down to all school users.
>> As the contamination crisis winds on, and new problems develop, the Honolulu Board of Water Supply (BWS) continues to search out new water sources. The 2021 fuel spill at Red Hill led the BWS to offline the Halawa shaft and two smaller wells to protect Oahu’s drinking water from contamination; testing of potential new well sites and a pilot water desalinization project are ongoing.
BWS Manager and Chief Engineer Ernie Lau has been an outspoken advocate for protecting the island’s underground water reservoirs, pressing the Navy and JTF-RH for action and appearing at community events to share information. This commitment to service and interaction with the community is reassuring, coming as it does from a top-ranking agency official.
Lau’s example would be well followed by the state DOH, which should visibly designate officials to liaison with Kunia Village, residents exposed to the Red Hill fuel spill, and any other community with water-safety problems.
As the Red Hill crisis shows, depriving communities of a clear source for information, and of evidence that concerns are taken seriously, can quickly dry up trust in the public bodies charged with protecting our health, safety — and drinking water.
