Hawaii leaders unite over long-term Red Hill cleanup

Top state and local leaders gathered Tuesday at the state Capitol to sign on to a “unified statement” that calls for an overarching policy governing the cleanup of the area surrounding the Navy’s Red Hill underground fuel facility, where there have been dozens of fuel leaks over the decades as well as spills of firefighting foam containing dangerous chemicals.

The show of solidarity was meant to signal the ongoing commitment through all levels of Hawaii government toward ensuring the military follows through on cleaning up the environment after it finishes draining the fuel tanks, which is expected in 2024.

“We are here together … saying, ‘Navy, clean up your mess and do it right,’” said Honolulu Council Chair Tommy Waters.

The Navy’s 20 underground tanks sit just 100 feet above an aquifer that supplies drinking water to Oahu. The statement warned that the contamination of the land and groundwater around the facility presented “unprecedented threats” that required new ways of thinking to ensure the island has clean water for future generations.

“We seek a proactive approach, plan, and operational integration rather than one that defensively regulates a cleanup to the extent that current laws allow,” according to the statement, which was signed by Waters, Gov. Josh Green, Senate President Ron Kouchi, House Speaker Scott Saiki, Honolulu Mayor Rick Blan­giardi, Hawaii Board of Land and Natural Resources Chair Dawn Chang, state Health Director Kenneth Fink, Honolulu Board of Water Supply Manager and Chief Engineer Ernie Lau and University of Hawaii President David Lassner.

Green said that he wants to see total transparency from the military, data presented in a more understandable way, clear dates on when Red Hill will be drained and a comprehensive plan for remediating the environment.

“When you see the entirety of government come together and make this statement, it means something,” said Green. “It means that we are going to hold them to account.”

The military is in the process of permanently shutting down the Red Hill facility following a fuel spill in November 2021 that contaminated the Navy’s drinking water system serving neighborhoods in and around Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. The facility has sat idle since the 2021 spill. The military determined the facility, in particular the pipelines, needed extensive repairs in order to safely drain the 104 million gallons of fuel that has been sitting in the tanks. That process is expected to be complete by mid-2024, according to the military, which is working on completing $75 millions in repairs.

Permanently closing the facility triggers environmental cleanup requirements, including an investigation into historic fuel releases at the facility, which was built in the 1940s.

Navy records indicate that there may have been at least 76 fuel leaks at Red Hill that began shortly after its construction, totaling 180,000 gallons of fuel. However, historic records of the spills, many of which predated environmental regulations, are spotty.

Until recently the fuel releases have been the primary focus of environmental concerns. But that changed in November when the Navy announced that about 1,300 gallons of a concentrated toxic fire suppressant, called aqueous film-forming foam, had spilled from a pipe at Red Hill. AFFF contains PFAS, chemicals that degrade extremely slowly in the environment and have been linked to certain cancers and other health problems. The Navy has since revealed two other spills of AFFF at Red Hill in recent years, and on Friday said a pipeline containing AFFF may have been leaking into the environment in 2021.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said in 2022 that environmental remediation efforts at Red Hill began as far back as 2015, when the Navy committed to improvements and further environmental testing following a 27,000-gallon fuel leak at the facility. Other cleanup requirements and testing have been implemented following the 2021 drinking water contamination.

The EPA and state Department of Health, which have regulatory authority over Red Hill, also created the Red Hill Remediation Roundtable to bring together various stakeholders, including the Navy, Honolulu Board of Water Supply and other agencies, to share information and chart a long-term action plan for remediating the environment.

However, the roundtable got off to a slow start in 2022 after the Navy was noncommittal about participating.

Lau, of the Honolulu Board of Water Supply, said the Navy has since agreed to participate and that the meetings are moving forward.

He said that the roundtable is focused on the technical aspects of remediation, including identifying the extent and nature of the contamination and completing ground-flow models to gauge in what direction contaminants might move in the aquifer. Lau said the roundtable and the latest effort announced Tuesday should work in parallel, helping to increase military accountability.

Green said Tuesday’s event goes beyond addressing the environmental contamination from Red Hill.

“We are addressing our relationships with the Navy and military, and that is important because this relationship goes way back and it goes into the future,” he said.