Red Hill Water Crisis 101: Everything You Need to Know
Quick Key Facts
- The World War II-era underground facility has 20 tanks, each 250 ft. in height with capacity to hold 12.5 million gallons of fuel each (up to 250 million total).
- The November 2021 leak was initially reported to be 14,000 gallons (but later found to be 19,000 gallons) and leaked from a fire suppression drain line.
- Currently, 104 million gallons of fuel still sits 100 feet above the aquifer.
- The Department of Health (DOH) reported that hydrocarbons from diesel fuel were found in the water and were 350 times the level the department considered safe.
- Several residents reported chemical burns, rashes, migraines, vomiting, neurological issues and endocrine issues, amongst other problems, and claim they are only being treated for short-term issues and not long-term illnesses.
- According to a defueling plan the Navy gave the DOH, defuelment will be completed by June 2024. One million gallons of fuel have already been removed from the pipelines.
- A class action lawsuit representing active military and military families against the Navy is set to go to trial in January 2024.
- A large movement of activist groups have emerged to hold the Navy accountable through social media, protests and public forums, while also providing mutual aid support to affected families.
In November of 2021, the U.S. Navy’s massive Red Hill underground fuel storage facility on O’ahu leaked 19,000 gallons of petroleum into the islands’ main drinking water aquifers, poisoning the water for over 93,000 people and sickening thousands of their own military families and civilians.
The disaster occurred after years of protest, warnings, and litigation from a prior leak, and mere weeks after the DOH fined them for operations and maintenance violations, as well as reports from a whistleblower who said Navy officials provided false testimony and withheld information about corrosion at the facility.
While the Department of Defense ordered a permanent shutdown and defuelment of the facility last March, the timeline for defuelment has many concerned that it leaves the aquifer deeply at risk of something far worse happening.
Recently, it was announced that a federal grand jury is currently conducting a criminal probe into the incident. In the meantime, people are still getting sick, there have been more toxic leaks, and a continuously growing water protector movement, many of whom are Native Hawaiian, are fighting for accountability, transparency, and justice, while continuing to create awareness around a resource that’s not just central to life, but central to the culture.
So how did it happen and what’s being done?
Contamination and Initial Response
In November 2021, several military families in and around Pearl Harbor started calling in complaints of fuel smells and oil sheens coming from their tap water. As a result, the DOH initially recommended that all Navy water system users avoid using the water for drinking, cooking and oral hygiene.
However, at the same time, the Navy said they were investigating, but that the water was still safe for consumption.
Many continued drinking the water for days, before the Navy admitted to the public that the water was contaminated. By then, pets were getting ill, children and adults were suffering from nausea, chemical burns, rashes, intestinal problems, vomiting and seizures.
Later, the DOH testing of the Red Hill water shaft showed hydrocarbons from diesel fuel were 350 times above what the department deems safe. This news came after the Board of Water Supply closed two other wells, when hydrocarbons were also detected at double the safe levels in another shaft to prevent further spread.
Nineteen neighborhood zones were affected, and later it was also discovered that the contamination reached civilian housing.
While the Navy already suspended operations prior to receiving complaints, former Hawai’i Governor David Ige and the Department of Health gave an emergency order to continue suspension and to come up with a plan to defuel the tanks, but the Navy contested these orders. The Department of Defense also initially filed appeals which resulted in considerable backlash from public officials and the community.
Regardless of risk, it came down to needing Red Hill for national security, and for taking more time to figure out solutions.
In March 2022, however, the Department of Defense finally decided Red Hill should be permanently closed and defueled.
Treatment, Testing and Evacuations
The military authorized evacuations and lodging allowances, where 4000 families would end up in hotels for months. However, affected civilians and veterans would need to fight for the same support.
In mid-December 2021, the Navy, Army, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and DOH created an interagency partnership to restore the drinking water, and permitted filtering and flushing efforts began not long after. By the end of March the DOH and the Navy said it was safe for evacuated families to return to their homes, but after they did so many still complained of oil sheens on their water and various illnesses.
Later in August, the University of Hawai’i Red Hill Task Force found that water samples taken from the Navy water system tested positive for jet fuel. The Navy and the DOH still asserted that the water was fine, and claimed that the system of testing done by the Task Force is not reliable and preferred to rely on EPA-certified testing methods.
Medical Problems
In a survey from DOH and the CDC in early 2022, it indicated over 70% of adult and child participants were sick for over a month, with six children experiencing seizures, as well as reporting hundreds of pets ill or dead. In another survey later in 2022, it cited that 72% of pregnant women surveyed experienced complications.
Military medical teams saw upwards of 6000 people, and claim that they addressed immediate health issues associated with toxic fuel exposure, but they did not address long-term health effects, and said they did not anticipate them.
Many have been dealing with long-term chronic effects like severe pain, as well as neurological, nervous system, behavioral problems and endocrine problems. Some were also hospitalized, yet the Navy asserted there is no evidence it was the contaminated water that is causing the problems, and attributed some symptoms to “stress.”
Attorneys in a class action lawsuit have called it “medical gaslighting” and cited in the suit that O’ahu’s military care system was only treating symptoms and was not running proper toxicology labs on patients, many of whom ended up spending thousands of dollars to get results from independent labs elsewhere.
Freedom of Information Act requests to obtain public records of testing from individual properties to see what was in their water have still gone unanswered for over a year.
According to the CDC, the chemicals in JP-5, JP-8, and Jet A fuels can enter your body through your lungs, digestive tract or skin and they do not have information on how much of the chemicals in JP-5, JP-8 or Jet A fuels can pass into the bloodstream, but know that large amounts of some of the chemicals in jet fuels can easily do so.
However, an epidemiological toxicologist from the HunterSeven Foundation — a nonprofit group of medical professionals and military veterans — stated in a letter to Armed Forces Housing Advocates that the hydrocarbons in jet fuel have been linked to liver and stomach cancers, reproductive problems, nervous system and endocrine dysfunction, and neurological problems.
When asked why there has been no in-depth toxicology screenings, particularly for those with long-term health problems, a Navy spokesperson said the medical evaluation process was based on water sampling results of the homes and buildings in affected zones, and that the results of that sampling are compared to EPA maximum levels and DOA environmental action levels.
Prior to giving the all-clear to return, the testing they were using to base what to do medically only involved 15% of homes and buildings over three months in each affected zone.
The DOH itself also said that blood and urine testing was limited and not readily available, and that testing would be unable to provide exposure information or impact management.
Those who sent away for independent test results had lab reports for them and their children that conveyed levels of gasoline additives, flame retardant chemicals and petroleum in their systems.
In late December 2022, the Defense Health Agency opened a new medical clinic for those that were affected that was supposed to provide neurology, primary care, dermatology, gastroenterology and behavioral health specialists, but many claimed early on that they dealt with a lot of confusion, disconnected calls, long wait times and physicians who were only looking at acute systems and not chronic symptoms.
Most recently the clinic has opened to civilians affected by the crisis. Civilians were reportedly not told about the danger in their water system until after those living in the military community were informed, prolonging their exposure to the contaminated water. The recent exclusion of care until now in some of the communities resulted in outrage at several town hall meetings.
History of the Tanks
Completed in 1943, fifty years after the illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom at the hands of businessmen and the U.S. Navy, the twenty tanks that could hold 250 million gallons of fuel were built into an important piece of geography to Native Hawaiians.
Red Hill, also called Kapūkaki, is set between two volcanoes, where the watershed flowed in a traditional land division called an ahupua’a that provided a thriving and sustainable ecosystem for food, and whose water converged at Pu’uloa, the lagoon now known as Pearl Harbor.
Pearl Harbor was once the island’s largest breadbasket for food until the military changed the landscape. It is now so polluted that it’s an EPA-designated superfund hazardous waste site.
The underground fuel storage facility was built during World War II, when there was concern about above-ground fuel tanks being vulnerable to aerial attacks.
A Disaster in the Making
The tanks, which were classified until 1995, have had a series of leaks since inception. A report prepared for the navy several decades ago quoted a former employee stating that 1.3 million gallons leaked during the war.
Several smaller leaks also were reported over the years.
In 2014, a 27,000 gallon leak brought attention to the facility and its threat to the island’s water. At the time, the Board of Water Supply’s (BWS) Chief Engineer Ernie Lau began sounding alarms that something worse could happen.
Lau, who has become one of the prominent faces of the crisis, continued warning for years, saying that BWS was trying to bring attention to the threat to the drinking water, by sending mailers to their customers, holding public meetings, talking to neighborhood boards and making documents available on the BWS website.
There was also a previous leak in May 2021, where the Navy reported 1600 gallons had leaked at the facility due to an operator not closing pipeline valves in the proper sequence before starting a fuel transfer.
It was later reported that it was actually 21,000 gallons, and most of the fuel spilled into a fire suppression line, where it sat for three months until a cart ran into the line and released most of it in the November leak.
At the time of the leak, some of the tanks had not been inspected for over 38 years.
That leak happened mere weeks after fines for operations and maintenance violations, as well as reports from a whistleblower who told the Department of Health (DOH) that Navy officials provided false testimony and withheld information about corrosion at the facility.
In June, a third-party assessment released a heavily redacted 800-page document that cited several maintenance issues involving corroded and damaged pipes, degraded structures and more, and recommended a series of extensive and critical repairs in order to defuel the tanks.
Contesting Orders and the Shutdown of Red Hill
While the Navy already suspended operations in November after the leak, former Hawai’i Governor David Ige and the Department of Health gave an emergency order to continue suspension and to come up with a plan to defuel the tanks, but the Navy contested these orders, citing the need for it for national security and in case of a state emergency or natural disaster.
The Department of Defense (DOD) also initially filed appeals which resulted in considerable backlash from public officials and the community.
In March 2022, however, the DOD finally decided Red Hill should be permanently closed and defueled. The about-face was due in large part to political pressure from the community.
In September the DOD also appointed a Joint Red Hill Task Force, which has unpacked around 1 million gallons of fuel from the pipelines, and according to a recent memo, is on schedule to have the facility fully defueled by 2024.
Other Leaks and Spills
In September 2022, the Navy was fined $8.7 million by the Department of Health for over 700 safety violations at their wastewater treatment plant that spilled 3500 gallons of untreated wastewater into Pearl Harbor. Two days after they were fined, another 1,000 gallons of raw sewage leaked.
The Navy contested the fine, citing that it couldn’t legally pay because the state is banned from seeking punitive fines from the military.
Two months later, 1,100 gallons of toxic fire suppressant also leaked into the ground. The suppressant is known to contain PFAS forever chemicals, which can cause a number of adverse health effects and stay in the body and environment.
Navy officials declared the water safe, but are unsure of the cause and have also refused to release a video of the spill. It was also found that the Navy withheld information that these chemicals were in groundwater samples in 2020 and 2021, which has garnered both alarm and backlash, and has now also been included in a number of lawsuits.
In June of 2022, the EPA gave interim health advisory levels for PFAS chemicals in drinking water, with PFOA and PFOS (both PFAS) at .004 parts per trillion (ppt), and .02 ppt respectively, meaning that the agency considers those levels to be acceptable limits.
The Navy’s reports for samples taken in 2021 with those chemicals show levels of 3.6 and 5.6ppt. Levels from samples taken this year are not published on the website.
Lawsuits and Activism
Due to the Federal Tort Claims Act, active military service people aren’t allowed to sue the federal government, but their families can. However, recently a Navy sailor, Army colonel, and Army major are taking steps to sue the U.S. government.
In the claims, their attorneys said their injuries at home “during non-duty hours, were not ‘incident to service,’ and the United States is liable for them.”
In August 2022, Texas attorney Kristina Baehr from Just Well Law and local Hawai’i attorney Lyle Hosoda also filed a suit on behalf of four families, accusing the government of negligence and lack of access to proper medical testing and treatment in O’ahu’s military care system.
By November they were representing over 100 more military families and civilians with an amended complaint that cites how the Navy destroyed more than 1000 water samples that were taken from the homes in the early days of the crisis, getting rid of crucial evidence.
The suit was recently amended to include the PFAS spill, and also a recent revelation that during the November spill that Red Hill families were also possibly exposed to antifreeze in their potable water.
Sierra Club of Hawai’i
In 2017, Sierra Club of Hawai’i sued the DOH over their exemption of the Red Hill storage tanks from regulation. For years the department failed to comply with a 1992 state statute that says “existing underground storage tanks or existing tank systems shall be replaced or upgraded not later than December 22, 1998 to prevent releases for their operating life.”
In 2018, the Environmental Court ruled that DOH’s exemption of the Red Hill fuel tanks violated state law.
They sued the Department of Health again in 2019 after the U.S. Navy submitted a permit application that would have resulted in automatic approval if they didn’t put a stop to a rule provision allowing that to happen.
They prevailed, then the Board of Water Supply joined in opposition to the permit application as the case continued. The hearings officer issued a recommended decision finding the facility dangerous, but ordered that operations could continue with inspection and repair requirements that would shut down eight of the tanks.
The case would close and reopen several times until October 2021 when the first whistleblower came forward telling the DOH that Navy officials provided false testimony and withheld information about corrosion at its Red Hill fuel facility, according to a memo filed by the DOH Environmental Health Administration.
In December 2021, Sierra Club, represented by Earthjustice, intervened again in the state’s emergency order after the massive 20,000 gallon leak, to ensure the DOH held the Navy accountable and followed through on shutting down the facility.
Wai Ola Alliance
Eighteen days prior to the November 20 leak, California firm Sycamore Law filed a suit against the U.S. Navy on behalf of community activist group Wai Ola Alliance to prevent a large-scale damage to the aquifer that happened over two weeks later.
The Wai Ola Alliance — a Hawai’i nonprofit conservation organization comprised of residents, Native Hawaiians, military veterans, environmental activists, subject matter experts and legal counsel — then sought civil penalties of $60,000 per day for Clean Water Act violations occurring after April 24, 2017, which involved a continuous discharge at Pu’uloa (Pearl Harbor).
“The environmental, health, aesthetic, spiritual, economic and recreational interests of Alliance members have been, are being and will continue to be adversely affected by the Navy’s ongoing violations of the Clean Water Act,” said the lawsuit.
According to attorney Jesse Swanhuyser, on March 13, 2023 the firm filed another notice specific to Pu’uloa and the AAAF, PFAS chemical spill. He told EcoWatch that after the recent provision in the national defense spending law that could potentially walk back promises to shut down the facility, clients have insisted on staying with this, because they still think the Alliance’s litigation provides the community with its most reliable path for permanent closure and complete remediation of the aquifer.
Water Protector Movement
Protests erupted shortly after the spill. From this emerged new grassroots organizations and coalitions to put pressure on the Navy, the state and the Department of Defense for the immediate shutdown of Red Hill, also known as Kapūkaki.
Ka’ohewai — which is a coalition of Native Hawaiian organizations dedicated to nurturing and sustaining the well-being of their water, land and the life they support — erected a ceremonial ko’a right in front of the sign of the Pacific Fleet’s command headquarters, where it remains today as a means to create awareness and serve as a place to gather the Hawaiian community to invoke the healing powers of Kāne I Ka Wai Ola (the god of life-giving water) to heal and protect the water, people and the land.
Many in Ka’ohewai also belong to the O’ahu Water Protectors (OWP), the largest grassroots organization to come out of the crisis.
Comprised of activists, environmentalists, veterans and other allies and organizations, OWP has thousands of followers across social media, where they’ve waged several campaigns to educate the public as well as create calls to action through infographics and videos.
They have spoken on numerous panels, public forums, canvassed neighborhoods with informational brochures and put out the Red Hill Pledge, to get legislators and community members to agree that they’ll support legislation to permanently shut down the facility.
“For 2,000 years Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiians) have lived on O’ahu using water conservation practices that would ensure this precious resource would be available for generations. However, in just 129 years of U.S. military occupation on O’ahu our island aquifer has been damaged beyond repair,” Native Hawaiian activist Healani Sonada-Pale, one of the leading organizers, told EcoWatch.
One of the first protests was set against the backdrop of the Capitol and statue of Queen Lilioukalani, who was the monarch at the time of the illegal overthrow.
On Dec. 10, 2022, the OWP alongside 65 other organizations marched with over 1500 people in the Walk for Wai, led by BWS’s Ernie Lau, who days earlier broke down in tears at a press conference after the recent spill of toxic fire firefighting foam was spilled. Another is scheduled for April 23.
Shut Down Red Hill Mutual Aid Collective
The collective — which includes water protectors, community organizers, Native Hawaiians and families directly affected by the leak — has been distributing hundreds of cases of water bi-weekly to residents at Kapilina Beach Homes, who still don’t have access to clean drinking water.
The group, which runs on donations, also holds community picnics with a forum to share concerns, and where the group can build solidarity between military families, affected civilians and Native Hawaiians. The group also teaches how to organize and advocate for themselves.
“Settlers, Indigenous people, and military families can communicate together, their stories, their struggles, and then figure out how we can all show up for each others’ struggle,” said filmmaker and O’ahu Water Protector, Mikey Inouye.
Policy and Spending
In February 2022, former Congressman Kai Kahele and Congressman Ed Case introduced the federal Red Hill Watershed and Aquifer Initiative (WAI) Act to discontinue and permanently close all fuel operations at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility by the end of 2022, while also authorizing funding for remediation, water treatment and testing facilities, and to provide a monthly report to Congress on progress.
The bill, which was referred to the Committee of Armed Services, died in early 2023.
During the time the WAI Act was introduced, Senator Schatz and Case introduced a companion bill that was signed into law by President Joe Biden and included $403 million to defuel the tanks and address the drinking water situation, with 1/8th going toward general fund operations.
Many state bills died in the legislature, with the most recent being a bill to establish a Red Hill water contamination health impacts program within the DOH to track long-term impacts.
Two bills are still making it through, however. One is for the DOD to provide compensation for financial harm and to reimburse BWS and compensate affected schools, and one is a bill that would appropriate funding to BWS to install monitoring and exploratory wells.
What’s Happening Now
While many call for the fuel tanks to be moved entirely, the Navy alongside an independent contractor claim they will be soliciting input from DOH, the public and other stakeholders to make a decision on how to repurpose the tanks once they are defueled.
A rear admiral at a news conference said possible uses for Red Hill include storage, producing hydroelectric power or even turning it into a movie set.
The independent contractor so far has been unwilling to answer about the process of soliciting ideas, and BWS’s Chief Engineer Ernie Lau criticized the plan for not permanently closing the facility, expressing concern that the tanks would eventually be used for fuel again.
Organizers recently focused on testimonials to the EPA, which entered a consent decree with the Navy for the defueling of Red Hill. The community submitted about 1,700 testimonies. At a public meeting organizers called out the EPA for not exercising its regulatory power over Red Hill.
However, the EPA claims that it is providing technical review and analysis of infrastructure improvements and planning work that needs to be conducted so that defueling can be initiated and completed as quickly as possible without incident.
Many are also concerned that due to a recent provision by Congress in the fiscal year 2023 over national defense spending law, the secretary of defense now has more control over when and if the Navy will actually defuel the tanks, diluting the state’s authority and making it unclear if they will deliver on their promises.
As for organizers, Sonada-Pale told Atmos, “We have no intention of stopping. The future of this island — and life on it — is at stake. Too much is at stake. We are protecting what we love. That’s why we stand, and that’s why we do the things we do.”
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