Red Hill Water Contamination Live Updates

There is petroleum contamination in the Navy’s Red Hill drinking water well. Currently, the contamination is contained to the Navy’s water system (see system map here) but as a precaution the Board of Water Supply has shut down several of its nearby wells providing over 20% of Oʻahu’s urban population with water—Honolulu users are asked to conserve water at this time.

The response of Navy officials has been both outrageous and deeply concerning. Despite complaints from their own families and neighbors of oily sheens in their tap water, overwhelming diesel-like fumes, and widespread health problems, Navy leaders insisted for days that the water was not contaminated. In the weeks following, the Navy’s response continues to be lacking in urgency and now they are contesting the emergency order calling for the defueling of the tanks for the safety of Oʻahu’s people and environment.

None of this should be happening. Yet the lack of common sense, the denial of reality, the dismissal of real concerns, and the lack of a plan to respond to water contamination on the part of local Navy leadership is exactly what we have been warning about for years. While actually poisoning people, these leaders have scrambled and gaslighted the situation rather than admit their obvious shortcomings. We cannot let this become a harbinger of things to come, of a “new normal” for hundreds of thousands of additional O‘ahu residents if and when another major leak, or worse, befalls the Red Hill fuel tanks. The tanks must be shut down permanently and the fuel immediately relocated away from the aquifer.

Obviously, this issue is ever-changing as more information unfolds. Stay tuned to this page for live updates and ways you can help.

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