Annual Red Hill Task Force Meeting
The Honolulu Star Advertiser got the headline right: Red Hill fuel tank corrosion worse than expected. As you know, earlier this month it was reported that the Navy favors the lowest cost, lowest assurance of protection for the tank upgrades. Yet at the same time, the Navy’s own studies show that corrosion of the steel tank liners was underestimated—by almost half in some places. This is not good.The Board of Water Supply (BWS) had their regular board meeting on Monday where they gave a presentation with preliminary data from the Navy’s corrosion study. The message is clear: levels of corrosion are so bad in some places that only 2 millimeters of steel, or 0.079 inches—less than half of the original 0.25 inch walls—stands between jet fuel and our environment. That is not a lot of protection from a future, potentially catastrophic, leak into our groundwater. We repeat, no amount of jet fuel leaking into the environment is acceptable.Here is what you can do right now:
- Write a Letter to the Editor (LTE) to the Star Advertiser in response to today’s article
- Call your senator and ask them to attend:
- Red Hill Task Force MeetingWednesday, October 3, 2018Hawaiʻi State Capitol, Room 016 (in the basement)415 Beretania StreetHere is the agenda
- You can also attend this task force meeting, make plans now.
At this meeting, the U.S. Navy and the Department of Health will provide updates to the task force on the status of the tanks and compliance with the Administrative Order on Consent designed to protect Oʻahu’s groundwater from the massive Red Hill tanks. Information on the latest developments regarding the corrosion study and tank upgrade alternatives include:
- Board of Water Supply presentation on Navy’s corrosion study
- Description of the Tank Upgrade Alternatives being considered. The Navy wants to go with option 1A (pages 23-38), which is seriously the least they could possibly do.