Camp Smith Water Woes
While the Red Hill water crisis is far from over, it has revealed another “ticking time bomb” threatening the water supply for Oʻahu families and workers - this time, at the Camp H.M. Smith Marine Corps Base in Hālawa, Oʻahu.
Source: “Understanding the Significance of Breaches to and Sediment Buildup in Finished Drinking Water Storage Tanks” presentation, EPA Region 8, April 2019
There, a water storage tank supplying the base with its drinking water, designated S-326, has not been cleaned for 12 years, since 2013 - even after the 2021 Red Hill spills that contaminated the water distribution system for the Pearl Harbor region, including at Camp Smith. Moreover, this tank is not scheduled for cleaning until 2030 - 17 years since it was last maintained.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the American Water Works Association (AWWA) explicitly recommend that water storage tanks be cleaned and inspected, at a minimum, every five years.
What’s the Risk?
Through a series of correspondences, the EPA has admitted to shocking conditions inside Tank S-326, discovered after the Red Hill catastrophe:
It has not been cleaned in over a decade.
Geckos have been found nesting inside.
There is visible sludge at the bottom of the tank.
With these conditions, the public health risk involves more than potential residual jet fuel.
According to EPA research, uninspected and uncleaned tanks like S-326 create a "sleeping public health concern" with the potential for a full-blown crisis - like the salmonella outbreak that ripped through Alamosa County in 2008, poisoning up to 1,300 people and leading to one death.
There, a water tank had not been inspected for 11 years, allowing salmonella to fester in the sediment on its walls and bottom. The rapid lowering of the tank’s water level dislodged this salmonella-laden sediment, sending it into the municipal water system and into people’s homes.
Just like in Alamosa, the sludge in Tank S-326 is a potential breeding ground for a range of dangerous pathogens. EPA research on water tank sediment has found:
Opportunistic Pathogens: Including Mycobacterium, Legionella, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
Other Dangerous Pathogens: If breaches exist (like those that allow geckos in), sediment can harbor E. coli 0157, Salmonella, Cryptosporidium, Giardia, and viral pathogens.
“Where we have both breaches... and inches to feet of sediment,” EPA officials warn, “we have a truly dangerous public health potential.”
Disinfection agents like chlorine also do not guarantee safety. Bacteria attached to particles, like sediment, become more than 600 times more resistant to disinfection. Fungi, like molds and yeasts, are even harder to kill.
The danger lies in what officials have called an "uncontrolled and unpredictable washout event"—like a sudden high demand for water during a fire, or a telemetry malfunction that stirs up the sediment and introduces it into water distribution pipes. If that happens, the sleeping threat awakens, and the water system could deliver pathogens straight to consumers, leading to a waterborne disease outbreak.
Source: “Understanding the Significance of Breaches to and Sediment Buildup in Finished Drinking Water Storage Tanks” presentation, EPA Region 8, April 2019
Source: “Understanding the Significance of Breaches to and Sediment Buildup in Finished Drinking Water Storage Tanks” presentation, EPA Region 8, April 2019
Why is This Allowed to Continue?
Faced with these alarming risks, we would expect immediate regulatory action. Instead, the EPA has granted the Navy an extension until May 2030 to clean the tank under the 2023 Red Hill Administrative Consent Order.
The EPA's reasoning? The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) does not require regular tank cleaning. And because the other tanks in the system are out of service, S-326 must remain operational to maintain water storage capacity at Camp Smith.
In essence, the military’s failure to maintain its own infrastructure is being used as justification to continue exposing service members and their families to potential danger for another five years.
What You Can Do
The Marine Corps' Camp Smith water system is operating far below recommended safety standards, placing the health of residents and workers at Camp Smith at risk. And rather than enforcing a swift resolution, regulators are enabling this threat by granting extensions that prioritize operational convenience over human safety.
Once again, it falls to the community to demand accountability from those whose job it is to provide protection.
Here’s how you can help:
Spread the word: Share this blog or our Instagram post with any service members and civilians residing or working at Camp Smith, so that they can take precautionary measures to protect their and their families’ health and safety.
Contact the Governor: Tell Governor Josh Green to stop negotiating ill-informed, backroom land deals with a military that repeatedly fails its commitments to our ‘āina and communities, and that is willing to put the safety of even its own families at needless risk.
Action: Go to https://engage.hawaii.gov/engage-with-us/ and send a message to the Governor.
Need a template? Find sample comments at tinyurl.com/gov-website-0925
Take the Pledge: Commit to taking action to heal and protect our islands’ most precious resource, and ensure that our keiki and future generations can continue to safely access the life-giving water they will need more than ever before.
Action: Take the Pledge to Our Wai, Pledge to Our Keiki to stay informed and engaged in the fight for a clean and just water future for our islands.
The water at Camp Smith may look clean today, but the potential sediment at the bottom of its water storage tank tells a different story. We cannot wait for another water crisis to force action. The time to demand safe water for Camp Smith - and all Hawaiʻi residents - is now.