Community vows to protect Oʻahu’s water amid Red Hill contamination concerns
By Victoria Budiono | Originally Published in Staradvertiser on September 29, 2025
Community leaders, advocates and students gathered at Honolulu Hale on Monday afternoon to launch the “Pledge to Our Wai, Pledge to Our Keiki,” a public commitment to protect Oahu’s aquifer from ongoing contamination tied to the U.S. Navy’s Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility. The event also marked the debut of “Tainted Waters: Art for Truth,” a student art exhibit outside City Council chambers that will remain on display through October.
Board of Water Supply Chief Engineer Ernie Lau, City Council Chair Tommy Waters, state Sen. Jarrett Keohokālole, former Red Hill Community Representation Initiative Chair Marti Townsend, and youth organizer Sydney Chung joined community members and water protectors to highlight both the urgency and the stakes of the crisis.
The pledge, organizers said, reflects an intergenerational kuleana to heal and safeguard the aquifer, which remains tainted with jet fuel and other toxic substances.
Wayne Tanaka, director for the Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi, opened the ceremony by calling on residents not to repeat past mistakes.
“We all know that we cannot again abdicate our kuleana to safeguard our wai, our children’s wai, our grandchildren’s wai,” he said. “We are here today to take this pledge … to commit and remind ourselves that we must never again place our faith, and the fate of our islands, in the hands of decision makers 5,000 miles away,” he said.
The Red Hill facility, built in the 1940s, has long faced criticism for chronic leaks and mismanagement, culminating in the 2021 fuel spill that tainted water used by thousands of military families.
The launch of the pledge also coincided with the 10th anniversary of the 2015 Administrative Order on Consent, an agreement signed by the Navy, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the state Department of Health after a 27,000-gallon leak two years earlier. That order allowed the facility to keep operating, despite what advocates say were clear warning signs.
Organizers used the anniversary to issue a new collective promise to future generations. “We, the undersigned organizations and individuals, promise to you, our keiki and the generations to follow: we are committed to protecting our wai and protecting your future, and we will never forget the mistakes that led to our precious and once-pure aquifer to be contaminated by the Navy’s Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility,” the statement read.
It added that the 2015 agreement “only enabled the Navy to continue operating the Red Hill facility, notwithstanding the many warning signs and plain common sense indicating the clear and present threat to our water, our communities, and our future.”
Speakers repeatedly pointed to a history of broken promises by the federal government.
Keohokalole, (D, Kaneohe- Kailua) compared Red Hill to Kahoolawe, the island that was used as a bombing range for nearly 50 years before Congress ordered it returned to Hawaii in 1993.
The Navy pledged to clean the island of unexploded ordnance, but when it packed up in 2004, only about 75% of the surface had been cleared and much of the subsurface remains too dangerous to dig.
“We cannot allow Red Hill to become the next Kahoolawe,” Keohokalole said. “Just because we can’t detect fuel doesn’t mean it’s gone … It’s our obligation under the law to continue to do this work until we can prove that our aquifer is clean — only then can the obligation be clear.”
Advocates have also pointed to the Marine Corps’ Puuloa Range Training Facility in Ewa Beach as another warning sign. Built in the early 1900s and expanded in 2011, the range sits as close as 160 feet from homes, schools, parks and a popular beach. Multiple studies have documented extremely high levels of lead contamination in the surrounding soil, sand, nearby homes and even in fish caught off the coast that is not safe, particularly for young children and pregnant women.
Townsend, representing the Red Hill Community Representation Initiative, voiced sharper criticism, saying Hawaii has been forced to sacrifice too much in the name of national security.
“This is not security. We are not protected. The U.S. military is sacrificing us in the name of their war machine, and it’s up to us to say, no, no, not anymore,” she said, adding, “Whatever national security the U.S. wants to engage in, it doesn’t sacrifice Hawaii anymore — we have paid our dues.”
Sydney Chung, 16, a student at Punahou School and youth advocate, told the crowd that young people like her are already concerned about their futures as basic human needs, including clean water, are put at risk.
“Water, one of the most basic human rights, remains unprotected and vulnerable,” she said. “Clean water should not be a political issue, a clean and healthful environment should not be a political issue. As a 16-year-old student, I fear for the availability of such basic resources for our children and our grandchildren. Everyone here has the responsibility, and ability, to clean and protect wai.”