One Week: Red Hill Task Force Meeting

Don't forget, the Red Hill public meeting has been rescheduled to next week on Thursday, November 1st. We encourage everyone to submit written testimony prior to the meeting. This meeting will be the only public engagement opportunity for our supporters to voice their concerns before the Navy officially releases its preferred upgrade option for the Red Hill Facility in Spring of 2019.

We know that the Navy’s Red Hill tanks store up to 250 million gallons of fuel only 100 feet above O‘ahu’s primary drinking water aquifer and that these 75-year old tanks have already leaked thousands of gallons of fuel into our groundwater. We recently learned that the steel lining of the tanks has corroded much more than the Navy anticipated. In fact, one of the steel liner samples has corroded to 2 mm thick—only one-third of the original steel liner’s thickness.

At the November 1st meeting, the Navy, EPA, and Hawaiʻi Department of Health will provide updates to the Senate task force on the status of the Red Hill tanks. We expect the Navy to answer questions about tank corrosion, as well as their reasoning behind choosing the least protective option from the list of six tank upgrade alternatives.

Here are the details for the meeting:Fuel Tank Advisory CommitteeThursday, November 1, 20189:00 - 11:00 amHawaiʻi State Capitol, Room 016 (in the basement)415 S. Beretania Street, HonoluluAgenda

Here is what you can do right now:

1. RSVP to the Nov. 1st meeting by clicking HERE. There will be public testimony given at the end of the meeting, so please prepare a quick statement.2. Submit written testimony to the Department of Health (Thu.Perry@doh.hawaii.gov). We want 100 individuals to submit written testimony and you can use this sample language:“Aloha,As a concerned resident of __________ that depends on Hawaiʻi’s groundwater aquifers as my primary source of drinking water, I call on the Department of Health to mandate the U.S. Navy to retire the Red Hill fuel tanks and relocate the fuel. The recent findings from the Navy’s corrosion study, while preliminary, are frightening. With the tanks corroding much faster than the Navy anticipated, it is unacceptable that the Navy simultaneously propose the least protective upgrades to the Red Hill tanks.It is clear that the tanks are too fragile and outdated to be repaired enough to ensure protection of our drinking water. The facility should be retired and the fuel should be stored in new above ground tanks where Oʻahu’s drinking water resources is not threatened.The Health Department has the constitutional obligation, and the responsibility as the only local regulating agency in the Administrative Order on Consent, to protect Hawaiʻi’s drinking water resources from contamination. Thank you for the opportunity to provide comments on this extremely important issue."3. Call your senator and encourage them to attend the meeting.We need strong public support at this meeting to show the decision-makers that these fuel tanks pose a great threat to O‘ahu’s water and need to be shut down now. Please submit written testimony, join us on November 1st by RSVPing HERE, and share this email with your networks.