Protect What You Love
by Wayne Tanaka | Reading time: 2 minutes
BREAKING NEWS: OVER 1,000 gallons of concentrated "forever chemicals" - used in military fire fighting foam, and known to cause cancer, birth defects, thyroid disease, and other serious health issues - have now been spilled at the U.S. Navy's Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility.
THIS IS NOT GOOD.
A few parts per QUADRILLION of PFAS (a key ingredient in the type of foam used at the facility) is enough to exceed the EPA's "safe" limit for these chemicals. In other words, a few gallons of PFAS may be enough to render THOUSANDS OF TRILLIONS of gallons of water potentially unsafe to drink.
These chemicals will never "naturally attenuate," can bio-accumulate in people, plants, and animals, and will remain in the environment indefinitely.
The Red Hill Facility sits just 100 feet above our sole-source drinking water aquifer. Rainwater constantly percolates into and through the facility, eventually ending up in the groundwater along with any contaminants that get picked up along the way. THE NAVY KNEW THIS AND STILL USED PFAS-CONTAINING FIRE FIGHTING FOAM IN THEIR FACILITY.
This is insanity. We are witnessing our children's and grandchildren's drinking water being poisoned on our watch, by the same entity that has demanded that we trust them with our lives and our future - even as they poison our water, lands, and people time and again.
We cannot stand idly by and wait for the next catastrophe to strike another blow to our island and to our future. We must take a stand to save not just ourselves, but our descendants yet unborn.
RIGHT NOW: Contact our Congressional delegation and reach out to your state and county elected officials and let them know - they must use every power and every official and unofficial channel at their disposal, to DEMAND that we be freed from the Navy's reckless incompetence that has already caused untold damage to our island and our lives.
Tomorrow, on Friday, December 2, consider joining the Shimanchu Wai Protectors and the Oʻahu Water Protectors at the Hawaiʻi State Department of Health, from 4:00 p.m. -5:30 p.m., as they launch the first response to this latest crime against our dignity, our home, our lives, and our ʻāina.
And stay tuned for more actions as we gear up for a new level of engagement and action.
Finally, ask yourself: What would you do, to protect what you love?
Now is the time to find out.