Red Hill updates
by Madison Owens and Rosalie Luo, Red Hill Organizers | Reading time: 6 minutes
WAI Report Recipe for Remediation a Good Start, but Missing Key Ingredients
In late November, the Red Hill Water Alliance Initiative - a group of city and state officials and elected leaders - published a “WAI Report” as a follow-up to their May commitment to pursue the full remediation of our aquifer.
As current and former Sierra Club directors Wayne Tanaka and Marti Townsend noted, the report did contain some remarkable contents, including the recognition that up to 2 million gallons of fuel may have been released by the Red Hill Facility over the decades, as well as a framework for a plan to free our lands and waters from this contamination - a process which may take up to 30 years or more.
However, this recipe for remediation also missed some key ingredients, including the history of lies and political manipulation that led to our current crisis, and the critical role of the community in getting the federal government to finally act to protect us from its dilapidated Red Hill facility.
The inclusion of these and other items - such as the need for a water testing facility, and for truly independent oversight - will be critical for future efforts over the ensuing decades to truly achieve the report’s goals.
CRI December Meeting
The third Red Hill Community Representation Initiative (CRI) meeting was held on Wednesday, December 13th, at the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. Despite the absence of key figures like Joint Task Force Commander Admiral John Wade and Navy Region Command Rear Admiral Stephen Barnett, CRI members persisted in their attempts to get answers to community questions and concerns regarding the Red Hill facility and its ongoing impacts and threats to people and the environment. Of note:
The Navy confirmed that Aqueous Film Forming Foam (AFFF) containing Per- and Poly-Fluorinated Substances (PFAS) is still present in the facility. Without alternative fire suppressants, the Navy explained that they have no plan to remove the 4,000 gallons of PFAS-based AFFF found in the upper tank form - despite the long lasting and existential consequences of the release of these forever chemicals.
CRI members expressed their concerns about recent news suggesting the reopening of the Hālawa Shaft, despite an ongoing lack of data regarding the location and movement of the current contamination plume in the aquifer. Board of Water Supply Chief Engineer, Ernie Lau, agreed that the risks and consequences of reopening the shaft and contaminating the municipal water system were too great. The EPA, when asked, did clarify that they were not pushing for the reopening of the Hālawa shaft but was following the Department of Health’s lead in where to spend federal dollars.
Navy officials could not say whether they had tested the Navy water system for ethylene dibromide, an extremely toxic compound formed by the breakdown of fuel in water. They also would not commit to replacing the hot water heaters and plumbing likely to be the cause of continued water and health issues by Navy water consumers, and provided no specifics on plans to investigate why these issues keep arising. Embarrassingly, Navy officials could not even navigate their own Safe Waters website, after repeatedly directing the CRI members and the public to the website for water quality information.
The CRI meeting concluded with a public Q&A and a collective plea for the Navy to take meaningful steps in identifying and addressing the sources of contaminants in the Navy’s water system, beyond the obviously deficient standards testing procedures currently established.
The next CRI meeting will be held on January 18, 2024, at 5 pm at the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (560 N. Nimitz Highway, second floor) – be sure to attend or tune in to hear what the Navy and EPA have to say in response to the over 100 unanswered questions gathered from the Hawaiʻi community by the CRI members.
EPA Water Investigation Report
In response to community complaints brought forward by CRI members, the EPA finally conducted its own investigation and issued a report confirming the presence of petroleum in Navy tap water, as well as ongoing acute health symptoms consistent with petroleum exposure.
As Sierra Club director Wayne Tanaka noted in a Star-Advertiser article, the report
“confirms what we have been saying at countless meetings for nearly two years now: that people are still being exposed to contaminated water, and are still getting sick… While the findings are expected, it's beyond frustrating that it took just a handful of inspections by the EPA to validate what affected families have been begging Navy leaders to recognize since early 2022.
Until it figures out how to make them truly safe, the Navy needs to provide any concerned consumers on its water system with alternative water sources…. And we should all heed the cautionary lessons about what may happen if Honoluluʻs municipal water system gets contaminated - and why self-serving assurances by the military must always be taken with a huge grain of salt.”
It remains to be seen whether EPA and Department of Health will now force the Navy to revise its obviously defective water testing protocols rather than continue gaslighting sickened families, and whether the Navy will finally acquiesce to the common-sense demand that they replace water heaters and plumbing likely still contaminated by jet fuel and other toxic chemicals.
Red Hill Misinformation Raises Concerns
The CRI has also raised concerns regarding a series of December emails from Dr. Josh Green’s campaign falsely asserting that the Red Hill tanks had been completely emptied of fuel – claiming credit for the accomplishment and soliciting campaign donations from email recipients.
As the CRI noted, nearly a hundred thousand gallons of toxic “residual fuel” and fuel-containing sludge remain in the facilities’ tanks, which will take months or possibly years to completely remove. False claims that these tanks have been completely emptied only undermine efforts to maintain the public pressure needed to address this threat in a timely manner, and the myriad other issues facing our island as a result of the ongoing Red Hill Crisis.
As attorney and Sierra Club CRI representative David Kimo Frankel noted, “Keeping the details straight and holding the military accountable to the requirements they agreed to is essential to ensuring that our water is not further damaged, and that all of the pollution in our water is completely cleaned up. There should be no jet fuel and no PFAS in our water.”
Red Hill Resolutions
On January 2, 2024, the Waiʻanae Neighborhood Board passed the resolution calling for the permanent closure of the Red Hill facility - establishing an unprecedented statement of unity by every single neighborhood board on Oʻahu, in support of the permanent protection of our precious wai. Huge kudos to the Shut Down Red Hill Coalition and initiative leaders including Susan Gorman Chang, Diane Fujimura, Healani Sonoda-Pale, Rebekah Garrison, and the many, many others that helped accomplish this historic feat!
Upcoming Events
January 18, 2024: The Community Representation Initiative (CRI) will be meeting with Navy and EPA officials at the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, 560 N. Nimitz Highway, second floor.
February 3, 2024: Save the date for an event to mahalo the Honolulu Board of Water Supply and celebration of the preciousness of water.