Litigation Station: Red Hill + East Maui
By Marti Townsend | Reading Time: 1.5 minutes
Red Hill
The Red Hill fuel tanks have a 80.1% chance of leaking 1,000-30,000 gallons of fuel in the next 5 years, the same amount of the time the Navy is seeking for their permit to operate the tanks. This risk is unacceptable and one of the many reasons we are asking the Health Department to consider a shorter more protective permit.
Our contested case hearing over the Navy's permit to operate its Red Hill fuel tanks spanned six long days and almost 48 hours of testimony and cross examination. After all that, it is more clear than ever that the Navy has no plans to make substantive upgrades to the facility, nevermind relocate the tanks.
We're expecting a decision from the Health Department on the Navy's permit in the next few months. Read more about our contested case and what it means for the future of our water here.
East Maui Streams
We're still sitting on the edge of our seats awaiting a ruling from the Hawaiʻi Environmental Court in our East Maui streams suit against the Department of Land and Natural Resources. We went to trial last summer and were anticipating a decision by the end of the year. You might remember we sued the Department of Land and Natural Resources for its failure to protect East Maui streams from exploitation for profit. Read more about the trial here.
A ruling could come out any day now. In the meantime there are several other East Maui stream happenings including bills at the legislature and Maui County's Water Use and Development Plan.