Red Hill Chemical Leak Caused By Contractor And Navy Failures, Investigation Finds

TL;DR - A contractor error and the Navy’s failure to provide adequate oversight led to the spill of approximately 1,300 gallons of concentrated aqueous film-forming foam, or AFFF — a fire suppressant containing toxic “forever chemicals” — at the Navy’s Red Hill facility in November, according to a long-awaited report on the spill released Friday by the military.

Kinetix, a military contractor responsible for the maintenance of Red Hill’s fire suppression system, incorrectly installed an air vacuum valve in April 2022, according to the report. The contractor then failed to disable the AFFF pumps from automatically starting before testing the system on Nov. 29, leading to the uncontrolled release of the fire suppressant, which video shows quickly flowed underneath a tunnel door to the outside.

“How can we trust anything that we are told about the safety of the Red Hill facility, or the myriad other places in Hawaii and across the Pacific where military sites threaten the disastrous contamination of land, water, and life?” said Wayne Tanaka, director of the Sierra Club’s Hawaii chapter.

“Within the year and a half since the November 2021 spill, we have seen continual contamination incidents and ‘accidents’ that we have to consider as chilling harbingers of even greater existential catastrophe,” said Tanaka. “With $800 billion at its disposal, why must we continue to wait for over a year while the Department of Defense takes its time ensuring the ‘safe’ defueling of the Red Hill facility?”

May 5, 2023: Contractor error, poor Navy oversight cited in Red Hill spill, Honolulu Star-Advertiser

May 5, 2023: Red Hill Chemical Leak Caused By Contractor And Navy Failures, Investigation Finds, Honolulu Civil Beat

May 5, 2023: Military: Contractor error caused Hawaii toxic foam spill, KITV

May 5, 2023: Military blames toxic fire suppressant spill at Red Hill facility on ‘human error’, Hawaiʻi News Now

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Military has yet to reveal causes of Red Hill fire suppressant spills