Editorial: Focus on Red Hill firefighting system

TL;DR - The emptying of 480,000 gallons of jet fuel from four Red Hill underground surge tanks was completed last Friday — and the fact that the operation didn’t make front-page banner headlines bodes well. That implies that things went smoothly — with no known mishaps, under the watchful eyes of state Department of Health and other environmental monitors.

The 12-day defueling was a mere prelude to a much larger — and much more fraught — operation to start in mid-October: the draining of some 104 million gallons of jet fuel from the massive Red Hill bulk storage facility, which sit just 100 feet above a crucial aquifer. The four surge tanks had been an integral component of moving fuel between the 20 huge storage tanks — but with the imminent closure of the entire facility, they are no longer needed. The surge tanks’ fuel was transferred to above-ground tanks at Pearl Harbor- Hickam for use in military operations.

August 3, 2023: Editorial: Focus on Red Hill firefighting system, Honolulu Star-Advertiser