Danny De Gracia: Don't Stick Oahu Residents With The Bill For Red Hill

TL;DR - It is a common military tradition that problems should always be passed up the chain of command for solutions, not down. As the residents of Oahu discovered throughout the Red Hill fuel storage facility episode, the federal government was to blame for our problems, and the federal government had to be responsible for fixing them.

At the start of the fiasco, I thought it was premature for the Board of Water Supply to be acting as if all was lost and we were all just going to have to accept higher water rates to pay for cleanup or new water infrastructure. The Pottery Barn Rule — which says if you broke it, you bought it — applies when it comes to the federal government, and there is more than enough legal precedent over the years for states and cities putting the burden on higher government, not local taxpayers, to fix environmental disasters.

March 28, 2022: Danny De Gracia: Don't Stick Oahu Residents With The Bill For Red Hill, Honolulu Civil Beat