Column: Uninformed leadership just as dangerous as Red Hill tanks

by Wayne Tanaka, Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi Director

Rear Adm. John Wade, commander of the Joint Task Force Red Hill, has certainly used some of the right words when addressing the media and the public.

“Every day that fuel is sitting there is a threat to our community and the environment,” he’s repeated, a refreshing admission after years of Navy denials.

He has also committed to “transparent dialogue” and “meaningful relationships,” and just last month was considering an oversight board of local community leaders — as called for by members of the O‘ahu Water Protectors and endorsed by this newspaper’s editorial board.

Unfortunately, during last week’s biannual Fuel Tank Advisory Committee meeting, these words proved to be just that — words — as Wade walked back on his commitments in more ways than one.

Civilian oversight was out of the question, he repeated to public testifiers.

“Transparent dialogue” only went as far as an “I’m so sorry” and a promise to “get this up to my superiors” for still-sick mothers pleading for information and urging help for poisoned civilian families — requests that have been on the record for months.

His promises to “get you answers” also rang hollow, when he subsequently could not commit to even a ballpark timeline for a response — or describe how these answers would actually be delivered to those he promised them to.

While this backtracking was disappointing, it was outright alarming to see how little he knew about the 14 tanks holding the 104 million gallons of fuel he is tasked with removing.

Adm. Wade had not thoroughly read, much less with a critical eye, the SGH (Simpson Gumpertz & Heger Inc.) contractor’s assessment underlying his defueling plan, and its myopic focus on pipeline repairs. Accordingly, he did not know that the assessment’s computer models used to evaluate the safety of these tanks failed to include:

>> The dozens, if not hundreds, of repair welds made to these tanks over the decades.

>> The high likelihood for many of these welds to be defective, given that every tank inspection reviewed by SGH found defective welds needing to be repaired.

>> The potential for through-wall holes in the tanks’ steel liners.

>> The gap of up to half-inch between these tanks’ steel liners and the concrete encasing them, trapping water that contributes to corrosion of the steel.

>> The pipes and valves attached to the tanks, significant points of vulnerability in an earthquake.

Wade also did not know that an earthquake in 1948 resulted in a release of 46,000 gallons of fuel — when these tanks were all but brand-new.

These critical vulnerabilities are easily found in readily available, public documentation that the Joint Task Force commander should have been intimately familiar with, as someone touting his “risk management” experience, and upon whom the security of our island, and our future, depends.

It will take decades for the 5,000 gallons of fuel in our aquifer to “naturally attenuate,” the Navy’s primary strategy for “remediation.” A larger spill — in the tens or hundreds of thousands of gallons — could migrate through our aquifer for centuries. If this happens, it won’t be just our drinking water that will be poisoned — but the drinking water of our children, grandchildren, of generations yet unborn.

Residents of Hawaii: Write to U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin (1000 Defense Pentagon, Washington, D.C., 20301-1000), and let him know that we cannot tolerate ignorance of such critical matters by the very leader appointed to keep us safe, and who as a result still refuses to consider this situation as an emergency.

And Rear Adm. Wade: I and other water protectors are calling upon you and INDOPACOM John Aquilino to meet us at 1 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 20 — the anniversary of the spill that poisoned our aquifer and our communities — at Makalapa Gate. We look forward to seeing you there.

November 17, 2022: Column: Uninformed leadership just as dangerous as Red Hill tanks, Honolulu Star Advertiser