Navy to drain Red Hill fuel tanks, won’t rule out future legal challenges to Hawaii emergency order

TL;DR - Navy officials told federal lawmakers Tuesday that they will comply with an emergency order issued by the state of Hawaii to defuel the service’s underground Red Hill tanks. However, in this pivot, which follows weeks of vowing to fight the order and a contested hearing, officials did not rule out the possibility of further legal challenges.

The fuel in the Red Hill tanks is the suspected source of the contamination of the Navy’s drinking water system on Oahu, which serves some 93,000 people. Also, the tanks, which can hold up to a total of 180 million gallons of fuel, sit 100 feet above a critical aquifer that provides much of the island’s drinking water.

January 12, 2022: Navy to drain Red Hill fuel tanks, won’t rule out future legal challenges to Hawaii emergency order, Honolulu Star Advertiser