How The Red Hill Fuel System Has Threatened Oahu’s Drinking Water For Decades

TL;DR - As Oahu residents reel from the news that military families’ drinking water was contaminated with petroleum, and that water for the broader community is also at risk, scrutiny of the nearby Navy’s fuel facility is intensifying.

But the crisis is not a surprise to many residents, officials and local environmental advocates. For years, they’ve considered Red Hill an inevitable environmental and public health disaster.

Built in haste in the early 1940s for World War II, the tanks were constructed by workers who blasted cavities into the mountain’s volcanic rock and built the tanks into the holes.  

December 12, 2021: How The Red Hill Fuel System Has Threatened Oahu’s Drinking Water For Decades, Honolulu Civil Beat

December 12, 2021: Red Hill’s troubled past casts a shadow on Navy operations, Honolulu Star-Advertiser