On Tuesday, the Navy announced its plans to comply with an order from Hawaii to drain fuel tanks that may have been to blame for a November fuel leak that contaminated drinking water for hundreds of people in and around the Pearl Harbor area.
The compliance comes after the Navy initially balked at the order, insisting it wasn't necessary and claiming the tanks weren't at fault for the spill.
On November 20, jet fuel spilled from a pipe in an access tunnel near the tanks and an aquifer that supplies water to over 90,000 people in homes, office buildings and schools.
Shortly after, about 1,000 nearby residents reported that their water smelled like fuel and said they were becoming nauseous and ill after drinking it.
The source of the spill was identified and cleaned, and Hawaii officials ordered the Navy to drain 18 of the 20 tanks in the area that hold hundreds of millions of gallons of fuel, which the Navy said was unnecessary as the problem was a pipe and not one of the tanks.
A deputy state attorney general heard arguments over the order last month and concluded the tanks could be classified as a "ticking time bomb," and the order was deemed necessary.
The Navy now has to submit a plan by next month detailing how the tanks will be drained safely, and once the state health department approves it, the plan must be finished within 30 days.
The Navy is making preparations to defuel the facility, Rear Admiral Blake Converse said during a U.S. House Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness hearing.
"The Navy caused this problem, we own it and we're gonna fix it," said Converse, deputy commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.
The Red Hill facility holds 20 giant underground tanks built into the side of a mountain during World War II. Each tank is roughly the height of a 25-story building. Collectively, they can hold up to 250 million gallons (946 million liters) of fuel, though two of the tanks are now empty.
Converse said Tuesday that Admiral Samuel Paparo, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, directed compliance with the order when the Hawaii Department of Health finalized it last week.
The Navy believes its water system became contaminated by jet fuel that leaked from pipes connected to the Red Hill tanks. It detected jet fuel in a well that draws on the aquifer 100 feet (30 meters) below the tank complex.
So far only the Navy's drinking water has been tainted. Petroleum hasn't shown up in the municipal water system operated by the Honolulu Board of Water Supply. But the utility draws water from the same aquifer as the Navy.
Hawaii officials are concerned that petroleum could migrate through the aquifer from the area of the Navy's well to the water utility's Halawa well and poison the city's drinking water. The Board of Water Supply has suspended use of its Halawa well, which supplies about one-quarter of the water consumed in urban Honolulu in an effort to prevent petroleum from infecting its water system.
Wayne Tanaka, the director of the Sierra Club of Hawaii, which has long fought to close the tanks, welcomed the Navy's decision to comply with the order.
"I'm hopeful they're finally seeing the light and acknowledging the facility is an inherent danger to our water supply," Tanaka said.
He said the state Department of Health, Hawaii's congressional delegation and others would need to ensure that the Navy meets the deadlines included in the department's order.
"It is our full expectation that the Navy will follow the law by complying with the final order," said Katie Arita-Chang, a spokesperson for the Hawaii Department of Health.
Not operating the facility will have minimal impact, but continuing not to operate it beyond February will come at a cost, Converse said.
He said he didn't have details on costs and risks to national security of continued non-operation of the facility.
"Let me be clear, clean drinking water is national security," U.S. Representative Kaiali'i Kahele of Hawaii said at the hearing.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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A 2020 graduate of Kent State University with a Bachelor's degree in Journalism, Aaron has worked as an assigning editor ... Read more
