Hawaii First Water

Red Hill Crisis Underscores Water Insecurity In Hawaii

(LK comment:  Jacob is right on…  In addition to conservation and reuse, Hawaii needs to begin to think about a Desal pilot program just in case.  The price of Desal has significantly decreased and we have seen what one Red Hill situation can cause and we have not seen the end of this crisis.) April 2022, Civil Beat Opinion Jacob Wiencek: Late last year a devastating water crisis hit Hawaii as thousands of gallons of fuel from the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility leaked into the groundwater.

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Thousands of mostly military families were relocated out of housing and the crisis worsened military-community relations given the preceding years of intense debate about the environmental impact of the facility.

However, most disturbingly it revealed a fundamental weakness that impacts not just Honolulu but all of Hawaii: our near single source dependence on underground aquifers presents an enduring threat to the state’s water security.

The Red Hill crisis is not the only water crisis to face Hawaii in the recent past. Maui County had to issue a water conservation noticethat inflamed an age-old debate about balancing water for residents and one of our primary economic pillars, tourism.

More broadly, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration holds that the entire state of Hawaii is either in abnormally dry conditions or at least moderate to severe drought.

Whether through a man-made crisis or climate change we are facing increasing pressure on our water resources — and that pressure will only intensify as Hawaii’s population continues to grow (we clocked a 7% growth rate from 2010-2020).

To see the rest of this excellent piece see: https://www.civilbeat.org/2022/04/red-hill-crisis-underscores-water-insecurity-in-hawaii/

 

 

Navy will comply with state order to remove fuel from Red Hill

January, Hawaii Public Radio | By Associated Press,
Sophia McCullough

The U.S. Navy will comply with Hawaiʻi’s order to remove fuel from a massive underground storage tank facility near Pearl Harbor blamed for contaminating drinking water, officials said Tuesday.

The Navy is making preparations to defuel the facility, Rear Adm. 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 going to fix it,” Converse told members of Congress. “Nothing is more important than the health, safety and wellbeing of our families, our military residents, our neighbors and the communities that we call home.”

For the full story link here…

 

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

12 December, Civil Beat, Christina Jedra: (Comment: This is a good historical summary of the Red Hill history) 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.

“My fear was that something terrible would happen before people wake up and this comes to their attention,” Ernie Lau, chief engineer of the Honolulu Board of Water Supply, said this week.

Board of Water Supply Ernest Lau points to areas near the Navy's 20 fuel tanks below Red Hill by the black dot looking things below his left hand during EPA teleconferenced meeting with the BWS board. 28 june 2016
Honolulu Board of Water Supply’s Chief Engineer Ernie Lau, pictured in 2016, has warned of the dangers of the Red Hill fuel facility for years. Cory Lum/Civil Beat/2016

The military said it caught wind of the emergency over Thanksgiving weekend as complaints rolled in from military housing residents saying that their water smelled of fuel and that their families and pets were falling ill. After initially dismissing concerns, the Navy later acknowledged that the Red Hill well that services that community was contaminated.

Red Hill

Civil Beat has been reporting on the leaking tanks, water contamination and political debate over Red Hill since 2014. Read our coverage here. Click on “full archive” for the complete list of stories.

State health officials announced on Friday that the Navy’s water system contained levels of gasoline and diesel range hydrocarbons as much as 350 times higher than state standards for safe drinking water.

The cause of the problem is still under investigation, but the suspected source is the Navy’s World War II-era Red Hill fuel facility located uphill from the affected military communities.

A link to the full story is here

Navy ‘confident’ that it’s found source of fuel leak into water system, but lawmakers are skeptical

10 December HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Samples collected by the state Health Department earlier this month at the Navy’s Red Hill water shaft found petroleum levels 66 to 350 times higher than the limits considered safe for drinking water, the state announced Friday.

The results were the latest worrisome development in the contaminated water crisis, which has left dozens sick, displaced at least 3,000 families and prevented thousands more from using their tap water.

Meanwhile, Navy officials said during a legislative briefing Friday they believe they’ve found the source of the contamination ― a spill on Nov. 20 at a fire suppression system downhill from Red Hill and not the underground fuel tanks that have been the source of a number of leaks in recent years.

“The Navy is responsible for this crisis,” Adm. Samuel Paparo, commander of U.S. Pacific Fleet, told lawmakers. “We are taking ownership and we are going to fix it.”

At the briefing, U.S. Pacific Fleet Deputy Commander Blake Converse said Navy tests have confirmed the petroleum in the Red Hill shaft is jet fuel from a relatively new spill.

He said they believe “with a high degree of confidence” that the contamination is from the Nov. 20 spill of jet fuel from a fire suppression drain line in the tunnel downhill of the Red Hill bulk fuel storage tanks. The Navy has said that 14,000 gallons of fuel and water were released in that incident.

Eight days after the spill, military families first started reporting a bad smell and taste in the water. Some said it made them sick, and the Health Department has gotten 600 complaints so far.

Converse stressed they don’t think the fuel is from the underground Red Hill fuel tanks.

In response to those claims, lawmakers expressed skepticism, saying they wanted confirmation about the source of the fuel from the state Health Department and EPA.

The state Health Department says the cause of the leak remains under investigation.

“The Navy, frankly, lately hasn’t given us a lot of reason to trust them so I think we all feel that we want an independent agency to come in and verify,” said House Environment Chair Nicole Lowen.

For the rest of the story

Hawaii governor joins call to suspend Red Hill fuel storage operation

6 December, HONOLULU (Tribune News Service) Peter Boylan — Gov. David Ige and Hawaii’s congressional delegation on Sunday called for the Navy to suspend its Red Hill fuel storage operation until its drinking water contamination crisis is handled.

The Navy on Thursday said recent testing of its Red Hill well detected the presence of petroleum contaminants. Hundreds of military and nonmilitary users of the Navy’s water system last week complained of a strong fuel odor in the water, including some who reported feeling ill or having pets who became sick after drinking water.

Ige and U.S. Sens. Brian Schatz and Mazie Hirono, and Reps. Ed Case and Kai Kahele, all Democrats, released a joint statement calling for the Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro, who is in Hawaii for the 80th anniversary of the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor, to suspend Red Hill operations in the aftermath of the contamination of drinking water at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam and surrounding areas.

“Test results confirming contamination of drinking water … show that the Navy is not effectively operating the World War II-era facility and protecting the health and safety of the people of Hawaii. We are calling for the Navy to immediately suspend operations at Red Hill while they confront and remedy this crisis,“ the joint statement said.

Del Toro did not respond to Honolulu Star-Advertiser requests for comment on the joint statement. Also, Rear Adm. Timothy J. Kott, commander of Navy Region Hawaii, was not available for an interview Sunday night, according to a spokeswoman.

During a town hall meeting about the Navy’s response to the crisis, held Sunday at the Hokulani Community Center, Del Toro declined to answer questions from the Star-Advertiser about the future of the Red Hill storage facility. “I’m here to listen,“ he told the Star-Advertiser.

Starting in, water samples taken by the Navy from its Red Hill drinking water well and tested at a commercial facility showed petroleum contamination, the Star-Advertiser reported Sunday. Petroleum also showed up in Red Hill drinking water samples in August and September. The Navy shut down the Red Hill water shaft on Nov. 28 as Department of Defense families began reporting the smell of fuel coming from their tap water, chemical odors, bad tastes, and a strange sheen.

Since suspension of use of the shaft, many residents said they developed skin rashes, nausea, headaches and vomiting. Others reported pets falling sick.

On Sunday, Capt. Erik Spitzer, commander of Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, issued a public apology, acknowledging that the Navy was wrong about the water being safe for drinking or bathing. Spitzer also apologized for a notice issued to military housing residents on Nov. 29 that indicated the water was safe. “My staff and I are drinking the water on base this morning, and many of my team live in housing and drink and use the water as well,“ said Spitzer in the notice.

To see the rest of the article…

Kahele Tells Navy That Red Hill Is ‘Crisis Of Astronomical Proportions’

Civil Beat, Nick Grube, December, (LK Comment:  State of Hawaii water officials have raised their concerns about the Red Hill Fuel tanks and their slow leaks for decades, but the Navy has downplayed the problems and has been slow in remediating the issue) WASHINGTON — Hawaii Rep. Kai Kahele demanded answers from a top Navy official Thursday about petroleum contamination in the drinking water at Red Hill on Oahu.

Kahele asked Vice Admiral Rick Williamson, who was testifying before the House Armed Services Committee, about how the Navy planned to respond to the crisis, which so far has resulted in almost 100,000 people being told not to drink tap water while federal, state and county officials scramble to respond.

“The Navy is currently experiencing a crisis of astronomical proportions in Hawaii,” Kahele said. “People are getting sick, animals are getting sick and our military families need answers. The island of Oahu needs answers.”

See the rest of the article here

(Big Island) Council eyes state support for wastewater issues

October, MICHAEL BRESTOVANSKY Hawaii Tribune-Herald:  The County Council is urging the state to seek solutions for the mounting wastewater problems on Hawaii Island.

A resolution discussed at Wednesday’s council meeting would urge the state legislature to set funding for wastewater management projects around the state as one of its legislative goals next year.

Hamakua Council-woman Heather Kimball, who introduced the resolution and waived its prior reading at committee, said the county is facing very expensive and necessary wastewater projects that it cannot finance alone, and called for the state to develop possible systems that could support those projects in cooperation with the county.

“We need $1 billion for facilities improvement, another $1 billion for cesspool conversion,” Kimball said, citing estimates from the county Department of Environmental Management. “Are we going to put that on the taxpayers?”

The day before, at a meeting of the Regenerative Agriculture, Water, Energy and Environmental Management Committee, Environmental Management Director Ramzi Mansour said the county is facing the monumental challenge of converting the bulk of the county’s housing developments away from cesspool systems. But because there are only about 15,000 users of the county’s sewer service, the department isn’t receiving enough fees to fund such a conversion.

Furthermore, Mansour said, 86% of all equipment at the Hilo Wastewater Treatment Plant needs to be either replaced or repaired. Similarly, 65% of the equipment at Kula‘imano Wastewater Treatment Plant is failing, as is 72% of the equipment at the plant in Papaikou.

See the rest of article at https://www.westhawaiitoday.com/2021/10/21/hawaii-news/council-eyes-state-support-for-wastewater-issues/

 

NEW HAWAII STORMWATER UTILITY SPARKS STATE EXEMPTION DEBATE

(August 2021) By Justin Jacques, Water Environment Federation.  On the Hawaiian island of Oahu, efforts have been underway since 2015 to establish a stormwater utility that would charge each of the island’s property owners a monthly fee based on the amount of impervious area their land contains. The decision would provide Honolulu and its neighboring municipalities with a new, dedicated funding source for projects that aim to discourage flooding, protect local water quality, and enhance climate change resilience.

Randall Wakumoto, civil engineer for the City and County of Honolulu Department of Facility Maintenance (DFM), explained during a July 15 Water Environment Federation (WEF; Alexandria, Virginia) Stormwater Institute webcast that although the new utility would address “one of the biggest threats to the island’s sustainability and resilience,” the proposition of a new fee has faced considerable opposition. For example, in February 2021, members of the Hawaii House of Representatives introduced a bill that would exempt all state-owned properties from any fees imposed by the new utility.

Proponents of the exemption described in written testimonials that state-owned properties, particularly airports and harbors owned by the Hawaii Department of Transportation (HDOT), are already subject to an array of regulatory requirements for stormwater management and that an additional fee based on impervious space would be unnecessarily burdensome. Detractors, however, argued that exempting state-owned properties would place additional financial stress on Oahu’s residents, whose taxes currently make up roughly 75% of the City and County of Honolulu’s stormwater management budget. Financial documents from an advisory group driving the utility’s establishment state that residential properties own 85% of the island’s parcels, but only about 44% of its impervious area.

“The bill eventually died and was not passed during this year’s legislative session,” Wakumoto said. “However, it did shed some light on the subject of how a stormwater utility would affect various state properties, and what alternatives could be considered to allow for a working relationship to exist between the county and the state government.”

For the rest of the article…

EPA requires seven Kauai cesspools to be closed to protect groundwater, fines Hawai‘i DLNR again

(March ’21)

Four prior EPA enforcement actions against Hawai‘i DLNR have closed 74 cesspools, collected $407,400 in fines

03/04/2021
Contact Information:
Alejandro Diaz (diaz.alejandro@epa.gov)
808-541-2711

(Comment:  Closing “large” cesspools is a good start on closing the 90,000 individual cesspools on the islands by the State’s mandated 2050 goal)

HONOLULU – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has taken enforcement action on Kauai to direct the closure of seven large-capacity cesspools (LCCs) and collect $221,670 in fines from the Hawai‘i Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR). In 2005 EPA banned LCCs, which can pollute water resources, under the Safe Drinking Water Act.

“EPA has taken several actions against Hawai’i DLNR and encouraged them to conduct an audit of all remaining properties to identify any remaining illegal large capacity cesspools to prevent future fines,” said EPA Pacific Southwest Regional Director of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Amy Miller. “Large-capacity cesspools can contaminate our groundwater, streams and ocean resources. EPA will continue efforts to identify, fine and close all remaining LCCs in Hawaii.”

EPA is authorized to issue compliance orders and/or assess penalties to violators of the Safe Drinking Water Act’s LCC regulations. EPA’s enforcement action to close LCCs owned by DLNR is based on an August 2019 inspection and additional submitted information. The enforcement action includes the following DLNR properties:

  • Camp Hale Koa: Located in the Kokee Mountain State Park, EPA found three LCCs associated with the campgrounds. A non-profit organization leases the property from DLNR and operates the land parcel as a camping property that is available for daily or weekly group camping. These cesspools have been closed.
  • Waineke Cabins: Also located in the Kokee Mountain State Park, EPA found two LCCs serving the cabins. The United Church of Christ, under its Hawaii Conference Foundation body, leases the property from DLNR and operates the land parcel as a group camping property. These cesspools have been closed.
  • Kukui Street commercial property: Located in the town of Kapaʻa, EPA discovered two LCCs serving 4569 Kukui Street. aFein Holdings, LLC, leases the property from DLNR and operates the land parcel as a multi-tenant commercial property. The Kukui property must close the cesspool by June 30, 2022.

Since the 2005 LCC ban, more than 3,600 LCCs in Hawaii have been closed; however, many hundreds remain in operation. Cesspools collect and release untreated raw sewage into the ground, where disease-causing pathogens and harmful chemicals can contaminate groundwater, streams, and the ocean. Groundwater provides 95% of all local water supply in Hawaii, where cesspools are used more widely than in any other state.

UH research essential in federal Clean Water Act ruling

June, Cindy Knapman/UH: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in April that the federal Clean Water Act, which regulates the discharge of pollutants into the nation’s surface waters, including lakes, rivers, streams, wetlands and coastal areas, must also consider pollutant inputs to those waters by groundwater. This ruling was based on scientific findings from researchers at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST).

Over the last decade, Maui coral reefs have experienced a decline in health and overgrowth by invasive algae. Concerns arose that submarine groundwater discharge was carrying nutrients from wastewater infrastructure to nearby coral reefs, contributing to this decline. However, the quantity and locations of submarine groundwater discharge along Maui’s coasts were poorly known. It was also unclear whether the groundwater carried high concentrations of nutrient or other pollution.

SOEST researchers from the Department of Earth Sciences were awarded grants from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center to investigate the hydrological connections between deep injected effluent from a municipal wastewater treatment plant on Maui and nearby coastal waters.

The researchers applied novel techniques including using aircraft to collect thermal infrared imagery to map oceanic inputs and the extent of effluent discharge, deployed scuba seafloor mapping, analyzed groundwater and algae samples to look for isotopic signatures unique to wastewater, used radioisotopes to help establish flow rates, and deployed tracer dyes to track rates and paths of the injected wastewater effluent to Maui’s coastal waters. The tracer dye test provided unequivocal evidence that the injected wastewater travels through groundwater to the coastal ocean.

Lahaina, Maui map
Lahaina map showing groundwater seeps, heat signature of effluent plume. Credit: Glenn, et al., 2013

“This was a very impactful scientific study with regard to protecting the environment, and with far-reaching socio-economic and sustainability implications for the State of Hawaiʻi and the nation as a whole. Our high-caliber UH team was glad that we could make it happen,” said Craig Glenn, lead author of the study and professor of Earth Sciences at SOEST.

The research team conclusively demonstrated that millions of gallons per day of deeply injected treated sewage effluent from the West Maui wastewater reclamation facility are being added to Maui’s adjacent ocean waters.

for the rest of the article see here