UH News: The University of Hawaiʻi Red Hill Task Force has launched a Tap Water Screening Dashboard that displays data on potential fuel-based contaminants in water screened by UH experts and is intended to help the public better understand the quality of their tap water. The interactive dashboard allows the public to track water sample findings over time and provides visual maps and graphs used for screening analyses as well as downloadable data.
for the rest of the article…
(October/ Civil Beat) The Navy urged residents to conserve water after a fourth water main break occurred on its system Monday, adding to the list of problems for some 93,000 people near Pearl Harbor who faced a fuel contamination crisis last year.
Military officials said people should continue to boil water for drinking and cooking as a precaution against bacteria until the system is deemed safe.
“My main concern is the sediment and bacteria,” Navy Capt. Mark Sohaney, the commander of Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, said at a news conference.
The previous three water main breaks occurred Friday, prompting the Navy to order residents to boil their water and forcing the closure of child development centers, gyms and other facilities.
See the rest of this Civil Beat article here.
The lawsuit was originally filed earlier this year with the US District Court for the District of Hawaii, and included the names of 10 plaintiffs.
The most recent update to the document, which was filed on Thursday, includes the name of more than 100 new plaintiffs, including civilians, who claim they suffered physically, emotionally and financially after a series of failures last November resulted in a fuel leak at the facility.
See the rest of the article here…
(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.
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/
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…
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
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…