Senator, Nonprofit Slam Red Hill Agreement, Ige Administration
Neither Senator Thielen nor the Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi think the U.S. Navy plans to take strong enough action to minimize the threat of future fuel leaks at Red Hill.
The Hawaii Independent // The Rotunda
October 1, 2015
Hawaiʻi State Senator Laura Thielen (Senate District 5, Kailua, Lanikai, Enchanted Lake, Keolu Hills, Maunawili, Waimānalo, Hawaiʻi Kai, Portlock) says Honolulu’s drinking water is still at risk of contamination after the Navy and the state struck an agreement concerning leaks from fuel tanks at the Red Hill facility on October 1, 2015.
Governor Ige’s office released a statement which says that, “The state will be safer and better off with this agreement than it would be without it. We listened carefully to the concerns of stakeholders whose input has strengthened the administrative order. This is the start of long-overdue action to make Hawaiʻi safer. It will increase transparency and is the best mechanism for holding the Navy accountable. The agreement will provide the framework for the state to address concerns about the safety of drinking water for our keiki and their families.”
However, Senator Thielen expressed dissatisfaction in the final agreement with the U.S. Navy and the Defense Logistics Agency, which she says does not take substantial and timely action to minimize the threat of future leaks at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility.
“It appears the state did not substantially alter the agreement with the Navy, which is extremely disappointing,” said Thielen. “The Navy is not being held to upgrading the tanks to the best available technology, which is double lining. Moreover, the Navy is still being allowed more than 20 years to upgrade the 70-plus year old tanks, which means we continue to place one of our largest drinking water sources for Honolulu at risk for contamination with deadly chemicals for the next two decades.”
Thielen was critical of the Ige Administration as well: “I am disappointed that the administration ignored the primary public comments which sought stronger protection of our public aquifer, including recommendations from the Commission of Water Resource Management and the Honolulu Board of Water Supply,” she said.
The Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi has likewise expressed “extreme disappointment” in Governor Ige, the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for agreeing to a inadequate settlement. The nonprofit says the agreement does not do nearly enough to protect Oʻahu’s drinking water from the massive, “historically leaky” fuel storage tanks beneath Red Hill.
“The Navy should not be allowed to take unacceptable risks like this with our water,” said Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi director Marti Townsend. “The tanks have already leaked, future leaks are foreseeable, and there is no way to treat leaks before contamination reaches our water. The only reasonable course of action is to retire the storage tanks.”
Townsend added, “Public safety dictates we take the most precautionary course of action.”
Hawaiʻi’s Commission on Water Resources, Honolulu’s Board of Water Supply, 18 state legislators and hundreds of residents have expressed serious concerns about the inadequacy of the Navy’s proposed agreement. Yet, according to the Sierra Club, the final agreement does not address those substantive concerns in a satisfactory way.
“It is misleading to say that these historic tanks comply with current state and federal requirements for underground storage tanks because these tanks are exempt from the most meaningful requirements, such as double-lining,” said Townsend.
The Sierra Club says its own research into the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility found that the 70-year-old tanks cannot be brought into compliance with current standards for underground storage.
“This means the Navy cannot ensure that fuel released from these tanks will be contained before it reaches the environment, ” said Townsend.
In addition, the Sierra Club found that there are no known methods for removing jet fuel from bedrock, the material that surrounds the tanks.
“The reality is that adding more monitoring wells around the tanks is, itself, a risk because drilling could fracture the bedrock, creating new cracks that would lead the fuel directly to our underground drinking water aquifer,” Townsend said. “There is no justification for exposing the people of Hawaiʻi to this kind of risk. The U.S. Navy and the industries that rely on these fuel reserves should immediately identify new storage arrangements that comply with today’s strict environmental standards and retire these historic tanks.”
The governor’s office and Navy did not return requests for comment.
