The Navy failed to understand the well-documented risks of Red Hill fuel tanks, the watchdog says

Navy officials “lacked adequate understanding” of the risks of maintaining massive fuel storage tanks atop a drinking water source at Pearl Harbor where the spill occurred jet fuel poisoned more than 6,000 people in 2021, a US military watchdog said on Thursday.

That lack of awareness occurred despite officials having technical drawings and environmental studies detailing the risks, the U.S. Department of Defense inspector general said.

The finding was part of a long list of Navy failures identified by the Inspector General in two reports following a year-long investigation into the fuel leak at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility. Researchers said it was imperative for the Navy to address the management of the fuel and water systems at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam and recommended that the Army assess leak detection systems at other Navy fuel facilities.

“The Department of Defense must take these and other actions to ensure that tragedies like the one that occurred in November 2021 are not repeated,” Inspector General Robert P. Storch said in a statement.

The military built the Red Hill fuel tanks into the side of a mountain in the early 1940s to protect them from air raids. There were a total of twenty tanks, each about the height of a 25-story building with a capacity of 12.5 million gallons. The site was in the hills above Pearl Harbor and atop an aquifer equipped with wells that supplied drinking water to the Navy and Honolulu’s municipal water system.

Fuel leaks at Red Hill had occurred before, including in 2014, prompting the Sierra Club of Hawai’i and the Honolulu Board of Water Supply to ask the Army to move the tanks to a site where they won’t drain O’ahu’s water would threaten. But the Navy refused, saying the island’s waters were safe.

The 2021 spill flowed from a ruptured pipe in May of that year. Most of it flowed into a firefighting drainage system, where it lay unnoticed for six months until a cart rammed a sagging line holding the liquid. Crews thought they had cleared most of this fuel, but were unable to get about 5,000 gallons. Around Thanksgiving, the fuel flowed into a drainage and drinking water well that provided water to 90,000 people at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.

The inspector general’s report said 4,000 families were forced to leave their homes for months because they could not drink or bathe in their water. The military has spent more than $220 million housing residents in hotels and responding to the spill. Congress has appropriated another $2.1 billion, part of which will help the Navy close the Red Hill facility in accordance with an order from Hawaii regulators.

Other inspector general findings:

1. The Navy never notified the Department of Health, which regulates underground fuel tanks, about the missing fuel after the May 2021 spill.
2. The Navy missed four separate opportunities in November 2021 to activate emergency response plans to respond to the water contamination. That includes op November 20when fuel came out of the drain line, and so on November 28when residents called base authorities to report chemical and fuel odors coming from their water.
3. The Navy issued press releases on November 21 and 22 stating that “the drinking water was safe,” but did so without conducting any laboratory analysis to confirm that this was the case.
4. The Navy did not assume that contamination from the spill had spread through Pearl Harbor’s drinking water system, as required by the water system emergency response plan. According to the report, some residents may have continued to cook and shower with their tap water as a result.

Hawaii’s congressional delegation, which called for the investigation in 2021, released a joint statement saying the reports clearly showed the Navy and Army failed to manage fuel and water operations at Red Hill and Pearl Harbor to a standard that protects the health and safety of the population. people of Hawaii.

“It is outrageous and unacceptable,” said the statement from U.S. Senators Mazie Hirono and Brian Schatz and U.S. Representatives Ed Case and Jill Tokuda, all Democrats.

They called on the Navy to take “full responsibility” for its failures and immediately implement the inspector general’s recommendations.

A Navy spokesperson said in a statement that the inspector general’s findings align with previous reviews and support corrective actions the Navy is implementing.

“We are committed to continuous improvement to ensure the highest standards of operation, maintenance, safety and supervision in all our facilities at all times,” the statement said.

The Navy last year written reprimands issued to three retired military officers for their role in the fuel spill, an action the Sierra Club called “a slap on the wrist.”

Gov. Josh Green said he welcomed the inspector general’s findings, which he said underscored what environmentalists have long argued.

“We will continue to push for transparency and accountability around the Red Hill issue, as all people living in Hawaii deserve clean, clean drinking water,” Green said in a statement.