Red Hill

Inspector General Report On Red Hill Fuel Spill Confirms Resident Concerns

November 21, 2024 Hawai'i Sierra Club, Popular Resistance. Resist! AZccountability, Fossil Fuels, Hawaiʻi, health, pollution, Red Hill, US military

The Navy’s and Department of Defense’s initial responses to the IG’s recommendations provide little assurance of meaningful accountability and protections moving forward. Most “resolved” recommendations remain to be implemented over months or years, while numerous other recommendations remain “unresolved.” Particularly troubling is the response to the primary IG recommendations that oversight of fuels facilities operations and maintenance and drinking water compliance be assigned to specific accountable individuals. The Department of Defense’s vague responses—assigning these roles to the Pearl Harbor Commanding Officer—would merely continue the practice of entrusting the operation of extremely complex systems to a revolving door of short-term Navy leaders, for whom environmental and human health and safety have never been a demonstrated priority.

Three Years After The Fuel Spill, Community Members Continue To Demand Accountability

November 20, 2024 Marti Townsend, Popular Resistance. Resist! Accountability, Hawaii, health, pollution, Red Hill, US military, Water Defenders

Today, November 20, 2024, marks the third anniversary of the catastrophic 2021 Red Hill fuel spill, which contaminated the drinking water for thousands of our families and exposed deep flaws in the Navy’s management of its fuel storage facilities. On this solemn occasion, the Community Representation Initiative (CRI) reflects on the ongoing harm caused by the spill and calls for decisive action in light of recent Department of Defense Inspector General (DoD IG) and Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports that confirm widespread mismanagement by the Navy and Department of Defense.

Honolulu City Council Passes Resolution To Protect Water From Navy Pollution

September 6, 2024 Sierra Club of Hawai‘i, Popular Resistance. Resist! Hawaii, pollution, Red Hill, US Navy, Water, Water Protectors

The Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi is deeply grateful to the Honolulu City Council for Wednesday's passage of Resolution 24-216, FD1, urging the Navy to heed the calls of the Honolulu Board of Water Supply and the Red Hill Community Representation Initiative for data needed to help keep our drinking water system safe from potentially catastrophic contamination. To be clear: the City Councilʻs no-nonsense call for more frequent and reliable data gathering and sharing by the U.S. Navy will be absolutely critical to tracking a contamination plume of approximately 200,000 to 2 million gallons of fuel, forever chemicals, and other hazardous substances that the Red Hill Facility has released since World War II.

Red Hill Whistleblower Details How Her Warnings Were Ignored

June 25, 2024 Christina Jedra, Honolulu Civil Beat. Educate! Fossil Fuels, health, pollution, Red Hill, US Navy, Water, Whistleblowers

As the new director for the U.S. military’s largest fuel depot in May 2020, she realized almost immediately that something was wrong. The fire suppression system for the massive Honolulu storage system, which was holding 100 million gallons of fuel, was essentially turned off. Firefighting foam necessary to put out a potential fuel fire had been removed by officials who feared a leak could contaminate the drinking water aquifer below, she said. As a result, those working in the facility’s underground tunnels, and those residing in surrounding neighborhoods, were at risk of facing an out-of-control blaze, she said. So Bencs did what the Navy itself had trained her to do: She said something.

Justice Department Admits Navy Jet Fuel Leak Caused Thousands To Suffer

April 26, 2024 Li Cohen, CBS News. Resist! Hawaii, health, Navy, pollution, Red Hill, Water

The U.S. government, in what an attorney says is a "monumental admission," said last year that it caused injury to thousands of people on the Hawaiian island of Oahu when jet fuel from its storage facility leaked into the drinking water system. On Monday, thousands of military family members and locals are headed to trial seeking financial compensation. Kristina Baehr, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs in the case, said her firm has 7,500 clients suing over the leak. Monday's proceedings kick off a bellwether trial, meaning it's a smaller consolidation of lawsuits taken from a larger group.

Dozens Of Organizations Urge Legislators To Pass Red Hill Remediation, Water Bill

April 24, 2024 Wayne Tanaka, Popular Resistance. Resist! Hawaii, Red Hill, State legislature, US military, Water

Honolulu, HI - A bill seeking to facilitate the cleanup of contamination from the Red Hill Fuel Facility, and further insulate the Hawaiʻi Commission on Water Resource Management from political favoritism and undue influence, has received another wave of widespread community support, as 46 community organizations urged Hawaiʻi legislators to ensure its passage before the end of the 2024 legislative session. Representing medical, public health, labor, religious, agricultural, cultural, and environmental stakeholders, among others, the organizations submitted a joint letter to conference committee members on HB2690 HD2 SD1, emphasizing the importance of the bill.

Navy Whistleblower Pursued Fraud Case Against Red Hill Contractors

April 2, 2024 Marcel Honore, Honolulu Civil Beat. Educate! Hawaii, Navy, Red Hill, Whistleblowers

Newly unsealed court documents show that federal authorities spent the past two years investigating but ultimately declined to pursue a Navy whistleblower’s claim that private contractors helped cause the dire fuel leaks at the military’s Red Hill fuel storage facility by fraudulently cutting corners on their work there.

None Of The Officers Named In Red Hill Toxic Fuel Spill Were Disciplined

October 17, 2023 Colonel (Ret) Ann Wright, Popular Resistance. Educate! Accountability, Fossil Fuels, health, Red Hill, US military, Water Pollution

Almost two years after the Navy’s massive jet fuel spill from the 80-year-old Red Hill underground fuel tank facility and one month before the October 16, 2023 defueling begins of the 104 million gallons remaining in 14 of the 20 massive fuel tanks, Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro has finally held 14 Navy officials “accountable” for the Red Hill disaster, but he did not fire, suspend, dock the pay or reduce the rank of any of the 14 for the toxic contamination of the drinking water of 93,000 and the pollution in the aquifer for the city of Honolulu!!!! Instead, the 14 have received reprimand through Letters of Censure and Letters of Instruction (whatever that is)—and revocation of end of Red Hill tour medals.

US Military Has New Capacity In Hawaii And Australia To Store Red Hill Fuel

September 3, 2023 Colonel (ret) Ann Wright, Popular Resistance. Educate! Australia, Fossil Fuels, Red Hill, US military, Water

The May and November 2021 fuel leaks of 19,000 gallons of fuel at the 80-year-old Red Hill fuel storage facility into the drinking water aquifer of Honolulu gave toxic exposure to over 93,000 persons. Many are suffering from toxic poisoning that will have lifelong effects. 27,000 gallons of fuel had “leaked” in January 2014. Some families who have lived in the 19 residential areas served by the Red Hill well report they have had health conditions for many years prior to the November 2021 spill that went directly into the Red Hill well. They feel that these health issues may be attributable to the leak in 2014, nine years before.

DOD Continues To Stonewall Information On Defueling Of Red Hill

March 10, 2023 Colonel (Ret) Ann Wright, Popular Resistance. Educate! Hawaii, Red Hill, US military, Water Protectors

According to the March 5, 2023 Honolulu Star Advertiser article, titled “Military spending act stirs defueling concerns,” the DNAA REQUIRES, before defueling of the Red Hill jet fuel tanks, a certification from DOD that closing Red Hill will not affect Indo-Pacific military operations. At this point, 4 months after the passage of the NDAA and until the March 5 Star Advertiser article, despite intense public interest in the defueling and closing of the Red Hill facilities, neither Senator Hirono, Senator Brian Schatz nor Representative Case mentioned the certification requirement in their press releases about the $1 billion for the defueling and closure of Red Hill and $800 million for other military infrastructure upgrades in Hawaii passed in the NDAA for 2023.

Amid Community Outrage, Navy Must Release Toxic-Foam Video

December 23, 2022 Ann Wright, Star Advertiser. Resist! Hawaii, Red Hill, US military, Water Pollution

As a retired U.S. Army colonel with 29 years of military service, I am very disappointed at the military’s continued lack of transparency on the 2021 jet fuel spills at Red Hill — and now, the lack of sensitivity on the recent spill of 1,300 gallons of a toxic firefighting foam. The AFFF (aqueous film forming foam) apparently billowed up inside an entrance tunnel of the underground jet fuel storage complex, and the foam tide flowed over 100 meters along and into the ground outside of the tunnel and down the hill. Just as with the Navy initially stating there was no video of the 19,000 gallons of jet fuel spewing jet-fuel spill. There are many photos of the release of AFFF/PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as “forever for 34 hours in November 2021 and then having to admit there was a video when it was released by a whistleblower, causing public outrage, the holding back from the public of the video of the 1,300 gallons of AFFF is going to cause even more outrage.

One Year After Navy Poisons Water, It Does It Again

December 10, 2022 Colonel (Ret) Ann Wright, Popular Resistance. Educate! PFAS, Red Hill, US military, Water Protectors

One can hardly finish an article about Hawaii’s Red Hill jet fuel disaster before another dangerous incident happens. While I was completing an article concerning the first anniversary of the November 2021 massive jet fuel leak of over 19,000 gallons of jet fuel into the drinking water well that served 93,000 military and civilian families, on November 29, 2022, at least 1,300 gallons of the extremely toxic fire suppressant concentrate known as Aqueous Film Forming Foam (AFFF) leaked out of an “air release valve” installed by the contractor Kinetix onto the tunnel floor of the Red Hill Underground Jet Fuel Storage Tanks complex entrance and flowed 40 feet out of the tunnel into the soil. Kinetix workers reportedly were performing maintenance on the system when the leak occurred.

Water Protectors Serve ‘Eviction Notice’ To US Navy Command

November 21, 2022 Oahu Water Protectors, Popular Resistance. Resist! Hawaii, Red Hill, US military, Water Protectors

Puʻuloa, Hawaiʻi – On the anniversary of the 19,000 gallon fuel spill that led to the poisoning of Oʻahu's sole source aquifer and thousands of families, water protectors from across the island presented an "eviction notice" to Navy leaders for numerous Navy and Department of Defense actions that have continually threatened and harmed the lands, waters, and people of of Hawaiʻi - including the Navy’s ongoing refusal to properly address the existential threat posed by the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility. "We aren't dumb. We aren't sheep. We know when we are just being fed lines by military officials in the hopes of keeping us quiet. We let them do that to us for too long, and look at what we've got. Those days are over, maybe forever," stated Kainoa Azama, of the Oʻahu Water Protectors.

Families Felt Ill Prior To The 2021 Red Hill Leak… And Here’s Why

October 15, 2022 Col (Ret) Ann Wright, Popular Resistance. Educate! Hawaii, health, Red Hill, US military, Water Pollution

Many military and civilian families living on military bases around Pearl Harbor, Hawai’i have been outspoken that they felt ill before the November 2021 massive Red Hill jet fuel leak…and they were right! Recently released data shows that their water was contaminated by jet fuel in the summer of 2021 and they were feeling effects of poisoning long before November 2021. Interviews with ten families published in an extensive December 21, 2021 Washington Post article “Military families say they were ill months before jet-fuel leak brought scrutiny to Pearl Harbor’s tap water,” record that family members shared physicians’ notes, emails and visual records documenting symptoms that, in some cases, dated back to late spring, 2021.

Oʻahu Water Protectors, Shut Down Red Hill Coalition Commemorate Red Hill ‘Lie-aversary’

October 9, 2022 Shut Down Red Hill Coalition, Popular Resistance. Resist! Hawaii, Red Hill, US military, Water Protectors

Puʻuloa, Oʻahu – Environmental groups along with the Honolulu Board of Water Supply today commemorated the anniversary of a reported whistleblower revelation that Navy officials failed to disclose a months-long active fuel leak in Puʻuloa (Pearl Harbor). Standing outside of the Pearl Harbor National Memorial Visitor Center, dressed in formal funeral attire and wearing black armbands, participants reflected on what they described as “one year of ʻimplausible deniability’” surrounding the Red Hill water crisis, and the impacts that a lack of transparency and truth has had on the people and island of Oʻahu, as well as on the legacies of Puʻuloa and Kapūkakī. The group also unveiled petitions with hundreds of “wet” signatures from local residents demanding that the Navy provide medical support and alternative water sources for those still reporting health and water contamination issues; invest additional resources to ensure the defueling of the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility within a matter of months, not years; and engage with the public to respond to community questions and concerns on a monthly basis.

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