The Navy failed to understand the well-documented risks of Hawaii’s fuel tanks, the watchdog says

HONOLULU (AP) — Navy officials “lacked sufficient understanding” of the risks of maintaining massive fuel storage tanks atop a drinking water well at Pearl Harbor where a spill occurred jet fuel poisoned more than 6,000 people in 2021, a US military watchdog said 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 resulting from a yearslong 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 100 million gallons. The site was in the hills above Pearl Harbor and on top of an aquifer equipped with wells that could collect water. supplied drinking water to the Navy and to Honolulu’s municipal water system.

Fuel leaks at Red Hill had occurred before, including in 2014, prompting the Sierra Club of Hawaii and the Honolulu Board of Water Supply to ask the military to move the tanks to a place where they would not threaten Oahu’s waters. 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 swept up most of this fuel, but were unable to obtain approximately 19,000 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, some of which will help the Navy close the Red Hill facility in accordance with a order from Hawaii regulators.

Other inspector general findings:

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.”

Hawaii Governor 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.