New information released shows Oahu’s aquifer impact from fuel spills in 2021 at Red Hill

Newly analyzed monitoring well data released by the state Department of Health on Friday shows that the level of petroleum contamination in groundwater around the Navy’s Red Hill tank farm in the months following a fuel spill on April 6 did not contain the spill as claimed. Contamination levels then rose further after another spill in November sent jet fuel into one of the Navy’s drinking water wells and out of the faucets of local residents, mostly military families, who are served by the Navy’s drinking water system.

According to the DOH, the data also indicates that the contaminant plume has migrated west toward the Honolulu Board of Water Supply’s Halawa Well, which until recently provided 20% of the water for urban Honolulu.

Ernie Lau, manager and chief engineer at BWS, called the results “concerning and disturbing.”

The data raises new concerns about the potential for groundwater contamination of Oahu‘s drinking water system. It also suggests that the environmental impact of the recent spills from the Red Hill facility are more extensive than the Navy has suggested.

The data was presented by Fenix ​​Grange, who heads the DOH’s Hazard Evaluation and Emergency Response Office, during a Fuel Tank Advisory Committee meeting attended by senior Navy officials. The committee was formed by the Legislature in 2014 after 27,000 gallons of fuel spilled from one of Red Hill’s 20 underground tanks.

DOH created heat maps showing when concentrations of total petroleum hydrocarbons, a large family of chemical compounds in oil, began to rise in numerous monitoring wells constructed below and around the Navy’s tanks, including the Red Hill well.

The maps show the results of Navy samples tested for TPH diesel, which likely indicates a new jet fuel spill, and TPH oil, which may indicate the presence of older fuel spills.

Data shows that in the year prior to the May 6, 2021 release, TPH-Diesel assays were up to 2,000 parts per billion from a monitor well located in the center of the tank farm. In subsequent months, TPH diesel values ​​discovered in this well increased as high as 3,600 ppb in August through October and peaked at 4,100 ppb in February and March before declining. The environmental action level for TPH diesel is 400 ppb. Anything above the EAL could be grounds for environmental cleanup.

DOH’s maps also show concentrations of TPH oil rising above environmental action levels following the May 6, 2021 fuel spill, suggesting that fuel from previous oil spills that had seeped into the ground may have been removed. Concentrations of TPH oil in monitor wells beneath Red Hill tanks had particularly high spikes from August through October. Following the November fuel clearance, TPH oil levels in monitoring wells in the tanks below and around Red Hill rose to levels of up to 1,400 ppb, more than triple the environmental action level.

These results appear to contradict the Navy’s assessments, after it was published in November, that the fuel was being funneled into a long-forgotten pipe that exited directly at the Red Hill shaft. Based on DOH’s maps, fuel contamination appears to be much more widespread.

“Given that the release occurred at the bottom of the shaft, this number is surprising,” Grange said during her presentation.

At the time of the May 6, 2021 spill, the Navy said about 1,000 gallons of fuel had been released and that its leak detection and response system was working exactly as it should, containing all but 38 gallons.

When another spill occurred on Nov. 20, the Navy said 14,000 gallons of a fuel-water mixture was released from a pipe that’s part of the facility’s fire suppression system, but assured the public there was no sign of it was released into the environment and the water remained safe to drink.

In late November, residents near the Navy’s drinking water system began reporting fuel odors from their faucets and complaining of symptoms of petroleum poisoning, including nausea and vomiting, mouth sores, rashes and burning skin.

In recent months, senior Navy officials have said they believe up to 19,000 gallons were released from a pipe in May 2021 and that some of it was funneled into a fire main where it sat for months. Then, the Navy said, in November a worker drove a cart into the pipe, ripping it open and sending fuel down a tunnel, some of which ended up in a drain line that exited right at the Red Hill shaft.

The Navy ordered an investigation into the May and November releases on November 29, but those findings have not yet been released.

Capt. Gordie Meyer, commander of Naval Facilities Engineering Command Hawaii, said during Friday’s committee meeting that the report is expected to be released in a few weeks.

Meyer offered no theories to explain DOH’s maps, but he did question DOH’s finding that the contamination plume had moved west, increasing the threat to city wells.

“According to our initial analysis, we don’t have enough data to determine that the cloud is moving particularly to the west,” Meyer said. “We don’t have enough to say it isn’t, but we don’t have enough data to say it is.”

The Honolulu Board of Water Supply shut down its Halawa well and two other wells in early December to ensure fuel contamination doesn’t enter its own drinking water system, which supplies most of Oahu. BWS has urged residents to reduce their water use by 10% to stave off mandatory water restrictions this summer and the possibility of a moratorium on new developments.

It has now begun developing replacement wells in the event that the Halawa Well, Oahu’s largest well, cannot be restarted. Lau has asked US Senator Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, for a $195 million federal appropriation to help cover costs.

On Friday, he also asked officials from the DOH and the US Environmental Protection Agency whether the Navy could be required to pay the costs. Kathleen Ho, DOH associate director of environmental health, said it was a legal issue that she, like the EPA, needed to contact him about.

The Navy agreed to close its fuel facility at Red Hill earlier this year amid a firestorm of criticism that followed November’s water pollution. While the World War II-era tank farm sits idle, it’s not clear how long it will take to safely empty the tanks, which the Navy says typically contain about 180 million gallons of fuel. BWS hopes the fuel will be removed as soon as possible to eliminate the risk to the aquifer, which is just 100 feet below the tanks.

Meyer said he couldn’t give a timeline, but didn’t anticipate it would take “several years.”