Red Hill monitoring results show elevated levels of petrochemicals in soil vapor and groundwater

The Hawaii Department of Health today released updated data received from the Navy showing elevated levels of total petroleum hydrocarbons in both soil vapor and groundwater in the vicinity of the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility in recent months. The sampling was conducted between May 12 and January 3 after a fuel spill at the Red Hill facility.

The discoveries do not appear to paint a clear picture of whether May’s fuel release at the Red Hill facility contaminated groundwater and contributed to the current fuel contamination affecting the Red Hill shaft and the Navy’s drinking water system, which serves about 93,000 neighborhood residents in and around Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.

“Recent discoveries are intermittent and do not show a clear pattern in terms of occurrence or concentration,” said a DOH press release. “For example, elevated levels of fuel products in groundwater and soil vapor monitoring may drop to normal levels at individual sampling sites and then reappear within days or weeks.”

DOH emphasized that there was no indication that the Honolulu Board of Water Supply’s drinking water was affected. BWS provides water to the majority of Oahu residents.

“I want to emphasize that the water for Oahu residents who are in the BWS system remains safe to drink,” said Kathleen Ho. “The long-term solution to this problem is to make the Red Hill facility safe, by removing fuel from the underground storage tanks. It is imperative that the Navy obey the DOH’s direction.”

The updated data can be found here.