US Navy empties Oahu tank system held responsible for polluted water

HONOLULU – After initial resistance, the U.S. Navy will comply with Hawaii‘s order to remove fuel from a huge underground storage tank facility near Pearl Harbor that is held responsible for contaminating drinking water, officials said Tuesday.

The Navy is preparing to refuel the facility, Rear Adm. Blake Converse said during a hearing for the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Armed Services.

“The Navy created this problem, it’s ours, and we’re going to fix it,” said Converse, deputy commandant of the US Pacific Fleet.

The governor of Hawaii said he expected the Navy to promptly comply with the state’s order and address the threats the tank facility poses to the environment and the well-being of the state’s military families and residents.

“I’m pleased to hear that the Navy is doing the right thing,” Governor David Ige said in a statement.

The Navy’s water system supplies approximately 93,000 people in homes, offices, elementary schools, and businesses in and around Pearl Harbor. As of late November, around 1,000 people complained that their tap water smelled like gasoline or reported physical complaints such as nausea and rashes after ingestion.

After petroleum was discovered in a drinking fountain, Hawaii ordered the Navy to drain fuel from the tanks to protect Oahu‘s drinking water. Navy officials said Hawaii’s order was unnecessary because a Nov. 20 leak contaminated water that occurred in an access tunnel, and they didn’t believe the tanks themselves were to blame.

The Navy denied Hawaii’s order, which resulted in an assistant attorney general hearing in December. The Hearing Officer concluded that the tanks were a “ticking time bomb” and that the order must be upheld.

The Red Hill facility is home to 20 giant underground tanks built into a mountainside during World War II. Each tank is roughly the height of a 25-story building. Together they can hold up to 250 million gallons (946 million liters) of fuel, although two of the tanks are now empty.

Converse said Tuesday that U.S. Pacific Fleet commander Admiral Samuel Paparo ordered compliance with the order when the Hawaii Department of Health finalized it last week.

The Navy believes their water system has been contaminated by jet fuel that leaked from pipes connected to Red Hill tanks. It discovered kerosene in a well that flows from an aquifer just 30 meters below the tank complex.

So far only the drinking water of the navy has been contaminated. No petroleum has appeared in the urban water system operated by the Honolulu Board of Water Supply. But the utility gets water from the same aquifer as the navy.

Hawaii officials fear that petroleum could migrate through the aquifer from the marine well area to the water company’s Halawa well, poisoning the city’s drinking water. The Board of Water Supply has stopped using its Halawa Well, which supplies about a quarter of the water used in urban Honolulu, to prevent petroleum from infecting its water system.

Wayne Tanaka, the director of the Sierra Club of Hawaii, who has long campaigned to shut down the tanks, welcomed the Navy’s decision to obey the order.

“I hope that they will finally see the light and realize that the facility is an inherent threat to our water supply,” said Tanaka.

He said the state Department of Health, the Hawaii Congressional Delegation, and others must ensure the Navy meets deadlines set in the department’s order.

The Navy must submit an implementation and work plan by the beginning of February. After the Department of Health approves the plan, the Navy has 30 days to defuel the tanks.

“We fully expect the Navy to obey the law by following the final order,” said Katie Arita-Chang, a spokeswoman for the Hawaii Department of Health.

Failure to operate the facility will have minimal impact, but continued operations beyond February will come at a cost, Converse said.

He said he had no details on the costs and national security risks of further non-operation of the facility.

“Let me make it clear that safe drinking water is national security,” said US MP Kaiali’i Kahele from Hawaii at the hearing.