The US Navy will comply with an order from the Hawaii Department of Health to halt operations at its Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage facility at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam after a leak late last year contaminated drinking water and sickened military families.
Capt. Bill Clinton, director of public affairs and outreach for US Pacific Fleet, confirmed the shutdown Monday.
The Navy previously agreed to pause operations at the facility until an investigation into the source of petroleum in the drinking water was completed and said it would contest the order. It also said it would bring in a third party to assess operations and integrity of the facility and to suggest any necessary changes.
The Red Hill fuel facility, which consists of 20 underground storage tanks, is connected to pipelines that run 2.5 miles inside a tunnel to the fueling piers at Pearl Harbor, according to the Navy.
The facility sits 100 feet above the Red Hill aquifer — which supplies drinking water to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam and other parts of Hawaii. According to the Hawaii Board of Water Supply, nearly 1 million people on Oahu rely on the aquifer for their water.
The Navy shut down its Red Hill well on November 28 after people living on base reported symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, headaches and skin-related concerns.
Testing revealed petroleum hydrocarbons and vapors in the water, the Navy said, and US Pacific Fleet Deputy Commander Rear Adm. Blake Converse later confirmed a petroleum leak was the cause.
The December order from the health department also called for the Navy to install a drinking water treatment system at the Red Hill well, submit a plan to assess system integrity and defuel the Red Hill underground storage tanks within 30 days of corrective action, according to Gov. David Ige.
The Navy’s new position comes ahead of Tuesday’s House Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness oversight hearing on the water crisis.
A tunnel inside the Red Hill Underground Fuel Storage Facility at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in January 2018.
Families reported burning skin, headaches and nausea
When the contamination was detected, the state department of health recommended all Navy water system users stop using their water for drinking, cooking or oral hygiene, including for pets.
The military offered alternative housing for all service members and civilian employees living near the base and officials said they covered the cost of hotel rooms for more than 700 people.
“My house began to smell like a gas station and I couldn’t breathe. I was choking,” resident Bonnie Russell told CNN affiliate KGMB/KHNL last month. “I opened all the windows for the ventilation, but it still took quite a while for the fumes to clear.”
“My children took a bath and for 45 minutes afterward they complained of burning skin,” a woman told military personnel during a town hall meeting last month, according to KGMB/KHNL. “On Monday I woke up sick and have been dizzy ever since,” she said.
“I’m here to ask why you weren’t a wingman to protect my 13-month-old son when I was bathing him, when I was giving him a sippy cup full of water from my faucet, when he has been throwing up for days on end,” said another woman at a town hall meeting, who didn’t give her name.
“I’m here to ask why you weren’t my wingman as my husband and I have had mysterious serious symptoms such as sore throats, burning in my stomach, profuse, unusual sweating, headaches unable to be mitigated, requiring multiple ER visits for additional medications, vomiting, diarrhea, skin irritation,” the woman asked the Navy officials.
“The safety, health and well-being of our service members, civilians, contractors, their families and our communities here in Oahu is of the utmost importance to me,” Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro said in a news release last month. “This is not acceptable, and the Department of the Navy will take every action to identify and remedy this issue. We will continue to coordinate with federal, state and local entities to restore safe drinking water to the community.”
