HONOLULU — The Red Hill Community Representation Initiative received an email Friday from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency confirming that the organization will not be disbanded, despite being notified in June about its potential dissolution in response to Navy complaints.
Marti Townsend, CRI chair, said the Navy complained to the EPA in January about facing hostility and disrespectful behavior in its dealings with the community group, which was formed in response to the Red Hill water crisis that began in 2021 when jet fuel from the Navy’s underground Red Hill storage facility tainted the area’s water system serving 93,000 people.
“There will be modifications to the administrative order on consent about how the CRI will operate, but that will continue to be a requirement for the Navy going forward,” Townsend said.
During a CRI meeting Thursday, Amy Miller from the EPA mentioned that if the CRI isn’t disbanded, there might be a requirement for a federal mediator or facilitator at future meetings.
“This is a concern for us, because we’ve seen facilitation used to control and limit public comment and criticism,” Townsend told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. “Knowing who sets the agenda and decides what we discuss is important for ensuring transparency and accountability in the shutdown of the Red Hill facility.”
Thursday’s meeting was held at the Kapilina Beach Homes Community Center for residents to voice their concerns about the impact of Red Hill fuel contamination on their water supply.
No Navy representatives were present for the meeting. Townsend said that while she was disappointed, she was not entirely surprised, as the Navy had been absent from the previous several meetings.
Kapilina Beach Homes is a former military housing area now privately owned and rented to both military families and civilians. The community is home to 5,000 residents who live in more than 1,400 residences that are supplied by Navy waterlines that were allegedly contaminated.
The Navy initially informed Kapilina Beach Homes residents that their households were not connected to its waterlines, which later proved to be untrue. The Navy has since clarified that although the households rely on Navy waterlines, their water supply was not contaminated because it is too far from the Red Hill facility.
Despite the reassurances, community members remain skeptical that their water is safe for household use, primarily due to what they say is their lack of trust in the military, as well as insufficient transparency and communication.
“It’s completely unacceptable,” Townsend said. “The support that the military gave to military families living on base was insufficient, but it was a lot more than what residents on civilian housing waterlines received and continue to receive.”
“Welcome to Kapilina Beach Homes, where we have the horrible Navy water,” said resident Peggy Wagner during Thursday’s meeting. “I’m kind of sick and tired of being sick and tired.”
She said her family has been undergoing numerous blood and urine tests and that she still suffers from head sores due to toxic water.
As a military family, Wagner said she and her husband initially sought medical help at Tripler Army Medical Center. But she claimed the doctors there did not address or acknowledge the issues related to the Red Hill contamination.
“They just stared at you,” she said. “So we found civilian doctors who supported and helped us.”
Wagner said she’s preparing to visit her third dermatologist, while her husband recently had a cochlear implant due to deafness in his right ear she said was caused by contaminated water.
Wagner is part of a smaller group of Kapilina residents who purchase 75 5-gallon water jugs each month to distribute free of charge to about 30 families in need. However, they are quickly running out of money and require more financial support to continue assisting families in the complex.
Christine Mabery, a four-year resident of Kapilina Beach Homes and a member of the same group, spoke up at the meeting to say the Navy has never offered financial assistance for their water distribution efforts.
She mentioned that although some people suggest moving, she can’t afford to relocate because she lives alone, is disabled and her work is nearby.
Townsend later told the Star-Advertiser that while some residents expressed their concerns, “a lot of the residents are hesitant to speak up because of the risk of retaliation.”
“We have heard stories in the past about some residents not having their leases renewed or facing other infractions related to the terms of living at Kapilina,” she said. “We had a lot of questions that we received anonymously, which we asked on their behalf, but unfortunately, the Navy wasn’t there to answer them.”
Townsend said the CRI sends the Navy questions on a weekly basis and notifies it of meeting agendas but receives no response. She is mainly concerned about the ongoing unmet needs in the community, particularly for families who she said still lack access to clean drinking water.
Mai Hall, a new CRI member representing Native Hawaiian families, lives in military housing at Radford Terrace Community Center, which was affected by the Red Hill crisis, with her active-duty military husband and two children. She told the Star-Advertiser that she first detected a gasolinelike smell in her water in November 2021.
Hall and her children — who were 18 and 9 at the time — experienced symptoms such as nausea, diarrhea and vomiting, along with other gastrointestinal issues. They later sought an explanation from the Honolulu Board of Water Supply, which referred them to military authorities.
“The Board of Water Supply stepped in and did a lot of advocating for the Navy to take care of residents, so the Navy provided all the water, food and hotel stays while the Navy flushed the waterlines, but did not replace specific things,” Hall said. “They did not replace water heaters or pipes, even though that was suggested.”
She remarked that if the military genuinely cared about their families, issues related to health and safety would be taken seriously and resolved.
Healani Sonoda-Pale, a CRI member representing the Native Hawaiian community, expressed concerns about how the Navy collects water samples, the frequency of testing and the locations where the tests are conducted.
“We needed to discuss the water quality issues,” she told the Star-Advertiser. “Residents are still facing water problems, and the Navy seems to be dismissing their complaints by not conducting thorough tests on the water.”
She described the Red Hill contamination as “devastating to our communities.”
“The military has a responsibility to public health, and we have been very, very vocal when it comes to water and our water quality, and that’s part of the reason why we were formed,” Sonoda-Pale said.
“You can’t disband the CRI. … We refuse to go into mediation with them. We don’t want to go behind the scenes anymore.”
