In December 2021, public outrage over the Navy’s contamination of a major aquifer spewed as vehemently as the jet fuel that gushed out of the Red Hill bulk storage facility. The Navy abruptly shut its fuel- contaminated Red Hill Shaft, as well as its nearby Aiea-Halawa Shaft out of precaution. That’s left the Waiawa Shaft as the sole source of potable water to the Pearl Harbor-Hickam water system that serves 93,000, a dicey situation.
Today, the outrage has mostly dissipated — but the public should be no less vigilant to demand safe water from the two long-closed shafts, as the Navy prepares to reopen them.
In February, the Navy received “conditional approval” to reactivate its Aiea-Halawa Shaft from the state Department of Health (DOH), which laid out a dozen conditions to be met. Longer term, the Navy has begun a lengthy process to reactivate its tainted Red Hill Shaft, which involves a draft environmental assessment (DEA) on proposed construction of water treatment facilities to remove toxins from this shaft’s water before it goes to users.
The public should engage this week on the Red Hill Shaft DEA, which has a Sunday deadline for comments; view the report at 808ne.ws/redhillshaftDEA, and email input to RedHillEA@hhf.com. In a nutshell: The Navy proposes to build an interim, and then a permanent, granular activated carbon (GAC) water treatment facility at the now-defunct Red Hill fuel facility, to reconnect water from its Red Hill Shaft to the Pearl Harbor- Hickam water system. Currently, water pumped from this shaft goes through an emergency GAC water treatment facility, then is discharged into Halawa Stream; the new treatment plants would eliminate the emergency one and the water-wasting discharges, which would be positive goals.
As for reopening the Aiea-Halawa Shaft, there’s already controversy. The DOH issued its conditional approval on Feb. 7, but it took over a month before even avid stakeholders learned of the shaft’s imminent reopening. That included the Community Representation Initiative (CRI), a key group created under a consent order forged after the Red Hill fuel disaster between the DOH, military and Environmental Protection Agency.
“Communities served by the Navy’s water system have not been informed or meaningfully engaged in the process of reopening the Navy’s Aiea-Halawa Shaft,” noted the Sierra Club of Hawaii. “These residents have the right to know about the conditions and concerns of their drinking water.”
Also unfortunate is that the Honolulu Board of Water Supply (BWS) was not included in this decision-making process, despite its nearby well and concerns over contamination migration.
“All groundwater wells in the Red Hill area are vulnerable to contamination whether it be Navy or BWS wells,” the water board said. “Failure to understand the nature and extent of the Red Hill contamination creates uncertainty for well owners operating in this region.”
Some reassurances are in the DOH’s conditional approval, which states that no undue fuel has been detected in Aiea-Halawa Shaft water samplings. Further, GAC treatment and disinfection of this shaft’s water are being required, as is Navy reporting on the effectiveness of sampling results and of efforts to remove per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, aka “forever chemicals,” which have been linked with fuel-firefighting foam. Another condition requires the Navy to immediately notify DOH of any condition that has the potential to contaminate the water source and pose a threat to human health within 24 hours of discovery.
That latter condition must be an imperative — in tandem with notice to the public in an equally urgent manner.
Approval to reopen the Aiea-Halawa Shaft is a major milestone in the Red Hill saga, one that warranted brisk, upfront public disclosure, not a month’s delay in discovery. In a statement to the Star-Advertiser, the DOH said: “ … while state law does not require such an announcement, the Department of Health strongly encourages the Navy to share this information with the public.”
Not good enough. It shouldn’t take a state law to do the right thing. And it’s disingenuous to rely on the Navy “to share” — it should, of course — given its known predilection to understate Red Hill’s fuel dangers. The Navy now says it will inform the public before the Aiea-Halawa Shaft is reconnected to its drinking water system. But as steps advance to bring Oahu’s compromised water shafts back online, state health officials and other leaders must be vocal and vigorous in protecting this island’s water, and its users.
