Five years after Red Hill fuel spill, Navy touts progress as residents express skepticism

EWA BEACH (HawaiiNewsNow) – It’s been nearly five years since the fuel spill at Red Hill contaminated drinking water. While the Navy says it is making progress at re-establishing drinking water systems, people still have concerns and questions.

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That was evident at an open house and town hall Thursday evening at the American Veterans West Oahu Veterans Center in Ewa Beach.

Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam said it is preparing to put the Aiea-Halawa shaft back into routine operation to supply drinking water.

“We’ve installed a treatment system there to enable us to reactive that well,” said Cmdr. Benjamin Dunn of the Navy Closure Task Force-Red Hill. “We’re doing the same thing for the Red Hill shaft, so when we complete that we will be positioned to work through the reactivation approval process.”

The Aiea-Halawa Shaft we disconnected after the November 2021 release of fuel that tainted Pearl Harbor’s tap water and sickened thousands of people.

“We don’t know really what goes on underneath the ground,” said Susan Gorman Chang of the Red Hill Community Representation Initiative. “It’s so complicated. It’s volcanic. There’s lava tubes. So I think it’s just a little premature to be reopening that shaft right now.”

Chang said the Navy’s own study raises questions.

“They found TPH, total petroleum hydrocarbons, in the water. And so we haven’t gotten an adequate explanation of that,” she said.

Chang asked a question about it to a panel during the town hall. Dunn responded, “If there was fuel present, we would see it in other compounds, not just a board petroleum hydrocarbon detection, and we have not seen that.”

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“They will not be testing for TPH after it goes back online, which I think is a mistake because there’s just a lot of anxiety and a lot of possibility of TPH still maybe being there in the water,” Chang said.

Those concerns are also present among residents of Kapilina Beach Homes. Many of them claimed they got sick after drinking the fuel-tainted water.

“I have begged for five years if our hot water tanks could be flushed and tested,” said resident Peggy Wagner. “I believe there’s residual fuel in our hot water tank. Navy refuses, Kapilina refuses. Nobody will address the hot water tanks.”

For now, the Navy said it is continuing to work closely with the state Health Department and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

“The Joint Base drinking water system is free of petroleum products and that the water complies with all federal and state requirements,” Rear Adm. Lester Ortiz, deputy commander of the Navy Closure Task Force-Red Hill, told the gathering.

“We feel like we need more information and more studies before it’s reopened,” said Chang. “I think that would be the best thing.”

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