Posted on Jan 11, 2022 2:47 PM by
The maritime executive
Faced with a difficult legal battle with the state of Hawaii, pressure from Congress and two independent investigations, the US Navy has decided to comply with a state order to empty the strategic storage facility of fuel from Red Hill outside of Honolulu. State regulators believe that one or more of the spills reported at Red Hill in 2021 contaminated a Navy supply well for the water supply system at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, forcing thousands of military personnel and their family members to move to temporary accommodation.
The American army has mobilized to provide drinking water to the 93,000 soldiers and civilians served by the supply system of the joint base Pearl Harbor-Hickam (US Army)
On December 6, Hawaii Governor David Ige and the State Department of Health ordered the Navy to dump Red Hill and leave it empty until it was inspected, upgraded and proven safe. . According to state officials, some of the tanks at the Red Hill site built in 1943 have not been fully inspected in the past 20 to 40 years. The underground facility is located about 100 feet above the main aquifer for Honolulu’s drinking water supply, and the state says its continued operation poses an imminent risk to health and the environment.
The Navy partially complied by shutting down operations at Red Hill, but decided to challenge the order to drain the tanks through an administrative appeal. On December 28, the appeals officer ruled the order should stand, describing Red Hill as a “time bomb.”
Rear Adm. John Korka (right), the Navy’s senior civil engineer, visits the contaminated well at Red Hill, December 23 (USN)
In mid-December, members of Mobile Diving Salvage Unit One deployed to skim the fuel off the top of the well’s water column (USN)
The Navy could have appealed the decision to the courts, but faced with a civil lawsuit, pressure from elected officials and at least two independent investigations, the service decided to comply with the state decree. He has 30 days to formulate a plan to remove all fuel from Red Hill.
During a Congressional hearing Tuesday before the House subcommittee on preparedness, Deputy Commander of the Pacific Fleet Rear Admiral Blake Converse said the contamination event had already cost around $ 250 million and that the Navy expects to pay additional civil claims for damages.
The Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility is a unique strategic asset to Navy operations in the Pacific. Between 1940 and 1943, miners dug 20 giant tanks out of a solid basalt ridge outside of Honolulu, then piped them to the piers at Pearl Harbor. It is one of the largest facilities of its kind, containing 250 million gallons of fuel needed to power the Navy’s western reach. The elevation of the site provides gravity-assisted flow, and its underground location is more difficult to hit in the event of an enemy attack.
Red Hill operates under a license from the State Department of Health, renewable every five years. The renewal process was underway when the contamination was first reported and had already been delayed by fears the Navy may not have provided key details.