Navy officials were reticent to answer directly for the admittedly human-caused fuel spill that likely led to a major water contamination crisis that occurred at the Red Hill well near Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. The five officials were witnesses in a virtual House Armed Forces Readiness Subcommittee meeting held Tuesday that included Hawaiian lawmakers Rep. Kaiali’i Kahele and Rep. Ed Case, both of whom were perhaps the most critical of the Navy’s responses thus far. Rear Adm. Blake Converse was the primary speaker on the Navy’s side, who said that an investigation is ongoing into how fuel began seeping into the well following a Nov. 20 spill that sent 14,000 gallons of jet fuel into an acess tunnel. “Our best information is that this recent spill was due to operator error,” Converse admitted, adding that operator error was to blame for a May 6 incident in which fuel spilled from a connecting pipeline.
The Navy revealed its findings that an operator was at fault for the May 6 spill in October. The admission of a potential operator error for the Nov. 20 spill appears to be new information, though it apparently hasn’t swayed the military to do the right thing and formally shutter the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility itself. Even members of the committee like, Rep. Michael Waltz of Florida, expressed alarm over eliminating the site. “I am concerned that any long-term effort to entirely defuel Red Hill will have some significant national security consequences,” Waltz said, though he admitted he could see the tanks being removed “when a better positioned fuel strategy is developed and implemented.” Rep. Kahele instead focused on the national security issue of maintaining clean and safe water for Oahu residents regarding the Red Hill site once known as Kapukaki. The Democrat grilled Rear Adm. Converse over the Navy’s resistance to complying with orders put forth by the Hawaiian government and Health Department.
“The last time the Readiness Subcommittee met on Dec. 2 2021, I alerted this committee that the Navy was experiencing a crisis of astronomical proportions in Hawaii,” Kahele said. “This is not an exaggeration and proved to be 100% true. Thousands of families have been displaced, those who unknowingly consumed the contaminated water are worried about potential long-term health consequences that they may face. The fuel leak threatens Oahu’s federally designated full-source aquifer which the ranking member [Rep. John Garamendi] correctly stated provides 77% of Oahu’s drinking water. Let me be clear: Clean drinking water is national security. It cannot be compromised for anything. The facts speak for themselves and we in Congress must understand the gravity of this situation.”
Kahele’s first question for the Navy was whether the military would “fully comply with the state of Hawaii’s legal order to plan and execute the defueling.” Converse detailed a lengthy plan in which third-party oversight and assessment would inform the Navy’s next steps, affirming that defueling would go forward as planned. A timetable has yet to be established, though the schedule is due on Feb. 3. The clock is ticking for the Navy in more ways than one: As Converse noted during the meeting, the ongoing water crisis has cost the Navy $250 million and counting to say nothing of the toll it’s taken on armed services families and the community at large.
Last week, Task and Purpose profiled the Feindt family, whose children were so ill from the contaminated water that they ended up hospitalized. Army Maj. Amanda Feindt’s 4-year-old daughter and 1-year-old son both received diagnoses of suspected exposure to contaminated water. The children were vomiting and Feindt’s 4-year-old also experienced severe abdominal pain and diarrhea. At the time of Feindt’s daughter’s hospitalization in mid-December, the Navy was still maintaining that the water was safe for use despite the fuel leak. Calls for answers led to little responses from the Navy, as Feindt described a “stand-offish” discussion with Navy Capt. Anthony Pecoraro, who refused to show her water test results.
“I was so angry, so mad that the Navy felt that they reserved the right to hold on to these answers about my children,” Feindt told Task and Purpose. “My children were in the hospital. Like, how dare they?” Feindt added that she’s not speaking on behalf of the Army but as a mother. Her frustration has been echoed by many parents over the past few weeks in community meetings and on social media. And yet the Navy’s initial response to the crisis was to downplay its severity and fight orders to respond in a meaningful way. Now that the Navy has finally decided to comply with the Department of Health Order, it has a long way to go to earn the public’s trust. The Navy has 19 days before it hits a deadline to put forth a schedule in which it will defuel the Red Hill tanks, some of which state officials believe haven’t even been inspected in up to 40 years. The only path forward to prevent more threats to the water system is to finally shutter the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility that sits on indigenous land that should’ve never been militarized in the first place.