The 24 Red Hill fuel tanks sitting just 100 feet above an aquifer are expected to be fully defueled by July 2024. The Honolulu Star-Advertiser first reported the news that the Pentagon planned to move its timeline up by five months while also revealing that Department of Health officials are awaiting yet another supplemental plan in this process. A supplemental plan released earlier this week may well get rejected by the Department of Health, which rejected the Navy’s initial plan for lack of information.
With the latest supplemental plan, details are vague for seemingly everything from key safety measures to be taken during the defueling process to environmental concerns, though the Environmental Protection Agency is in agreement with the Defense Department (DoD) that the plan is “iterative,” and could therefore change along the way. Attention to detail seems to be lacking on the Navy’s side of things according to yet another amazing work of reporting from the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. As the Red Hill water crisis was unfolding, hundreds of water samples were never tested.
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The Navy said it never bothered because the system would need to be flushed anyway. Regulators apparently didn’t even bother telling residents about ignoring the many water samples it failed to test and news of their failure only broke on Tuesday. Residents are still suffering the effects of this ongoing crisis. Last month, four families filed a lawsuit against the U.S. federal government. Frustrations are high among lawmakers whose constituents have been impacted by the crisis as well.
Sen. Brian Schatz, who has been critical of the Navy’s response to the November 2021 fuel leak, issued a statement calling on officials to do more and do better. “While the updated plan to close the facility sooner is a step in the right direction, DoD must make it a priority to move fast and permanently shut down Red Hill as quickly as possible,” Schatz said. "We also need the Joint Task Force to become fully operational. That means the Secretary of Defense must act quickly and name its commander, a role that will serve as DoD’s on-the-ground leader responsible for working with state and local officials to safely defuel the tanks.”
The planned creation of a joint task force to address the defueling process was announced by the Defense Department in June, coinciding with the release of the their first plan that was ultimately rejected by the Department of Health. Little news has been offered as to when the Join Task Force will actually be established.
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