This photo shows a tunnel inside the Red Hill Underground Fuel Storage Facility in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii in 2018. The state of Hawaii says a laboratory has detected petroleum products in a water sample from a state school. study near Pearl Harbor. The news comes amid concerns that fuel from the Navy’s massive storage facility could contaminate Oahu’s water supplies.
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This photo shows a tunnel inside the Red Hill Underground Fuel Storage Facility in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii in 2018. The state of Hawaii says a laboratory has detected petroleum products in a water sample from a state school. study near Pearl Harbor. The news comes amid concerns that fuel from the Navy’s massive storage facility could contaminate Oahu’s water supplies.
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HONOLULU – Cheri Burness’s dog is the first to signal something is wrong with their tap water. He stopped taking it two weeks ago. Then Burness began to feel stomach cramps. 12 year old daughter nausea.
Burness, whose husband is in the Navy, said: “Things were getting worse and worse.
Their family is among hundreds of military families living near Pearl Harbor with similar complaints after the Navy’s water system was somehow contaminated with oil. The problems have affected one of the most important naval bases in the world, hosting submarines, warships and commanding US forces in the Indo-Pacific region. These problems could even threaten one of Honolulu’s most important water sources and aquifers.
The Navy said Thursday that tests have identified petroleum in its Red Hill well, which flows into an aquifer near the base. Rear Admiral Blake Converse, Deputy Commander of the Pacific Fleet, told a town hall meeting that the Navy took this offline on Sunday because it was the closest well to the affected housing areas. affect.
This 2021 photo provided by Cheri Burness shows Burness and her family, including her dog Lilikoi, in a car in Honolulu. Hundreds of military families living near Pearl Harbor have complained of stomach pain, nausea and other health ailments amid concerns the Navy’s water system could be contaminated by a fuel leak.
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This 2021 photo provided by Cheri Burness shows Burness and her family, including her dog Lilikoi, in a car in Honolulu. Hundreds of military families living near Pearl Harbor have complained of stomach pain, nausea and other health ailments amid concerns the Navy’s water system could be contaminated by a fuel leak.
Cheri Burness / AP
Converse said the Navy will flush clean water through its distribution system to remove petroleum products that are left in the water. This process, followed by testing to make sure the water meets the Environmental Protection Agency’s drinking standards, can take four to ten days, he said.
The Navy will investigate how the contaminants got into the well and repair the well, he said.
The crisis comes after the Navy on November 22 said a mixture of water and fuel had leaked into a fire extinguishing system drain in a tunnel at a massive fuel storage facility. 3 miles (4.8 km) from Pearl Harbor. The Navy said it removed about 14,000 gallons (53 kiloliters) of the mixture and said the liquid did not leak into the environment.
The Navy says it has so far received calls about fuel odors or illness from 680 homes in the Navy compound and 270 military homes on the Navy water system. The Navy’s water system serves 93,000 people.
In the days after Thanksgiving, Burness’s daughter felt so sick that she didn’t want to eat any leftovers, including potatoes, beets and carrots that had been boiled in water.
“I don’t want you to throw the food out because I know it’s expensive but I can’t eat it,” Burness told her daughter.
On Sunday, Burness began seeing social media comments from military families saying their tap water smelled like fuel. She didn’t smell it, but everyone told her to turn on the hot water and check. She did and smelled it too.
She told the family not to drink water and not to wash their hair and face with this water. She ordered private water delivery for $120 a month. Their family mostly eats out of plastic and paper plates and eats out.
On Monday, when she gave her dog some bottled water, he immediately drank a full liter and then drank another two liters over the next 12 hours.
The Navy has since started distributing bottled water. The Navy says the Marines will set up showers and laundry facilities connected to clean water.
The military said it would help affected families move to hotels or new homes. The Navy is running a similar program. The Navy is also setting up dedicated medical clinics.
Burness said her abdominal pain has improved by about 85%, but not completely. Her daughter’s nausea has improved. But both complained of breathing problems.
Burness was disappointed with the Navy’s response, which she believed removed the family’s concerns. She pointed to an email Monday from the commander of Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam telling residents the Navy was testing water samples but it gave no immediate indication that the water was unsafe. His email said he and his staff were drinking water.
“All they have to do is say, ‘We see that there’s a problem, we don’t know what it is, and we’ll do whatever it takes to find it and fix it.” That’s all they have to do. And instead we get: “No. Looks good. Smells good. Goodbye,” says Burness.
The Hawaiian Naval District, which oversees all Navy facilities in the state, said the commander’s email was sent when “the number of concerns was still very low.”
“Since then, the Navy has actively increased sampling, testing, communication with affected families and others, as well as initiating response expert teams to address the issues that all were affected. we’re both facing,” the commander said in a statement.
The November 22 tunnel leak is just the latest leak involving the Red Hill Fuel Storage Facility, a complex of 20 underground fuel storage tanks built during the Second World War. Environmentalists and Honolulu water companies have expressed concern about these aging tanks since the Navy revealed one of them leaked 27,000 gallons (102 kiloliters) in 2014.
Storage tanks located more than 100 feet (30 meters) above an aquifer provide about a quarter of the water consumed in Honolulu, raising concerns that leaks could contaminate one of the country’s most important water sources. city. This is also the aquifer produced by the Red Hill well, where the Navy has just discovered oil.
Last month, the Sierra Club of Hawaii and other environmental groups called for the government to close the storage tanks.
Burness said her experience has shaken her faith in the military. During her decades as a spouse in the military, she believed in doing whatever was necessary to support the “mission”.
“This destroyed all of that,” she said. “I don’t have confidence at this point, and I think this shows that they can’t trust anything.”
