Shut down Red Hill fuel facility, most Hawaii voters say

An overwhelming majority of Hawaii voters say the Navy should permanently shut down its Red Hill fuel tanks, according to a Honolulu Star-Advertiser poll. In November, jet fuel from the facility contaminated the drinking water system used by 93,000 residents in neighborhoods around Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. Most of those polled also gave the Navy poor marks for its response to the water crisis.

The state Department of Health has ordered the Navy to drain its massive underground tanks, which sit just 100 feet above an aquifer, while the safety of the facility is assessed. But 80% of Hawaii residents say the Red Hill fuel tanks should never return to service. Just 10% of residents polled said Red Hill should not be permanently shut down, while 10% said they were unsure.

There was little variation in views across the islands, but more men than women said that Red Hill should remain operational — 15% compared with 6%.

Republicans were also slightly more supportive of keeping Red Hill open. Seventy-one percent of Republicans said Red Hill should be permanently shut down, compared with 22% who said it should not be, while 7% of Republican respondents were unsure. By comparison, 84% of Democrats said Red Hill should be closed, while only 3% said it should not be and 13% said they were unsure.

The Hawaii Poll was conducted Jan. 24-28 by telephone by Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy of Washington, D.C. It includes 800 registered Hawaii voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

The Navy also scored low marks in its response to the ongoing water contamination problems. In late November residents began reporting a fuel odor coming from their taps, as well as a range of health ailments, including vomiting, diarrhea, stomach pains, headaches and skin rashes. The Navy subsequently announced that jet fuel had contaminated its Red Hill drinking water well. Thousands of military families were displaced from their homes as the military works to clean its waterlines and embarks on an expensive effort to clean up groundwater in and around its Red Hill shaft, which has been shut down for more than two months.

Sixty-four percent of Hawaii residents said the Navy’s response to the water contamination emergency was poor, while another 16% rated its response as fair. Only 2% of residents said the Navy’s response to the emergency was excellent, and 12% said it was good. Another 6% of respondents said they weren’t sure.

In response to the poll, a Navy spokesperson detailed the range of actions the Navy has taken in response to the emergency, including setting up an emergency operations center to assist the community, deploying alternative water sources, conducting daily live video broadcasts to update affected residents and paying for a temporary lodging allowance for families on its water system.

The Navy also has been working to flush and test its water distribution system to make sure it complies with safe drinking water standards, and is trying to clean up the jet fuel in its Red Hill shaft. It’s currently flushing up to 5 million gallons of filtered water a day from the well into Halawa Stream.

“We recognize the pain this has caused our families, our communities and our service members,” according to a statement from the Navy. “We are working hard every day to rebuild their trust through transparency, third-party oversight, and demonstrated commitment by every single person involved in the recovery process.”

Political pressure

Former Hawaii Gov. John Waihee said Red Hill is sure to be a major issue this election season with local politicians staking out positions against the facility’s continued operation.

“If you want to be elected, you’d better be in favor of the removal of the tanks,” said Waihee.

Both Waihee and former Gov. Neil Abercrombie said in early December that the Red Hill tanks should be shut down. Gov. David Ige and Hawaii’s congressional delegation have backed the emergency order requiring the Navy to drain its tanks but have not gone so far as to say they support a permanent shutdown of the facility. But support for decommissioning the tanks has swelled among local and state elected officials, and the Legislature is debating a bill to do just that. The Honolulu City Council unanimously passed a resolution in December in support of the permanent removal of the Red Hill facility.

Honolulu City Council Chairman Tommy Waters and Vice Chairwoman Esther Kia‘aina followed up with a letter to President Joe Biden on Jan. 27 warning that if the Department of Defense does not shut down Red Hill and demonstrate better stewardship of Hawaii’s environment, community support for extending a long list of DOD leases in Hawaii could be in jeopardy. Waters and Kia‘aina listed 14 such leases, among them the Army’s Pohakuloa and Kahuku training areas, Makua Military Reservation and the Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility.

The Red Hill fueling facility, built in the 1940s, includes 18 active underground tanks, each holding as much as 12.5 million gallons of fuel. Their combined capacity is equivalent to approximately 340 Olympic- size swimming pools. There have been dozens of leaks at the facility over the decades, and the recent contamination emergency exposed the weaknesses in the Navy’s leak detection system and spurred a new round of criticism about the threat the aging tanks pose not just to Navy water users, but a major drinking water source for southern Oahu.

Ted Cook, 71, is retired from the tourism industry and lives in Mililani. He said the military should be able to find the money in its budget to shut down Red Hill and replace it. “Everything ages,” said Cook, who participated in the Star-Advertiser poll.

Cook said that he didn’t think the Navy has been totally honest with the public when it comes to Red Hill and the current fuel contamination, which is why he gave the Navy low marks in its response to the water emergency.

“You have to be up and up,” he said. “In Hawaii you’re only as good as your word. You have to be upfront no matter what the situation is.”

Katchina Moore, a 47- year-old stay-at-home mom of four boys, also said Red Hill should be permanently closed and that she doesn’t think the Navy is “being pono” in its response to the situation.

Moore said that she was particularly unhappy to hear last week that the military was suing the state over its emergency defueling order.

“I felt like the Navy’s response just demonstrates that they don’t have the best intentions for the state of Hawaii and for the people of Hawaii,” said Moore, who also participated in the poll and lives in the Kaimuki- Palolo area of Oahu.

Moore said protecting Oahu’s supply of water should be paramount when it comes to the military’s priorities. “It doesn’t matter the cost,” she said. “They can afford it and they can remove them.”

Bob Sinclair, a 57-year-old Honolulu resident who works in government, was among the minority of poll respondents who said Red Hill should not be closed down permanently.

“I think it is appalling what happened, but I don’t think it should be shut down forever,” said Sinclair. “Hawaii is a very strategic site.”

Sinclair, who said that politically he leans conserv­ative, emphasized the importance of the military in Hawaii to national security and the local economy.

“I don’t understand why they built it over some beautiful water in the first place, but now that it is there, I think we need to find ways of keeping the water clean and wonderful,” he said.

Attorneys with the U.S. Department of Justice argued last week in court filings that the state overstepped its authority in ordering the Navy to drain its tanks, though the Navy has indicated to parties in the case that it would like to pause court proceedings for the next three months.

In the meantime Navy officials say they are “taking actions consistent with near-term elements” of the state Department of Health’s emergency order.

“Any additional time authorized by a stay of legal proceedings will not delay these near-term actions; instead, it will ensure that any actions we take are more completely evaluated and better informed,” said Rear Adm. Charlie Brown, chief spokesman for the Navy, in a statement issued in response to the Star-Advertiser poll. “To clarify, the Secretary of Defense has not yet made the decision on whether to defuel the tanks. The Department is conducting multiple assessments that will inform that decision.”