Federal bill OK’d with funding to drain Red Hill fuel tanks

The U.S. Senate on Thursday passed a short-term funding bill that includes a provision that pushes the Department of Defense to abide by a state emergency order to drain the tanks at the Navy’s underground Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility and provides $100 mil­lion in funding for the process.

The Navy has resisted the order, issued in December by the state Department of Health, after fuel from the facility tainted the serv­ice’s water system that serves 93,000 people in and around Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.

U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, authored the provision in the three-week funding bill, which averted a looming U.S. government shutdown and gives lawmakers more time to finish a full-year spending plan.

The bill, which passed the House last week, was signed by President Joe Biden on Friday.

“We now have the funding to defuel, and Congress has made its position clear: it’s time for the DoD to drain the tanks and follow the state’s order,” said Schatz, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, in a news release Thursday. “We still have more work to do, but we are making progress.”

The release said the $100 million represents the first round of funding to defuel Red Hill. Congress is expected to take up a larger appropriations package next month.

The Pentagon has argued the state lacks the authority to order the defueling, and the Department of Justice has filed appeals in both federal and state court.

The bill specifies the money is for the secretary of defense to conduct activities in compliance with the Health Department’s Dec. 6 order “related to the removal of fuel from and improvement of infrastructure at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility.”

“Today, Congress joined the people of Hawaii in supporting DOH’s emergency order to defuel the Red Hill tanks,” said department spokeswoman Katie Arita-Chang. “Oahu’s drinking water is at risk every day that the Navy opposes the emergency order. We thank the Hawaii Congressional Delegation for its support and leadership.”

The bill includes $250 million in funding for the Navy, Marine Corps, Army and Air Force to cover expenses incurred due to the drinking water contamination. The crisis has displaced up to 4,000 military families from each branch, many of whom have been tempora­rily living in hotels in Waikiki as they commute to work and school.

Meanwhile, troops have been reassigned from regular duties to assist with the flushing of the Navy system’s waterlines and water deliveries to families who stayed in military housing.

The crisis has also affected civilian families living in former military housing at Ka­pilina Beach Homes in Ewa Beach, as well as schools and businesses connected to the Navy’s water system.

“The Department of Defense must fully comply with the State of Hawaii’s Executive Order to defuel the tanks at Red Hill and this funding is a necessary step to ensure that happens,” U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono, D- Hawaii, said in a separate statement. “I’m pleased we were also able to secure funding for costs incurred to cover emergencies and extraordinary expenses for families and businesses who have been impacted.”

The Red Hill fuel tanks, which are designed to hold up to 250 million gallons, sit 100 feet above a critical aquifer that provides most of the drinking water for Honolulu and southern Oahu more broadly.

The Honolulu Board of Water Supply shut down two of its wells as a precaution due to fears the contamination could spread, and officials say they don’t know when they may be returned to service. The BWS has warned the situation could lead to water shortages over the spring and summer months.

“The Navy had no excuse before in continuing to threaten our water and our way of life, and this gives them even less of an excuse to drag their feet,” said Wayne Tanaka, director of the Sierra Club in Hawaii. “This is a clear demand from Congress in addition to the native people of Hawaii that they move as expeditiously as possible to defuel Red Hill, and it’s just inexplicable that they continue to entertain the idea that they can somehow operate this facility safely.”

The Hawaii delegation announced last week that they intend to put forward legislation that would force the Navy to permanently shut down the facility by the end of the year.

The Red Hill crisis, which has strained community and local government relations with the military in Hawaii, comes at a time when the U.S. government considers the Pacific region to be its top foreign policy priority.

Last week the White House released its official Indo-Pacific strategy, which stated that “in a quickly changing strategic landscape, we recognize that American interests can only be advanced if we firmly anchor the United States in the Indo-Pacific.”

“The Navy must do everything possible to support families and businesses while they work to defuel the tanks and resolve this crisis as quickly as possible,” Hirono said. “At the same time, given the likely shutdown of Red Hill, DoD must come up with a long-term solution to address the strategic fuel reserve needs of the Indo-Pacific region.”