Cameras positioned to record Red Hill fuel leaks inoperable, Hawaii Congressman Kai Kahele says

Hawaii Congressman Kai Kahele says that the Navy’s Red Hill fuel facility is lined with surveillance cameras, two of which were perfectly positioned to record the May and November fuel spills that are believed to have led to jet fuel contaminating residents’ tap water.

But when he recently asked the Navy for the footage, Kahele says he was told that it didn’t exist and that the cameras had been inoperable since January 2021 after a contractor inadvertently severed a cable that provides power to 44 out of the 57 closed circuit cameras.

“I couldn’t believe that answer, first of all,” Kahele told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s “Spotlight Hawaii” on Wednesday. “I find it totally unacceptable. This is February of 2022 and the camera system went down 13 months ago. Why isn’t it fixed? Why wasn’t it fixed by May, six months later?”

Kahele said he was left “to take the Navy’s word for it,” but that it reaffirmed his belief that the Red Hill fuel facility must be permanently shut down.

“We need to take every measure we can to defuel those tanks and shut down those tanks as soon as possible, and I am committed to doing that,” said Kahele.

The Navy has long said that its Red Hill fuel facility is important for national security, raising questions about how it could have allowed dozens of cameras to remain down for more than a year.

A spokeswoman for the Navy declined to answer questions about the cameras, saying the Navy can’t comment on ongoing investigations.

An investigation into the cause of the fuel contamination was submitted to the commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet on Jan. 14. Initially, the Navy said it would only release a summary of the report’s findings, but later, amid political pressure, said the full report would be released. However, the Navy hasn’t responded to questions about when that will be.

In recent months, top Navy officials have provided insights into some of the events that apparently contributed to the current water contamination emergency that has left thousands of families displaced from their homes and many more unable to drink their water since late November. But many questions remain.

For example, it’s not clear why Navy officials told the public and environmental regulators last year that the May and November fuel spills at Red Hill had been almost entirely contained with no indication that fuel, except perhaps 38 gallons, had escaped into the environment. Those statements now appear to be woefully inaccurate.

Navy officials have more recently indicated that as much as 19,000 gallons may have been released from a Red Hill tank in May, a portion of which was then somehow pumped into a fire suppression pipeline. The Navy has told state officials that a cart inadvertently crashed into the pipe on Nov. 20 causing it to break and spewing fuel into the lower access tunnel, not far from its Red Hill shaft that was providing drinking water to about 93,000 residents at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam and surrounding neighborhoods.

Kahele said that he asked for footage from the cameras when he spotted them during a recent tour of the Red Hill facility and observed that they were “perfectly positioned” to have captured the May and November events.

“So I said, ‘Hey great.’ I asked whoever was on the tour with me, ‘I’d like to see the footage,’” said Kahele. “We went down to the operations room. I asked them to pull up the live camera feed at the time. They said they couldn’t do it. … They said the cameras haven’t been working for a while.”

Kahele said he subsequently submitted information requests to the Navy asking about the cameras, and was provided the response about the severed cable.

There has been a surge in political pressure to shut down the Navy’s Red Hill fuel facility since the Navy’s drinking water system was contaminated with jet fuel in November. In addition to Kahele, U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz said this week that he thinks the Navy needs to permanently close the tanks.

The other two members of Hawaii’s congressional delegation, Rep. Ed Case and Sen. Mazie Hirono, also have supported the Hawaii Department of Health’s emergency order requiring the Navy to defuel its tanks. That order leaves some room for the Navy to resume fueling operations in the future if it convinces state regulators that the tanks can be operated safely, but that’s likely to be a high bar.

The Navy has sued the state over the emergency order. It’s also in the midst of seeking a state permit to allow it to continue operating the facility.

A hearing on the permit is scheduled to begin May 23, according to DOH. A hearing officer is expected to then issue a recommended decision in the matter and the director of the DOH will render a final decision.

Hirono said in a statement that she would support shutting down Red Hill if DOH makes that determination.

“I fully support the State of Hawaii’s power and authority to determine the future of Red Hill, including shutting it down, through its permitting process, set to resume in May,” said Hirono.

Also this week, nearly all of Hawaii’s state senators sent a letter to Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro urging the Navy to end its legal challenges to the state’s emergency order and defuel its tanks.

“These legal games need to stop,” they wrote. “Hiding behind legal maneuvers may forestall doing the right thing — for now. But any potential victories in court further cement your losses in the court of public opinion. Those tactics convey a complete lack of respect for our community and a total disinterest in favorable military-community relations in Hawai‘i.”

The senators ended the letter saying, “we are not expendable and will not sacrifice our future for the continued complacence of the military.”