Congressional delegation: Navy must comply with order to defuel Red Hill tanks

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Hawaii’s congressional delegation says the Navy must now comply with the state Health Department’s order to drain its Red Hill underground fuel storage tanks.

The state on Monday upheld the order following a contested case hearing.

But the Navy has been fighting the directive, disputing claims that the facility poses an imminent peril to Oahu’s water supply, and can appeal to Circuit Court. It said it was reviewing the decision.

“The Navy must fully comply with the order and begin the process of planning and executing the safe removal of fuel that continues to pose a threat to Oahu’s drinking water,” the delegation said, in a statement Tuesday.

“Defueling safely will require a coordinated effort, and the delegation will do everything possible to support this effort. Clean drinking water is essential to our health and safety, and our future — we all agree this cannot be compromised for anything.”

Environmentalists and state officials, meanwhile, are urging the military to stop challenging the order.

In early December, the state ordered that the World War II-era tanks be emptied after fuel contaminated the Navy’s own drinking water system, which serves 93,000 military and civilian residents.

The Navy says the tanks are needed for the nation’s self-defense, and that the water crisis was caused by human error. But the state considers the fuel depot that sits just 100 feet above the aquifer an imminent threat to Oahu’s water supply.

The Board of Water Supply, meanwhile, has stopped using some wells for fear of fuel contamination in the Navy system migrating to its own.

The Navy’s own estimates are that chronic leaks from the Red Hill fuel tanks probably total over 5,000 gallons of fuel per year. In the contested case hearing, state health experts testified some of the corroding 80-year-old tanks have not been inspected in 20 to 40 years.

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