Mistrust remains after Navy report on Hawaii’s contaminated water

HONOLULU –

Lauren Wright remains wary of the water that comes out of the taps at her family’s US Navy home in Hawaii, saying she doesn’t trust it to be safe.

Wright, her sailor husband and their three children, ages 8 to 17, were among thousands of people who fell ill late last year after fuel from military storage tanks leaked into Pearl Harbor’s tap water. .

The family has returned to their military accommodation after spending months in Honolulu hotels, but they continue to take safety measures including short five-minute showers. They do not drink tap water or cook with it.

A Navy investigation released Thursday attributed the fuel leak and ensuing water crisis to mismanagement and human error. Some Hawaiians, including Native Hawaiians, officials and military families, said the report doesn’t help restore confidence in the Navy.

“I was at least expecting some sort of remorse for the families and everyone involved in this,” Wright said.

She said the ordeal has changed her view of the military from a decade ago when her husband first joined.

“I was the proud Navy wife, you know, stickers and t-shirts,” she said. “I feel like the Navy has failed what they promised every service member. They failed a lot of things. And I’m not that proud.”

The Navy is hard to trust in part because Hawaiian residents and officials have for years questioned the safety of the giant fuel storage tanks that have sat atop a major aquifer since World War II, said Kamanamaikalani Beamer, a former trustee of the Navy. Water Resources Management Commission. .

“Releasing a report saying they were lying to us is not a step to build trust,” he said. “Offloading fuel and taking out tanks permanently, setting aside funds to remediate water systems across Oahu and replanting our forests, when I see steps like that being taken, it’s a tangible step toward rebuilding trust.”

Some native Hawaiians said the report only deepened mistrust in the military that dates back to at least 1893, when a group of American businessmen, backed by US Marines, overthrew the Hawaiian kingdom. More recently, Native Hawaiians fought to stop target practice bombing on Kahoolawe Island and in the Makua Valley of western Oahu.

“There is no evidence that you should have faith in them,” said Kalehua Krug of Ka’ohewai, a cultural organization that advocates for a clean aquifer for Oahu. “They have done nothing but lie for generations.”

Navy officials have previously said they have a lot of work ahead of them to earn the trust of communities across the island, and Native Hawaiians in particular.

The investigative report released Thursday listed a cascading series of errors since May 6, 2021, when operator error caused a pipeline to rupture and 21,000 gallons (80,000 liters) of fuel to spill as it was transferred between tanks. . Most of the fuel spilled onto a firefighting line and remained there for six months, causing the line to sink. A car crashed into this sunken line on November 20, releasing 20,000 gallons (75,700 liters) of fuel.

The report says officials defaulted to assuming the best about what was happening when the spills occurred, rather than assuming the worst, and this contributed to their overlooking the seriousness of the situation.

The spill contaminated the Navy’s water system. The fuel did not reach the Honolulu municipal water supply. But concerns that oil could migrate through the aquifer and into the city’s wells prompted the Honolulu Water Supply Board in December to shut down a key well serving some 400,000 people. The agency has been asking residents to conserve water due to this and the unusually dry weather.

The tanks continue to pose a threat to Oahu’s drinking water as long as they contain fuel, said Ernest Lau, manager and chief engineer for the water utility.

The report that it will take more than two years to drain the facility is worrying, Lau said Friday.

“The fact that they built this huge facility in three years, can’t they figure out a way to do all the necessary work in less than two and a half years? I think it can be done,” he said, urging the Navy to see how to shorten The timeline.

Kristina Baehr, an attorney representing more than 100 military and civilian families who have filed lawsuits against the Navy, said it was especially troubling to read in the report how widespread the errors were.

“This is a national security issue,” he said, noting that many of his customers were still experiencing the effects of contaminated water. “And our military families and communities cannot be mission ready if the government has made them sick.”

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