EPA finalizes order for defueling and closing Red Hill site

CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / 2022

The Navy prepared in late January 2022 to filter water from the Red Hill shaft and dump it into Halawa Stream.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has finalized an agreement with the Navy and Defense Logistics Agency that defines the EPA's oversight role in the defueling and closure of the Red Hill fuel facility, as well as the future environmental cleanup of the site.

The EPA said that it also has amended the agreement, called an administrative order of consent, to address public concerns that it contained weak defueling deadlines and not enough opportunities for public participation.

"This consent order provides a critical tool for EPA oversight of the expeditious and safe defueling and closure of the Red Hill fuel storage facility and the drinking water system at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam," said EPA Pacific Southwest Regional Administrator Martha Guzman in a news release. "The order reflects our agency's commitment to ensuring that communities facing difficult and prolonged environmental challenges have an impactful voice at the table as EPA works to resolve them."

The order requires the Navy and Defense Logistics Agency to obtain EPA approval for its defueling and spill response plans, as well as its plan for cleaning and permanently shutting down its 20 underground tanks, pipelines and surge tanks.

The order also outlines requirements for environmental remediation once the facility is closed and includes requirements to ensure the Navy properly maintains its Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam drinking water system, which provides drinking water to about 93,000 Oahu residents living in neighborhoods around the base.

The Navy's drinking water system is separate from the Red Hill facility, but it came under EPA scrutiny after it was contaminated by a November 2021 fuel spill at Red Hill. The fuel-tainted water sickened thousands of residents, primarily military families, and spurred public outrage that ultimately led to the military agreeing to permanently close Red Hill.

The EPA, along with the state Department of Health, have regulatory oversight over the Red Hill facility. DOH has been overseeing the defueling and closure of Red Hill under a state emergency order that it issued in 2022. The EPA's new consent order better outlines the federal agency's role.

The EPA announced the regulatory agreement in January, and it was swiftly criticized by environmentalists and the Honolulu Board of Water Supply.

The BWS said in February that it could not get behind the EPA's proposal, saying it failed to meet its objectives of preventing further releases of fuel and other hazardous substances and protecting drinking water.

The Red Hill facility sits just 100 feet above the aquifer that supplies drinking water to much of southern Oahu.

BWS, at the time, said it was "extremely disheartened" that the order did nothing to ensure that the Navy remediated the damage already done to the aquifer and said it was disappointed that the order lacked "important details, clear timelines, strict penalties, meaningful opportunities for stakeholder participation, and public transparency."

BWS Manager and Chief Engineer Ernie Lau said he was still reviewing the document.

Hawaii Sierra Club Director Wayne Tanaka said that overall the agreement is better than a 2015 order that the agency entered into with the Navy following a prior fuel spill.

"While we did not get all of the changes we asked for, there were some significant and important additions — notably the incorporation of concrete deadlines for defueling, the establishment of a community representation initiative, and required consultations with subject matter experts including the Board of Water Supply," he said by email. "These are testament to the incredibly voluminous community testimonies demanding much greater accountability, transparency, and timely action than what we experienced under the 2015 Administrative Order on Consent.

"Nonetheless it is disappointing that the parties to the order were not able to find a way to establish on-island water testing facilities or more meaningful penalties for non-compliance."

Meanwhile, the Navy has sped up its timeline for removing the approximately 104 million gallons of fuel that have sat idle in the underground tanks since the 2021 fuel spill. It now expects to begin draining the tanks in October, completing the process in three months. Top military officials initially said that the defueling wouldn't be complete until 2024.

After the 2021 fuel spill, the Navy identified extensive repairs that were needed throughout the facility, primarily its pipelines, in order to safely drain the fuel. Of the 253 repairs that were identified, 252 are now complete, according to Joint Task Force-Red Hill, which was set up to oversee the defueling operation.

The last repair involves installing a high point vent and flange, which requires additional materials from the mainland, according to a spokesperson for the task force, who said that work is expected to be completed by the middle of this month.

The fixes require final sign-off by DOH before defueling can start. DOH has so far approved 56 of the 253 repairs, according to a dashboard set by by the military task force.

To help the public stay abreast of its progress toward defueling, Joint Task Force-Red Hill also created a mobile app, which can be accessed by scanning a QR code that can be found on its online defueling dashboard.

DOH is hosting two public events related to Red Hill next week, which will be attended by the military and EPA.

There will be an open house 3-7 p.m. Monday at the Moanalua High School cafeteria and a fuel tank advisory committee meeting on Tuesday from 1-5 p.m. at the Moanalua High School Performing Arts Center. The public also can tune in via Zoom.

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