Over 16 million gallons of fuel were removed from the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility during the first week of defueling, as of Friday afternoon, according to the military.
The military started draining 104 million gallons from World War II-era underground fuel tanks on Oct. 16, nearly two years after the massive facility sickened 6,000 people when it leaked jet fuel into a Pearl Harbor drinking water well.
Each tank is 250 feet tall and 100 feet wide. Gravity feeds fuel into fuel lines connected to the lower part of the tanks. The fuel flows downhill through pipelines for 3 miles to tanker ships waiting at Pearl Harbor.
Merchant tanker Empire State was the first to receive about 12 million gallons, the military said. A second tanker, Torm Thunder, is also at Pearl Harbor.
Empire State hauled the fuel to a storage facility in Kapolei owned by Island Energy Services. The Oʻahu company has a military contract to store 1.5 million barrels of fuel, or 63 million gallons.
Joint Task Force-Red Hill, the military entity responsible for defueling, expects to finish this gravity drainage phase by Jan. 19, 2024.
Then, work will begin to remove a residual amount of an estimated 60,000 to 70,000 gallons that will have accumulated in low-point drains and bends. That work is expected to be finished in the spring.
Removing the fuel is a key step toward shutting down the Red Hill facility as demanded by the state of Hawaiʻi. The November 2021 spill poisoned the Navy's water system serving 93,000 people in and around Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.
The Navy reprimanded three now-retired military officers for their roles in the spill but didn't fire nor suspend anybody.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
