Dangerous chemicals have been detected at four groundwater monitoring stations near the Red Hill Fuel Storage Facility, the U.S. Navy reported Tuesday.
In a news release, the Navy said it received "recent testing results" from 21 monitoring stations. Four stations showed the "exceedance" of perfluorooctane sulfonic acid, or PFOS, which is a PFAS chemical.
The Navy news release did not specify the concentration of PFOS detected.
The Navy said it notified the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Hawaiʻi Department of Health about the results.
The Navy said its water system has not shown any presence of PFAS chemicals, and it remains safe to drink.
PFAS are often described as forever chemicals because they do not break down in the environment. One substance known to contain PFAS is firefighting foam.
The groundwater tests occurred after about 1,300 gallons of toxic fire-suppression foam leaked at the Red Hill facility in November 2022, but the Navy claimed the "profiles of the PFOS" do not match the chemicals from the 2022 leak.
In a previous investigation, Joint Task Force-Red Hill found that the Navy’s "quality assurance process did not identify and remedy the improperly installed air vacuum valve in April 2022 that led to the inadvertent AFFF release.”
The so-called forever chemical discharged from a containment vessel known as Adit 6, and pooled on the floor before seeping outside onto a paved access road and into the nearby soil.
