Removal of the remaining fuel from pipelines used in the gravity-based defueling process at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility could begin as soon as Dec. 12.
If approved by regulators with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Hawai‘i Department of Health, this would further accelerate the defueling timeline by roughly a month.
When draining of the fourteen storage tanks finished on Nov. 17, Joint Task Force-Red Hill was able to remove approximately 1 million gallons more than originally planned.
In total, more than 104 million gallons of fuel have been removed from the site.
An estimated 174,000 gallons of fuel remain in the pipelines.
Once the pipelines are emptied through a process called unpacking, officials say 99.9% of the fuel at the facility will be removed, marking the completion of the project.
Defueling is a key step toward shutting down the facility as demanded by the state. The military has said it plans to close the Red Hill facility by January 2027.
The state order followed a fuel spill in November 2021 that poisoned the Navy's water system serving 93,000 people in and around Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.
