There will be two opportunities next week for the public to talk directly with officials about the defueling process planned for the Red Hill underground tanks. More than 100 million gallons of fuel remain at the facility.
What are your questions or concerns now that the military’s timeline for defueling is being sped up?
Representatives from the Hawaiʻi Department of Health, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, various Department of Defense agencies, the Honolulu Board of Water Supply and the Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi are expected to attend the open house on Monday at the Moanalua High cafeteria from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Officials are taking this open house approach to community engagement as opposed to past panel meetings where only one person could answer at a time.
"We encourage everyone to come in and look at the presentations that each of these agencies will have regarding Red Hill. We will be available to answer any questions that they may have on the progress of the defueling and remediation of the tanks and aquifer," said Kathleen Ho, the DOH deputy director of environmental health.
There will be a formal meeting of the Fuel Tank Advisory Committee on Tuesday both online and in person at the Moanalua High performing arts center from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
The U.S. military has proposed an October start date for a plan to drain the Red Hill facility that poisoned people on the Navy water system after it leaked jet fuel in November 2021.
The military is set to begin a series of drills next week in preparation, such as repacking the fuel lines.
"So they've unpacked. Now they're going to repack so that the lines will prevent any surging or any air pockets, and also to determine if the seals are intact," Ho told HPR. "All of these exercises, it's really to prevent a disaster for both public health and the environment."
The military said it would begin removing 104 million gallons of fuel from the facility on Oct. 16 and finish by Jan. 19. But that won’t remove all the fuel. The military said it's likely that 100,000 to 400,000 gallons would temporarily remain.
"Let me make it clear, we are going to remove every single drop out of the Red Hill facility. But when you're doing a complex evolution, you have to break the project up into parts. So this phase is going to be the removal of all fuel that we can do via gravity draining," said Navy Vice Adm. John Wade, commander of Joint Task Force-Red Hill, previously.
The facility, which was constructed in the early 1940s, consists of 20 tanks mined inside a volcanic ridge near Pearl Harbor. Each tank measures 100 feet in diameter and 250 feet in height.
This interview aired on The Conversation on June 2, 2023. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1. This story was adapted for the web by Sophia McCullough.
