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Military to begin emergency drills in preparation for Red Hill defueling

Joint Task Force-Red Hill Response Director U.S. Navy Capt. Michael O’Beirne speaks to HPR's Catherine Cruz during an open house hosted by the Hawaiʻi Department of Health at Moanalua High School on June 5, 2023.
U.S. Army Sgt. Kyler L. Chatman
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Department of Defense
Joint Task Force-Red Hill Response Director U.S. Navy Capt. Michael O’Beirne speaks to HPR's Catherine Cruz during an open house hosted by the Hawaiʻi Department of Health at Moanalua High School on June 5, 2023.

Drills kick off this week as part of an emergency response plan in the event of a leak or fire during the defueling of the Navy Red Hill fuel storage facility.

The U.S. military has proposed an October start date to drain 104 million gallons of fuel from the World War II-era fuel tank facility that poisoned people on the Navy water system after it leaked jet fuel in November 2021.

Starting Thursday, the military will begin drills to go over the process of refilling the pipes with fuel in the lower half of the facility, something the Navy calls “repacking." Next month it will conduct an exercise that will repack the upper half of the pipe system.

Joint Task Force-Red Hill Deputy Commander, U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Michelle Link receives a brief on Ford Island, Hawaiʻi, May 22, 2023.
U.S. Army Sgt. Kyler L. Chatman
/
Department of Defense
Joint Task Force-Red Hill Deputy Commander, U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Michelle Link receives a brief on Ford Island, Hawaiʻi, May 22, 2023.

Army Brig. Gen. Michelle Link, the deputy commander of the Joint Task Force - Red Hill, said that phase will be the riskiest part of the operation.

"We are still planning for that worst case to ensure that we have a layered approach," Link said.

"In that drill, it's a visualization and movement of the fuel and all of the possible places where it could go, where it would permeate, and how we protect both the aquifer and the environment, in consideration of, you know, elevation and movement from the top of the tank gallery all the way down to the pier," she said.

The last drill before defueling begins will be a fire suppression exercise in August, Link said.

This interview aired on The Conversation on June 7, 2023. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1. 

Catherine Cruz is the host of The Conversation. Originally from Guam, she spent more than 30 years at KITV, covering beats from government to education. Contact her at ccruz@hawaiipublicradio.org.
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