The military plans to begin defueling millions of gallons of fuel at its Red Hill facility in a little over two months. The Joint Task Force invited members of the House Special Committee on Red Hill to tour the area last week.
Rep. Linda Ichiyama, whose district covers the Moanalua neighborhood impacted by the fuel leak, serves as a co-chair of the Legislative committee. She was one of the lawmakers who visited the facility.
"The priority is defueling and making sure that we can remove the fuel as quickly and as safely as possible," she said.
Ichiyama took a tour of the facility last week. She said being there in-person made the gravity of the situation sink in.
"For someone who has never been inside one of those 250-foot tanks, it's difficult to imagine," she said.
She left the facility with the impression that the military was preparing to refuel the tanks eventually. They have completed over 200 repairs mandated by regulators.
"They pointed out some of the additional repairs that had been made to support the pipelines that will be used for the fueling,” Ichiyama recalled.
"They had put a barrier, a physical barrier, to make sure that what happened in November 2021 wouldn't happen again. The fuel would be diverted instead down toward Pearl Harbor."
The EPA, in collaboration with the Navy, held a public meeting to discuss its Community Representation Initiative last week.
Although Ichiyama did not attend the town hall, she said that there should be new information about the community group within the week.
In the meantime, the Legislative committee plans to continue meeting throughout the interim and receiving updates from the Navy about progress at Red Hill.
The military is currently training a roving mobile team to look out for fires, fuel leaks and other emergencies.
Defueling is currently set to be completed in January, but there will still be between 100,000 and 400,000 gallons of residual fuel left at the facility.
This interview aired on The Conversation on August 1, 2023. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1. This interview was adapted for the web by Emily Tom.
