The military plans to begin draining the Navy Red Hill fuel tanks on Oct. 16, nearly two years since a series of mishaps led to fuel contamination in the water supply for military housing and sent thousands of families to hotels.
Multiple probes are winding up as the Joint Task Force-Red Hill prepares to drain 104 million gallons of fuel. The military expects to finish this phase by Jan. 19, 2024.
After the fuel drains down to Pearl Harbor via pipelines, the majority of the fuel will be loaded on oil tankers. When the Pentagon announced it would shut down Red Hill, the military said it would move to a more dispersed fueling system for ships and aircraft in the Indo-Pacific.
The Environmental Protection Agency has approved the defueling plan and Hawaiʻi Department of Health officials are scheduled to do a final walk-through Tuesday. A blessing will be held on Oct. 14 with defueling to begin two days later.
"This is all part of the oversight to make us safer. So the other thing that we're doing is we're going through our final safety checks, these are meticulous tests to ensure that the equipment is operating properly. We're also doing final reviews and training of our procedures. And so we have a lot going on," said Vice Adm. John Wade, commander of Joint Task Force-Red Hill.
Wade said they are taking precautions to minimize any risk of leak or fire. He also said the fire fighting suppression system at Red Hill that uses a toxic chemical will not be in use because of the environmental risk.
"We have worked with the Department of Health and the EPA to protect the aquifer. So we have over 400 incremental measures that have been implemented throughout the facility. We've gone through every square inch of the tunnel. Any crack has been sealed to ensure that if there were a spill, that there wouldn't be penetration into the environment," he said. "We have primary, secondary and tertiary containment under each of the valves in case there was a weep or a leak."
If something goes awry over the next three months of defueling, Wade said the military is committed to full transparency. For the public, there is a phone app called "JTF - Red Hill" if you want to receive alerts.
"We will also work with the local news agencies and get out press releases. We'll go on social media, we'll do press conferences, conference calls, whatever we need to do to get the word out to ensure that our military families and those that work on base are aware," he said.
This interview aired on The Conversation on Oct. 5, 2023. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1. Sophia McCullough adapted this story for the web.
