At a recent meeting between a Red Hill community group and military officials, a number of military wives shared their frustration about continuing to report intermittent sheens and chemical odors in housing on the Navy's water system.
The Red Hill Community Representation Initiative was established in September 2023 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency following the fuel contamination of Navy drinking water in 2021.
“The December meeting did not go well.” Those were the words of a military official explaining why the Navy would not attend a CRI meeting in January. February's meeting was attended by all involved — and it was televised by ʻŌlelo Community Media.
Because of new and increasing complaints about water quality, the military has assembled what it calls a “swarm team” of experts to try and figure out what's in the water.
The EPA pressed the Navy in December to determine the source of low levels of total petroleum hydrocarbons found in a handful of military homes. The Navy has said it is not jet fuel from the Red Hill facility.
Air Force spouse Ashley Smith said her toddler was hospitalized following the 2021 contamination at their Ford Island home. Her family has since moved to Manana Housing in the Pearl City area, but she asked military officials to take their new concerns seriously.
Smith said Manana was on the Honolulu Board of Water Supply system but then switched back to the Navy's system. She has reported intermittently seeing a sheen on their tap water, as well as occasional chemical odors.
"I hope moving forward that there's going to be more transparency, and you guys are actually going to take people's word seriously because every person matters. In the military, you don't leave one man behind. You shouldn't be leaving one family behind either," she said at the meeting.
Following the meeting, Smith said she found out the Navy had delivered 10 cases of water bottles to her home in response to her concerns and the insistence of a committee member.
"One of the major issues we had in the first round was that it took people getting sick before anything was done. And right now, it's feeling very similar," Smith told The Conversation.
"My neighborhood wasn't being tested at all until I pushed it," she said. "It shouldn't be that we have to push this hard. It shouldn't be that we have to go to meetings with videos of sheen on top of our water to prove that there's something wrong with the system."
This interview aired on The Conversation on Feb. 20, 2024. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1. Sophia McCullough adapted this story for the web.
