Following the fuel spill that contaminated the Navy’s drinking water system and poisoned thousands of people in 2021, this week marked one year since the Navy Closure Task Force - Red Hill took over this next phase of the cleanup and shutdown.
New U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin posted a video on X on Wednesday laying out what he said was the “largest deregulatory announcement in U.S. history.”
As part of the regulatory changes, the EPA said it will be reconsidering rules regulating hazardous air pollution and narrowing the definition of waterways that receive protection under the Clean Water Act.
The EPA's mission when it was formed was to protect the environment. It remains to be seen how these changes under the Trump administration will affect efforts and oversight at the Red Hill Fuel Storage Facility.
The Conversation spoke to Honolulu Board of Water Supply Chief Engineer Ernie Lau about the EPA's change in priorities and what federal cuts could mean for the commitment to close Red Hill.
Navy Closure Task Force-Red Hill Director of Public Affairs Scott Malcolm also gave The Conversation a snapshot of the progress to date, from removing the toxic firefighting foam that spilled at the fuel facility, to cleaning the tanks and dismantling the faulty piping system.
Interview Highlights
On EPA changes affecting the Red Hill cleanup
ERNIE LAU, BWS: While the federal government is changing direction and maybe priorities, at the state and at the county levels, we can continue to do what we can to proceed to address the Red Hill contamination issue for the long term. At the county and state level, can we make sure that there are things in place that will help sustain the effort and the attention to the problems created here? For example, the Water Alliance initiative (WAI), that was a state-city effort, elected leaders all together in a unified statement. Can we now kind of create some permanent structure at the state level, in state law that will require attention to the Red Hill issues and to hold our military accountable for the long term?
On how Hawai’i should continue to push forward
LAU: We should not panic, we need to continue to do the hard work we're doing already, and the partnership with the community in getting this effort, this problem created by Red Hill addressed. But we have to be ready to adapt, to be resilient because this direction that the federal government seems to be headed, you know, it can change in the future. But for us that live on this island, that rely upon this clean, fresh water for life, we need to continue to push forward with that effort. If not at the federal level, at the state and city level… We live on an island in the middle of the ocean. We have to deal with things like climate change, so we need to be more self-reliant, resilient, to be able to stand, even if we have to on our own two feet.
On the future of cleaning up Red Hill
LAU: I'll be, in April, flying to Washington, D.C., to see what's happening there, to maybe hear from the EPA’s leadership, perhaps some of the congressional delegation, or the different leaders in Congress about the EPA, the role, the environment. How do they support investment in our water infrastructure, water and wastewater infrastructure across the nation? That's critical infrastructure that everybody needs, regardless of what state you live in. You need to be able to have clean drinking water.
That's going to be a team effort from our congressional delegation all the way down to state and county officials and our community to speak with one voice, [and] continue to hold the military accountable. Just today, I reviewed the master schedule that the Navy gave me, and I was trying to track, where are we at on the schedule? They're going to clean up more tanks. Also, how are they moving on demolishing the pipeline that connects those tanks to Pearl Harbor? I want to just try to continue to hold them accountable to their schedule.
On updates on the Red Hill storage facility cleanup
SCOTT MALCOM, NAVY: First thing we did when we took the mantle of responsibility from them was we briefed the EPA on the concept of operations to safely and deliberately remove the AFFF (Aqueous Film-Forming Foam) from the facility… We removed just over 1,000 gallons from the facility and transported it safely off island… We've also made a tremendous amount of progress in cleaning the tanks… And then the next major event on the horizon is pipeline removal. We intend to remove all the pipeline from the facility, and we got a plan to do that. Our team has been putting resources and infrastructure in place to be able to make that happen. But, you know, that is going to be a long, deliberate, slow going process, because it's going to be very dangerous... So while we're doing that, and we're putting the rest of the infrastructure in place over the course of the next several months, and we anticipate we'll be removing the first bit of pipe in the fall of this year.
On any mishaps or incidents during the cleanup process
MALCOM: We've had a couple of instances where, you know, drops or half a gallon or so have come out into our containment system that we had in place. Every time we're doing an operation to remove fuel or sludge, we always have primary, secondary and tertiary levels of containment, but nothing that's left our containment. But I will also tell you that we're real proud of the fact that we conduct spill drills internally with the Navy Closure Task Force, but also we bring in the regulators and the other first responders. So should we have an incident, I feel like the team, the whole team, is ready to respond to it... My teammates and I, we've been together for a little bit over a year. And, you know, like any organization, you go through that forming, storming and norming, and we've learned a lot of lessons. Every time we start a new pair of tanks, we get a little bit better. And so the people that I work with are super committed. You know, they're government employees who care about what they're doing and doing this safely and deliberately. Decommissioning and preparing the facility to close is very, very important to all of us.
This interview aired on The Conversation on March 13, 2025. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. HPR's Hannah Kaʻiulani Coburn adapted this story for the web.
