Last week, UCC advocates gathered for the webinar, The U.S. Military and Environmental Justice. In it, panelists discussed the active threat of the U.S. Navy's Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility and how it detrimentally impacts the health and safety of the people of Oahu. If you missed the webinar, you can watch the recording here, and you can still have impact by taking action with us now.
Built into the volcanic rock of Red Hill in 1943, the 20 underground tanks of the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility, with a collective capacity of 250 million gallons of mariner and jet fuel, are located only 100 ft. above Oahu’s largest sole-source aquifer. This aquifer provides 77% of the clean drinking water to Hawaii’s most populous island. The facility has had several major leaks in its near eighty year lifespan, with the most recent November 2021 leak of over 19,000 gallons of jet fuel resulting in the contamination of the water system serving approximately 93,000. Thousands of military families and civilians from the Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam were forced to relocate due to exposure to the contaminated water in their homes.
The Senate recently passed a short-term funding bill, including a provision directing the Department of Defense to comply with a previous order by the State of Hawaii Department of Health to defuel the tanks. On March 7, the Pentagon announced that the Defense Department will permanently shut down the Navy’s massive fuel tank facility in Hawaii. Although these are important and welcome steps forward, we still look to Congress to provide resources and oversight to ensure that the Pentagon follows through on these commitments.
The Red Hill Watershed and Aquifer Initiative Act (WAI) introduced in both the House and Senate would permanently close the facility, and requires the Navy to cover all cleanup costs associated with spills in the facility’s lifespan. The bill would also reimburse state and local entities for expenditures made in response to the public health threat it imposed, and replace the facility with water treatment and quality-testing facilities. Passage of this legislation would not only benefit the people of Oahu, but would also set precedent for action in other communities impacted by hazardous underground storage tanks at other military installations in our nation and abroad.
Our faith teaches that God formed humankind from the earth and breathed life into us to be its caretakers. Fulfilling this role requires that we hold those who have harmed creation accountable for the damage caused, and work to repair and prevent further harm. Call on your representatives today to support The Red Hill WAI Act and stand with our partners in Hawaii whose lives are at stake!