Urge Your Congressional Representative to ensure the Navy keeps its jet fuel out of our taps!

In July 2024, one of our greatest fears were affirmed, when the Honolulu Board of Water Supply detected carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) for the very first time in its ʻAiea wells.

With certain PAH types far exceeding minimum reporting thresholds, this detection demonstrates how contamination plumes from the Red Hill Facility may move in unpredictable ways and appear in unpredictable places, threatening ever more wells and springs and the people, businesses, farmers, and plants and wildlife that rely on them. This unpredictability also makes it extremely challenging, if not prohibitively expensive, to design effective contamination prevention and removal systems.

The PAH plume detected at ʻAiea - which eventually disappeared, as it moved to other parts of the aquifer - indicates the nearby Kaʻamilo well may be at risk. This well, which serves the ʻAiea region, may soon need to be shut down to avoid contaminating the drinking water. The Board of Water Supply must now determine how the water needs of ‘Aiea will be met, if and when the Ka‘amilo well is shut down.

The stakes are high. Even a small fraction of the nearly two million gallons of fuel potentially released from the Red Hill Facility over the past 80 years could have catastrophic impacts on public health, cultural practices, agriculture, environmental justice, and the economy if it contaminates municipal wells or regional springs.

To better track this contamination and prevent the worst of its potential impacts, the Board of Water Supply is urging the Navy to enhance its groundwater monitoring protocols, accelerate the installation of additional and much-needed groundwater monitoring wells, and complete the groundwater and contaminant fate and transport models it agreed to complete nearly 10 years ago.

Unfortunately, there is growing concern that the Navy may not be responding to this crisis with the urgency it demands. Initial discussions around the most recent PAH detections suggest the Navy might be more focused on disputing the Red Hill Facility as the contamination source, rather than proactively enhancing its detection and research efforts.

Contact your congressional delegation today, urging them to use their powers to ensure that the US Navy and Department of Defense take immediate action to ensure the fuel released from the Red Hill facility does not harm even more lives than it already has, today or in the decades to come.

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Please help urge Navy to heed the BWS’ call to help locate and characterize the groundwater contamination underlying Kapūkakī

Message

I’m writing to urgently ask for your help in addressing a serious issue with the Navy’s groundwater monitoring and contaminant tracking efforts related to the Red Hill Facility. In July 2024, the Honolulu Board of Water Supply (BWS) discovered dangerous chemicals called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) in its ʻAiea wells. These chemicals are linked to crude oil and are known to cause cancer, and the levels of certain PAH types that were detected exceeded minimum reporting levels by orders of magnitude in some cases. In light of this detection, the nearby Kaʻamilo well, which serves the ʻAiea region, may soon need to be shut down. Conservation mandates may be necessary for area neighborhoods as the BWS looks for ways to maintain water service for its customers. Agricultural and cultural practices reliant on area springs may also be seriously impacted if and when their natural water sources are impacted by the PAH plume. With little other plausible sources other than the Red Hill Facility, the detection of these chemicals in ʻAiea also show how the two million gallons of oil and other contaminants released at Red Hill could be moving in our groundwater in unpredictable ways. Additional wells and springs may be threatened over time as contamination plumes migrate into once-pure areas of our aquifer. Meanwhile, effective treatment systems cannot be designed or implemented if we do not know where historical and recent contamination plume(s) may be moving. The BWS has already called for the Navy to conduct weekly testing of all its wells using enhanced EPA methods and to have these tests done by a third-party expert. The Navy must also share the test results with the BWS immediately in a clear and accessible way. The Navy must also accelerate its monitoring well installation efforts and complete its long-pending groundwater and contaminant fate and transport models as quickly as possible, in order to anticipate which wells may be next at risk. Unfortunately, it seems that the Navy may not be taking this issue as seriously as it should, and appears to be more focused on denying that the Red Hill Facility is the source of the PAH plume rather than taking proactive steps to help track the poison it has released into our aquifer. I respectfully urge you to take action to ensure that the Navy follows the BWS’s recommendations. Specifically, we need your office’s intervention to: - Ensure the Navy modifies its monitoring well testing to match the practices used by the BWS, including using a third-party lab and testing no less than once a week; - Ensure the Navy prioritizes the installation of additional monitoring wells to understand the location, size, and movement of contamination from the Red Hill Facility; and - Ensure the Navy provides regular updates on the status of its groundwater and contaminant fate and transport models, which still have not been completed after being required under the 2015 Administrative Order on Consent. Your immediate attention to this matter is crucial for the health and safety of our community. Thank you for your support.

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