Pentagon to shut down leaking fuel tank facility in Hawaii

Source: Associated Press

Pentagon to shut down leaking fuel tank facility in Hawaii

By LOLITA C. BALDOR
March 7, 2022

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Defense Department will permanently shut down the Navy’s massive fuel tank facility in Hawaii that leaked petroleum into Pearl Harbor’s tap water, and will remove all the fuel, the Pentagon said Monday.

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said the decision by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is based on a new Pentagon assessment, but also is in line with an order from Hawaii’s Department of Health to drain fuel from the tanks at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility.

The tanks, built into the side of a mountain during World War II to protect them from enemy attack, had leaked into a drinking water well and contaminated water at Pearl Harbor homes and offices.

Nearly 6,000 people, mostly those living in military housing at or near Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam were sickened, seeking treatment for nausea, headaches, rashes and other ailments. And 4,000 military families were forced out of their homes and are in hotels.

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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/fuel-tank-leak-navy-pearl-harbor-hawaii-8cdd7798a19520a3f22e37b06bc586ea


FILE - In this Dec. 23, 2021, photo provided by the U.S. Navy, Rear Adm. John Korka, Commander, Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC), and Chief of Civil Engineers, leads Navy and civilian water quality recovery experts through the tunnels of the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility, near Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Native Hawaiians who revere water in all its forms as the embodiment of a Hawaiian god say the Navy's acknowledgement that jet fuel leaked into Pearl Harbor's tap water has deepened the distrust they feel toward the U.S. military. (Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Luke McCall/U.S. Navy via AP, File)