HONOLULU (AP) — The Honolulu City Council on Wednesday unanimously passed a resolution calling on the Navy to immediately close a fuel storage facility blamed for contaminating tap water at military housing and threatening an aquifer used by both the military and Honolulu civilians.
The resolution urged “the immediate defueling, permanent removal, and relocation of the U.S. Navy Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility underground storage tanks.”
The Navy did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
The Red Hill storage facility houses 20 giant fuel tanks that were built near Pearl Harbor in the early 1940s. It supplies fuel to all branches of the military in Hawaii and has been the site of a series of leaks in recent years. The tanks sit 100 feet (30 meters) above an aquifer that normally supplies one-quarter of urban Honolulu’s water.
The resolution comes after the Navy said last week it had detected petroleum in its Red Hill well that draws on this aquifer and supplies water to military housing, offices and elementary schools. The Navy received about 1,000 complaints from people saying their water smelled like fuel or chemicals or that they suffered from nausea, vomiting or other physical ailments.
On Friday, the Navy said officials believed a one-time spill of jet fuel on Nov. 20 contaminated the well and tap water. The spill occurred inside an access tunnel containing fire suppression and service lines at the fuel storage facility. Officials said they don’t believe a leak from the World War II-era fuel tanks themselves tainted the water.
Hawaii Gov. David Ige earlier this month ordered the Navy to empty the tanks but the Navy said it would challenge the order.
Honolulu’s water utility has shut down a well that draws on the same aquifer as the Navy’s Red Hill well to make sure it doesn’t deliver petroleum-tainted water to its customers.
The council will send the resolution to President Joe Biden, the Navy secretary, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency and other officials.