November 3, 2019
Carroll talks about the Red Hill fuel tanks, providing more information about leak monitoring he recently discovered in paperwork recovered through the Uniform Information Practices Act.
A June 10, 2004, letter from the Department of Health claims the "first confirmed release" of fuel was detected October 28, 1998, and the Navy should have provided quarterly reports to the Department of Health after that. In the 2004 letter the DOH said they did not receive any quarterly reports since the 1998 request, and since 1998 two more leaks were confirmed. (Link here to 2004 letter.)
Carroll then found documentation regarding "The Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility Ground Water Protection Plan", dated 1/2/2008, about earlier leaks, as far back as 1947. Carroll reads a list of the leaks detected and the maintenance done from a 2008 report. More concerning, the report also notes the underground storage tanks are "deferred from many of the State and Federal Regulations, including the requirement for release detection." (See attached report.)
The point, can you trust anything being said by the Department of Health and the Navy? The Navy says it is "sovereign". If we were told the truth way back, we could have dealt with issues then, and be good now. But, as Carroll reports now, the water at Red Hill IS CONTAMINATED.
Carroll first noticed oil leaking in a parking lot at Halawa in 2014, and it is still there. Because the state was not doing anything about it, and said it was okay, Carroll paid to take a sample and found toxic chemicals in the oil. The spill is still getting bigger as the oil migrates downhill.
Carroll also talks about the oily waste pits near the oil leak in the parking lot. The pictures below and notes are from 1990. The pits were closed in 1987, but while operating the oily waste facilty, leaks were reported, and sludge was dumped into areas around the pit. After 1987 waste was stored in the pictured tank and trucks hauled it to a disposal site. However, what did leak is still causing problems and the Navy is not cleaning it up.
