The Hawaiʻi Department of Health has rejected the Navy’s Red Hill Consolidated Groundwater Sampling Program and ordered a modified version to be implemented instead.
The modified program includes additional conditions to support the Navy’s request to reduce the amount of water being discharged into the Hālawa Stream from 4.5 million gallons to 1.8 million gallons a day.
“We have worked to hold the Navy accountable to create its own plan to reduce the amount of water discharged into Hālawa Stream, while still maintaining a robust sampling program to track and stay ahead of any contaminant migration,” said Deputy Director for Environmental Health Kathleen Ho in a statement.
“It’s unacceptable that the Navy would fail to produce such a plan following multiple rounds of regulatory review. That’s why we are taking the unusual step to reject the Navy’s plan and impose conditions necessary to protect public health and our environment,” Ho continued.
Additional conditions imposed by DOH include:
- Testing for additional analytes twice a month. The additional analytes will be used to track the possible reduction of contaminants.
- Requiring the Navy to provide data to the DOH sooner than it proposed in its plan.
- Requiring the Navy to provide the DOH with weekly updates associated with the reduced pumping rate.
- Providing details regarding the steps the Navy will take if potential plume migration is observed.
The DOH said the imposed conditions are to ensure it has enough data to understand how reduced pumping may affect the movement of contaminants within the aquifer while conserving natural resources.
The Navy was authorized to discharge treated water from the Red Hill Shaft to Hālawa Stream in January 2022 to prevent contaminants from migrating to other parts of Oʻahu’s single-source aquifer.
The water is taken from Red Hill Shaft and filtered through a granular activated carbon treatment system prior to discharge.
DOH and state partners have monitored the Navy’s water testing both before and after treatment prior to discharge.
The Navy submitted a Final Report of Findings for its Red Hill Shaft Flow Optimization Study on September 19, 2023.
DOH is imposing its additional monitoring and reporting requirements based on the results of the study, which indicated a continued need to carefully monitor for plume migration.
DOH also continues to urge the Navy to pursue beneficial reuse for water being discharged into Hālawa Stream.
