More than 100 million gallons of fuel have been drained from the Navy Red Hill underground fuel facility, but residual fumes could still pose a risk to workers and neighboring communities.
Kathleen Ho, the deputy environmental director for the state Department of Health, said health officials raised those concerns with the Navy. She said the Navy has committed to monitoring the fumes as they are released from the tanks.
"We felt that it was important to protect public health that the air monitoring or monitoring plan was created as part of the closure plan, which is all part of our emergency order. So the Navy has agreed to do a monitoring plan. And I'm happy to say that we are very close, within a few days of conditionally approving their monitoring plan," Ho said. "And I believe that the process of degassing will occur sometime next week."
"First, they're going to degas one tank and see how the levels are, and then maybe we'll allow them to stagger — in other words, allow one tank to be degassed and then at some point in the degassing of the first tank, we will allow them to start degassing the second tank."
Ho said that if emissions exceed the approved maximum rate, the Navy will cease operations and immediately notify the department.
At the Navy's open house last week, the military took questions from the public over its plan to remove the sludge and vapors left in the underground tanks. The Navy also demonstrated the equipment that has been monitoring air quality in and around Red Hill.
Some 40 volatile organic compound detectors were put in place when the defueling effort began last year. Navy scientist Mario Maningas explained the sensitivity of the devices, which can be set off by something as simple as hand sanitizer.
"If anything is coming out hot here, what we're doing is we're trying to measure downwind if there's any presence of any elevated VOC readings that could impact the prisoners at the Halawa Correctional Facility," he said, referring to volatile organic compounds.
The Conversation asked the Navy if it had reached out to the state Department of Corrections to discuss the Halawa prison, whose inmate population cannot be moved quickly. The answer was no. But the next day, the military called to set up a Wednesday meeting with prison officials.
Corrections Director Tommy Johnson told HPR that, fortunately, there are currently fewer inmates on island than there are on the mainland. The department started sending inmates to Saguaro Correctional Center in Arizona as part of a planned population surge.
There are said to be 1,000 prisoners at the Arizona facility. The census at Halawa hovers at just under 700. Johnson said the relocation is due to the need to address the deteriorating condition of two aging modules. He called the move temporary, but it's unknown how long repairs will take.
For years, state lawmakers have been asked to fund a new facility to replace the overcrowded Oʻahu Community Correctional Center. Talks are underway to place it in Hālawa Valley.
This interview aired on The Conversation on May 22, 2024. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1.
