Water

The Community Representation Initiative for Red Hill announced this week that chemicals, also known as PFAS, have been found in the Navy’s water system. The detections were found at homes at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.

Families on the Navy water system say there is new contamination in their tap water. They say samples they sent to labs have come back with traces of forever chemicals known as PFAS. The Conversation talked to Marti Townsend, the chair of the Red Hill Community Representation Initiative.

A new study by University of Hawaiʻi researchers show that when chlorine in water is mixed with fuel it can produce a substance that is harmful to people.

For two weeks 17 “bellwether” families shared how they were affected after the 2021 leak from the Navy’s fuel tanks into its water system, which serves 93,000 people.

The Board of Land and Natural Resources approved the purchase of more than 250 acres of watershed lands in southwest Maui known as Pōhākea or Māʻalaea Mauka for $8.2 million.

Last week the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced the funding, which is meant to prevent exposure to lead in drinking water. The money comes from the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

At Honolulu's federal courthouse, military families have been detailing their lives and medical ailments since being exposed to jet fuel from the Navy's Red Hill storage facility in 2021. The federal government has already admitted responsibility for the leaks, but now it's arguing the contamination was not enough to get people sick. HPR's Mark Ladao has more.

A trial for a mass environmental injury case began Monday, more than two years after the military's Red Hill facility poisoned thousands of people when it leaked jet fuel into Pearl Harbor's drinking water. The Conversation's Catherine Cruz spoke with people at the courthouse supporting the families.

In early April, the state Department of Transportation informed tenants on and near the Army's Dillingham Airfield that they would likely no longer have access to water after July 5. The YMCA of Honolulu's Camp Erdman — a sleepaway camp for thousands of keiki — wants more time to figure out a solution. The Conversation's Catherine Cruz has more.

Nearly two dozen students from Hawaiian immersion schools on Maui have traveled to the state Capitol multiple times this legislative session with a simple message. The high court’s unanimous decision found the state attorney general's office made false statements to try to exploit the Maui wildfires to advance its own interests.