Navy in Cleaning Phase of Red Hill Facility

FacebookXPinterestEmailEmailEmailShare
Contractors prepare for tank cleaning at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility
Contractors with Navy Closure Task Force-Red Hill prepare a fuel tank’s center tower for tank cleaning operations at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility in Honolulu, May 27, 2025. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Glenn Slaughter)

The Navy is approaching a new phase of work to shutter its underground Red Hill bulk fuel facility and remediate leak contamination.

Later this year, Navy officials expect to begin removing 10 miles of fuel transmission pipes and reactivating one of two closed drinking water wells.

A Navy task force finished draining about 104 million gallons of fuel from the World War II-era facility in March 2024 after a massive spill in November 2021, and more recently began cleaning the system’s tanks long used to deliver fuel via gravity to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-­Hickam.

Navy officials on Monday told a special state House of Representatives committee that highly engineered cleaning has gone well so far, and that work should begin later this year to begin dismantling transmission pipes.

The committee also was informed that the smaller of two closed Navy groundwater wells in the vicinity of Red Hill, which prior to the spill helped serve 93,000 military members and civilians on a Navy drinking water system, is expected to resume service later this year pending state Department of Health approval of a permanent water treatment system tested earlier this year.

“I want to let the community know … we are not walking away,” Rear Adm. Stephen Barnett, who commands Navy Region Hawaii and heads the Navy Closure Task Force—Red Hill, told members of the House Special Committee on Red Hill. “It’s been humbling to be here, and to work together to get where we are right now. But make no mistake, we still have a long ways to go.”

The Navy estimates that its Red Hill closure plan won’t be completed until 2028.

At Monday’s briefing, Navy officials also projected that it will take a decade to determine and design an appropriate site remediation solution for implementation in 2035 followed by monitoring for years afterward.

“We remain committed to the long-term remediation of the environment, ” Barnett said. “This is not measured in days or months. This is going to be measured in years and decades.”

The Red Hill tanks capable of holding 250 million gallons of fuel sit just 100 feet above a critical aquifer that most of Honolulu relies on for drinking water.

For years, environmental advocates and Native Hawaiian activists warned the fuel posed a threat while Navy officials insisted it was safe and well maintained.

There have been 70 documented incidents over eight decades amounting to potential spills totaling 180,000 gallons of fuel, including around 19, 000 gallons in the November 2021 spill that contaminated a Navy well and water system that sickened many users and led to litigation over long-term health affects.

After initially resisting a DOH emergency order to drain the tanks, the Pentagon in March 2022 agreed to permanently close the facility.

Closure work began with repairs to prevent spills during defueling. Most of the fuel was shipped to military installations across the Pacific region.

Draining nearly all the fuel took about six months, and was finished in March 2024. An ongoing phase to clean the tanks has been a complex procedure that has included use of a ventilation system, air monitoring, sludge removal and power washing.

Rear Adm. Marc Williams, deputy commander of the closure task force, told the House committee that so far the amount of sludge in tanks has been below estimates.

Williams said 283 gallons of sludge have been removed from six of 20 tanks so far, and that the Navy previously had estimated there were 2, 000 gallons of sludge per tank, excluding two tanks that had not been used for decades and were previously cleaned.

To remove sludge from tanks, workers shovel the muck into 5-gallon buckets that are then removed from the tank and emptied into 55-gallon drums.

“It’s kind of a bucket brigade,” Williams said.

Removed sludge is tested for hazardous materials, and none so far has been hazardous, according to Williams, who said the drums get shipped to disposal facilities on the mainland certified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

After sludge removal, tanks are being pressure-­washed by workers suspended on booms attached to a central tower erected in each tank. Wash water is collected and is being disposed of at a DOH-approved disposal facility under DOH regulations after testing. Williams said two tanks have been cleaned to date, and that wash water has not contained hazardous materials.

To clean pipes, the Navy is going to use foam swabs driven by pressurized nitrogen. Williams said this process, described by the Navy as “pigging,” is slated to begin later this month to remove an estimated 4, 000 gallons of residual fuel.

Cutting up and removing the cleaned pipes after testing confirms no presence of gas is expected to begin later this year. The pipe is to be recycled on the mainland.

Meanwhile, the Navy expects to seek DOH approval in August to resume use of its Halawa-Aiea water well after testing a permanent treatment system in April and May.

A second much larger Navy water well deactivated after the 2021 spill isn’t expected to have a required treatment system until 2027. This system for the Navy’s Red Hill well is expected to cost around $500 million, according to Williams.

Since the spill, the Navy has been relying on a third Navy well, in Waiawa, to provide drinking water to customers.

Separately, the Hono­lulu Board of Water Supply ceased using water from its own Halawa shaft below Red Hill and two nearby wells after the spill to avoid potentially fouling its system serving neighborhoods stretching from Moanalua to Hawaii Kai.

BWS does not have a reactivation timetable for the Halawa shaft and earlier this month filed a federal lawsuit against the Navy seeking $1.2 billion to cover estimated costs of past, current and future impacts on the municipal water system from the Red Hill leak.

Navy officials have declined to comment on pending litigation but say they are committed to long-term remediation of environmental damage from fuel leaks and from a November 2022 accident where about 1, 300 gallons of toxic fire suppressant leaked onto the ground at the Red Hill facility.

The fire suppressant, Aqueous Film Forming Foam, contained per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances also known as PFAS, which are slow to degrade when released into the environment and can be harmful to human health.

As part of its effort so far, the Navy has established about 50 groundwater monitoring wells. Commander Benjamin Dunn told the committee that more than 16, 000 water samples have been collected and tested over the past few years with results posted publicly.

Longer term, Dunn said the Navy will conduct comprehensive tests of its Red Hill site, which just began this month, that helps produce a remediation plan coordinated by regulators that could include cleaning up soil and other remedies to protect Oahu’s aquifer.

To assess risks, develop a remedy and then implement it is expected to take a decade followed by continued monitoring.

“We don’t want to go too fast and not do it right, ” Dunn said. “We have no intention of sacrificing thoroughness for the sake of expediency in this effort.”

Dunn continued, “The Navy is committed to addressing contamination at Red Hill and is committed to the preservation of our community’s natural resources—Oahu’s aquifer—for now and tomorrow.”

House committee members asked a lot of detailed questions and pressed Navy representatives on their expressed long-term commitment to remediation.

One thing that won’t be up to the Navy is possible future reuse of Red Hill tanks. Williams said that decision will be made by the Department of Defense after considering public input, already floated ideas and further study.

Some of those ideas include using the tanks as part of a hydroelectric power plant, as storage, for a brewery and as a scuba facility.

© 2025 The Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Visit www.staradvertiser.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Story Continues