Major Repairs Needed per Navy ! More Delays by YEARS

Article from Hawaii News Now link here: https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2022/05/28/report-major-structural-repairs-needed-red-hill-facility-order-safely-empty-fuel-tanks/

Article from Honolulu Civil Beat link here: https://www.civilbeat.org/2022/05/consultant-fixing-red-hills-decrepit-infrastructure-could-take-2-years/

Report: Major repairs needed to Red Hill facility in order to safely empty fuel tanks

By HNN Staff

Published: May. 27, 2022 at 3:49 PM HST|Updated: 22 hours ago

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Major structural repairs are needed to the Red Hill underground storage facility in order to safely empty the fuel tanks and minimize the risk of another spill, according to a new assessment report prepared for the Navy.

The 800-page, heavily-redacted report was released by the state Health Department on Friday afternoon.

It concludes that the needed repairs will be “extensive” and stretch along the entire fuel distribution system. The assessment raises new questions about how long it will take for the Navy to empty the fuel tanks ― and just how risky that work will be. Spills from tanks tainted the Navy’s water system late last year, triggering a water crisis that continues.

David Henken, senior attorney with Earthjustice, said the report underscores the need to work quickly. “Now that the Navy’s own independent assessment says that there are massive problems we need to get on fixing those,” he said. “There’s no excuse for taking a leisurely another year to sort of slow walk the defueling.”

The report did not offer a price tag. But according to the Navy’s estimate, preparing the facility for defueling could take up to a year while removing fuel could take another two years.

“This report describes extensive and critical repairs that are needed to safely defuel and decommission Red Hill,” said Kathleen Ho, deputy director of Environmental Health, in a news release.

“While the need to defuel Red Hill is urgent, public and environmental safety remain the first priority.” DOH ordered the Navy to have a schedule to drain all 20 underground tanks no later than June 30. The Navy must have a clear plan to dismantle the tanks by November.

Consultant: Fixing Red Hill’s Decrepit Infrastructure Could Take 2 Years

Honolulu Civil Beat/Christina Jedra / May 27, 2022

Repairs are supposed to be completed before the safe removal of fuel from Red Hill can begin.

The Navy may need one or two years to fix a litany of problems and safety hazards at the Red Hill fuel facility before the military can begin to defuel the troubled storage complex, according to a Navy contractor’s report released on Friday.

Simpson Gumpertz & Heger Inc. was hired by the Navy to conduct an independent assessment of the facility. The review was required by a state health department emergency order after fuel from Red Hill was found to have contaminated the drinking water of Pearl Harbor area residents.

SGH identified “heavily corroded” structural columns and pipes, concrete cracking and spalling, “leakage” through the concrete tunnel walls and floor, and valves known to leak. The contractor also cited the need for lead abatement in many areas, according to a redacted version of the report.

A report by a military contractor shows corrosion at the Red Hill fuel facility. Simpson Gumpertz & Heger, Inc./2022There were several fire risks, according to the report. Cabinets holding flammable materials were not anchored to the floor, and a control room in the pump house is not blast-resistant. And in the event of an earthquake, SGH found the emergency generator might lose functionality.

Some items that were previously labeled “satisfactory” by previous inspections were flagged as problematic by SGH, according to the report.

Overall, SGH made more than 200 recommendations for repairs, according to the report

“A number of these will require repair prior to defueling whereas some will only be performed as part of ongoing (Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam) operations,” the report states.

The Hawaii Department of Health said on Friday that the repairs will be extensive and will involve the entire distribution system from Red Hill to the waters of Pearl Harbor. The Navy will need to develop new written procedures to reduce the risk of fuel releases, and personnel will require additional training to prevent spills, operate safely and respond to emergencies, DOH said.

Once the repair process is complete, the defense department estimates the actual defueling will take about a year.

“While the need to defuel Red Hill is urgent, public and environmental safety remain the first priority,” Kathleen Ho, Hawaii’s deputy director of environmental health, said in a statement. Under the DOH emergency order, the Navy is required to submit a plan and implementation schedule for defueling by June 30 and a plan for permanent closure of the facility by Nov. 1. The Navy did not respond to questions on Friday afternoon.

The new report is one of many that has come out over the years revealing major problems at Red Hill, said David Kimo Frankel, an environmental attorney representing the Sierra Club. “Each report should have been enough for the Navy to realize that it was crazy to store fuel at the Red Hill facility,” he said. “This 2022 report is as head-spinning as the others. It describes a facility that should have been shut down decades ago.”

The latest report includes information that the Navy hadn’t previously disclosed during a legal dispute with the Sierra Club regarding the Navy’s application for a state permit, he said. “If the Navy had any concern about safety, it would not have buried that information,” he said. David Henkin, a senior attorney for Earthjustice, said he was troubled by the consultant’s proposed timeline.

“Particularly given the shocking documentation of the crumbling infrastructure at the Red Hill facility, we cannot allow the Navy to slow-walk the defueling,” he said in a statement. “Every day that fuel remains in the facility is another opportunity for a catastrophic accident.”

You can read the entire 880-page report here.