Bill Text: HI SR137 | 2023 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: Requesting The Secretary Of Defense And United States Navy To Promptly Defuel And Permanently Decommission The Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility And To Provide Compensation For Financial Harm Caused By The Red Hill Fuel Leaks.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2023-03-15 - Referred to PSM. [SR137 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2023-SR137-Introduced.html

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THE SENATE	S.R. NO.	137
THIRTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2023
STATE OF HAWAII

SENATE RESOLUTION

 

 

requesting the secretary of defense and united states navy to promptly defuel and permanently decommission the red hill bulk fuel storage facility and to provide compensation for financial harm caused by the red hill fuel leaks.

 

 

     WHEREAS, the United States Armed Forces have a long history of causing environmental harm in Hawaii, including harm to the State's water through fuel leaks and spills associated with the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility; and

 

     WHEREAS, since 1943, the Red Hill facility has recorded at least seventy-six fuel "releases," or spills caused by equipment leaks or human error; and

 

     WHEREAS, at least two hundred thousand gallons of fuel from these recorded leaks and spills have been released from the Red Hill facility into the underlying lava rocks and water table; and

 

     WHEREAS, in 2014, approximately twenty-seven thousand gallons of fuel were released, causing groundwater and soil monitoring systems around the Red Hill facility to consistently register the presence of diesel fuel; and

 

     WHEREAS, in November 2021, more than three thousand three hundred gallons of fuel from the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility leaked into the drinking water that services military housing and schools on the island of Oahu, causing widespread illnesses, displacing thousands of military families, and forcing affected schools to close or to operate without usable tap water; and

 

     WHEREAS, although the United States Department of Defense agreed to defuel the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility, the Secretary of Defense has the authority to unilaterally decide whether defueling will adversely affect military operations and when defueling will begin; and

 

     WHEREAS, a risk analysis conducted by the United States Navy concluded that there is an eighty percent probability of further fuel leaks occurring at the Red Hill facility in the next five years, suggesting that delays in defueling continue to put Hawaii's water at risk; now, therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Thirty-second Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2023, that the Secretary of Defense and United States Navy are requested to:

 

     (1)  Promptly defuel and permanently decommission the entire Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility, according to defueling plan and closure plan guidelines established by the Department of Health;

 

     (2)  Fully reimburse the State and Honolulu Board of Water Supply for any costs associated with the monitoring and remediation of the contaminated aquifer, according to a plan to be approved by the Department of Health; and

 

     (3)  Monetarily compensate affected schools for any costs associated with the water crisis created by fuel leaks and spills at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the Secretary of Defense, United States Navy Pacific Fleet Commander, Director of Health, and Chair of the Honolulu Board of Water Supply.

 

 

 

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title:

United States Navy; Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility; Closure; Compensation