Seven public schools in Pearl Harbor area show detections of petroleum-based chemicals - Hawaii News Now

7 public schools in Pearl Harbor area show detections of petroleum-based chemicals

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - HNN Investigates has learned the tap water at several public schools in the Pearl Harbor area are showing detections of petroleum-based chemicals. Advocates are urging the Navy to warn the public, but the military insists the water is safe.

Critics say the Navy failed to warn the public to not drink the tap water in 2021 when fuel spills from its massive Red Hill tanks leaked into its Pearl Harbor drinking water system and sickened thousands of people.

They accuse the Navy of failing to warn the public again.

“That water is not safe today and the Navy is continuing to maintain it’s safe,” said attorney Kristina Baehr.

“By all federal and state standards, the water is safe,” said Vice Admiral Scott Gray, Commander, Navy Installations Command.

On the Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam Safe Waters website, you can see what specific areas had detections for concerning chemicals. Under analyte, chose total petroleum hydrocarbons. For location, HNN typed in “elementary” and several schools popped up; Chester Nimitz Elementary, Hickam Elementary, Iroquois Point Elementary, Mokulele Elementary, Pearl Harbor Elementary, Pearl Harbor Kai Elementary and Red Hill Elementary.

All had recent, but intermittent detections of total petroleum hydrocarbons.

“It seems like a reckless disregard. It seems very callous on the part of the Navy. It’s not just the keiki, it’s the teachers, all the people who work in that environment are at risk,” said Melodie Aduja, Red Hill Community Representation Initiative member and co-chair of Environmental Caucus of the Democratic Party of Hawaii.

In late 2021 and early 2022, seven public schools along with 93,000 water users could not drink the tap water.

Now, a “swarm team” of experts is helping the Navy try to figure out why there’s a surge in detections of total petroleum hydrocarbons shown in this map from June to November of last year.

The Navy insists it’s not fuel and claims it doesn’t know what’s causing the troubling surge.

“If it’s not JP5, what else could it be,” said Captain James Sullivan, Commanding Officer, Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command.

HNN Investigatives obtained this Manual of Naval Preventative Medicine on Water Quality for Shore Installations.

A diagram asks “Is contaminant known?” and when the answer is “No,” the policy says to issue a “Do not use” notice and “consider alternate water supply for consumption, firefighting and sanitation.”

“All total petroleum hydrocarbons detections have been less than Department of Health’s incident specific parameter (ISP) of 266 parts per billion,” said Navy Region Hawaii in a statement.

“In October, when the Navy was notified of residents with concerns, the Navy issued press releases and sent letters to residents informing them of those concerns, recommending that any resident with a medical issue seek health care if needed, and encouraging them to request that their water be tested,” it added.

A meeting of the Red Hill Community Representation Initiative last week showed deep divisions as the community investigates the contamination.

“When are you going to tell the public,” Aduja asked.

“We are deeply concerned by this surge,” Gray said. “We are working extremely hard along with our partners at the EPA and Department of Health to find the source of these low level detections.”

“Would any of you drink water with a sheen of fuel on it?” asked David Kimo Frankel, Red Hill Community Representation Initiative member.

“No, I wouldn’t drink water with a sheen on it,” Gray answered.

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