HONOLULU (KHON2) — Four years after the Navy’s Red Hill Fuel spill contaminated its water supply and forced the closure of Honolulu’s largest water source, Halawa Shaft, the Honolulu Board of Water Supply’s Manager and Chief Engineer Ernie Lau says forever chemicals are moving westward.
“I’d just like to say the situation with the Navy’s Red Hill Fuel Tanks leaked and contaminated their water system in 2021, and the contamination they’ve left in the environment,” Lau said. “The Red Hill issue is not pau. We still have Halawa Shaft, Halawa Wells, and Aiea Well is still shut off. Right now, we’re detecting PFAS in our Halawa Shaft and our Halawa Wells, and more alarmingly for us we’re detecting PFAS at a well that’s even further west from Red Hill, our Kaamilo Wells. In fact, we’ve installed a temporary water treatment system before we can turn that well back online.”
The Halawa Shaft provided water to some 450,000 urban Honolulu residents and is less than a mile from the Red Hill Shaft, which is owned by the Navy and where petroleum compounds were detected. Lau says the BWS is testing the water once every two weeks.
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This comes after federal prosecutors indicted two former Navy employees, accusing them of lying about the massive jet fuel spill at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility in 2021. John Floyd, 63, of Mililani, and Nelson Wu, 38, of Waipahu, both pled not guilty. If convicted, Floyd and Wu each face up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine per charge…