‘It scared the hell out of me’: Emotions pour over Red Hill crisis at BWS meeting

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - The Board of Water Supply is standing by its warning that a fuel-related chemical plume could be spreading from the Navy’s Red Hill tanks. This after the Navy accused the agency of “misinformation” and being “grossly inaccurate.”

Testifiers at a Board of Water Supply board meeting on Monday said they were upset by the Navy’s accusations and expressed their support for the BWS.

In a letter obtained last week by Hawaii News Now, the Navy wrote to regulators and accused the Board of Water Supply of ‘continuing misinformation’ and ‘many of the the recent BWS statements are grossly inaccurate.’

PREVIOUS: Navy accuses Board of Water Supply of ‘grossly inaccurate’ statements

In August, BWS alerted the public that a contamination plume could be spreading from the Navy’s Red Hill tanks after the 2021 fuel leak crisis and that fuel-related chemicals were detected in BWS’s shuttered Aiea well. BWS also expressed concern over lead detections in the Navy’s water system.

“We have been looking at data for decades and decades. Usually the data is not that exciting. Over the last three years the data has gotten, exciting is not the right word. It’s terrifying,” said Na’alehu Anthony BWS board chair.

“By the time I finished reading them, I was very upset and I’m upset until today and I’m scared. It scared the hell out of me,” said Walter Chun, former director of Occupational Safety and Health Administration Hawaii office.

“Today we probably all would have had fuel in our system,” said former Kapilina resident Awapuhi Robinson who said mahalo to BWS.

In another letter obtained by HNN, the U.S. EPA and state health department also expressed concern to Board of Water Supply that BWS presentations quote “created significant public confusion about the overall safety of Oahu’s drinking water.”

In its letter, the Navy says it’s collected numerous samples from its water source the Wai’awa shaft and remains in compliance with state and federal drinking water standards.

The Board of Water Supply says it wants more information from the Navy on what specifically is “misinformation.”

Anthony said BWS did not share the letters with the media. He said a meeting that was supposed to happen this week between the larger Red Hill Water Alliance Initiative and the Navy got abruptly canceled at 6:45 p.m. Friday. That was after HNN’s story broke.

“I don’t know if the two are related, but we are trying to have a discussion.”

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