Some Hawaii residents, including Native Hawaiians and military families, say an investigation blaming a water contamination crisis on shoddy management and human error doesn’t help restore their trust in the U.S. Navy
HONOLULU -- Lauren Wright continues to be leery of the water coming out of the taps in her family's U.S. Navy home in Hawaii, saying she doesn't trust that it's safe.
Wright, her sailor husband and their three children ages 8 to 17 were among the thousands of people who were sickened late last year after fuel from military storage tanks leaked into Pearl Harbor’s tap water.
The family has returned to their military housing after spending months in Honolulu hotels, but they continue taking safety measures including taking short, five-minute showers. They don’t drink their tap water or cook with it.
A Navy investigation released Thursday blamed the fuel leak and the water crisis that followed on shoddy management and human error. Some Hawaii residents, including Native Hawaiians, officials and military families said the report doesn't help restore trust in the Navy.
“I was at least hoping for some sort of remorse for the families and everybody involved in this," Wright said.
The tanks continue to pose a threat to Oahu's drinking water while they hold fuel, said Ernest Lau, manager and chief engineer of the water utility.
The report saying it will take more than two years to drain the facility is concerning, Lau said Friday.
“The fact that they built this massive facility in three years, so can’t they find a way to do all the necessary work in less than two and a half years ... I think it can be done," he said, urging the Navy to look at shortening the timeline.
This week, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin “directed the establishment of a Joint Task Force led by a senior Navy admiral solely dedicated to a swift defueling effort, who will report to him through the commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, to oversee defueling of Red Hill as rapidly as safety allows," Trowbridge said. "The Department recognizes that what we say is far less important than what we do, which is why its most senior leaders are focused on this effort.”
Kristina Baehr, an attorney who represents more than 100 military and civilian families who lodged claims against the Navy, said it was especially troubling to read in the report how pervasive the errors were.
“This is a national security issue,” she said, noting many of her clients were still experiencing the effects of the tainted water. “And our families and military communities cannot be mission-ready if the government has made them sick.”