Petroleum found in tap water alarms Pearl Harbor families
HONOLULU — Cheri Burness’ dog was the first to signal something was wrong with their tap water. He stopped drinking it two weeks ago. Then Burness started feeling stomach cramps. Her 12-year-old daughter was nauseous.
“It was just getting worse every day,” said Burness, whose husband is in the Navy.
Their family is among hundreds of military families living near Pearl Harbor with similar complaints after the Navy’s water system somehow became contaminated by petroleum.
The problems have afflicted one of the most important Navy bases in the world, home to submarines, ships and the commander of U.S. forces in the IndoPacific region. The issues may even threaten one of Honolulu’s most important aquifers and water sources.
The Navy said Thursday that tests had identified petroleum in its Red Hill well, which taps into an aquifer near the base. Rear Adm. Blake Converse, Pacific Fleet deputy commander, told a town hall meeting the Navy took this well offline on Nov. 28 because it was the closest well to affected housing areas.
Converse said the Navy will flush clean water through its distribution system to clear residual petroleum products from the water. The process, followed by testing to make sure the water meets Environmental Protection Agency drinking standards, could take four to 10 days, he said.
The Navy will also investigate how contaminants got into the well and fix it, he said.
The crisis came after the Navy on Nov. 22 said a water and fuel mixture had leaked into a fire suppression system drain line in a tunnel at a massive fuel storage facility 3 miles inland of Pearl Harbor. The Navy said it removed about 14,000 gallons of the mixture, and said the liquid hadn’t leaked into the environment.
The Navy said so far it’s received calls about a fuel odor or physical ailments from 680 homes in Navy housing and 270 in Army housing on the Navy’s water system. The Navy water system serves 93,000 people.
In the days after Thanksgiving, Burness’ daughter felt so sick she didn’t want to eat any leftovers, including vegetables boiled in water.
On Nov. 28, Burness started seeing comments on social media from military families saying their tap water smelled like fuel. She didn’t smell it, but people told her to turn on her hot water and check. She did and smelled it too.
She told her family not to drink the water and not to wash their hair and face with it. She ordered private water delivery for $120 a month. On Monday, when she gave her dog some bottled water, he immediately drank a full liter’s worth and then drank two more liters over the next 12 hours.
The Navy has since started distributing bottled water and said Marines would set up showers and laundry facilities connected to clean water.
The Army said it would help affected families move into hotels or new homes and the Navy is working on a similar plan. The Navy is also setting up clinics.