Roundup: The U.S. military fuel spill triggered protests from all walks of life in Hawaii

Los Angeles, February 9 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. military fuel spill triggered protests from all walks of life in Hawaii

Xinhua News Agency reporter Huang Heng

Recently, people from all walks of life in Hawaii and military families living in the US military base in Hawaii have launched various activities to protest the US Navy's handling of an underground oil depot aviation fuel leakage accident in Hawaii State, and demanded the closure of this facility, which poses a serious threat to the health of local residents.

The United States built the underground Red Mountain Bulk Fuel Storage Facility in Hawaii in the early 1940s, which contains 20 giant tanks, each 100 feet in diameter and 250 feet high, which can hold 12.5 million gallons of fuel. The tanks, in turn, are connected to an underground pipeline about 4 kilometers long to deliver fuel to the U.S. Base at Pearl Harbor and to ships and aircraft used by the Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marine Corps and Navy.

U.S. media reported that in 2014, the facility first reported a leak, and has leaked several times since. A serious spill occurred last November before Thanksgiving, with an estimated 3,000 gallons of aviation fuel-contaminated water entering the public water supply system of a nearby barracks. Military families were quick to complain about the smell of aviation fuel in tap water in their homes, and by December 1, tests showed that water at local elementary schools had been contaminated, but the U.S. Navy issued a statement saying the water was safe to drink.

Hundreds of people had been hospitalized after drinking contaminated water by the end of last year, and the U.S. Navy had to agree to pay the fee and transfer more than 4,000 residents from their homes to hotels, most of them military dependents. On December 6, the Hawaii State Health Department ordered the Navy to suspend operations at the facility and remove all fuel from the tanks, but the Navy refused to do so and filed a lawsuit against the state government at the state level and in federal courts. After the court ruled against the military, it agreed to temporarily shut down the facility in January, but appealed on Feb. 2, before the execution date. Local media in Hawaii reported that the Navy said it needed the facility to operate as usual to protect national security because it was a "strategic reserve" for U.S. operations in the Pacific.

On the 8th, U.S. Army officer Amanda Feinth and Navy military attaché Jamie Simick met with congressional representatives to speak out for the families and neighbors affected by the leak. They demanded that the Navy indicate what the contaminants were; that the Navy should remove them from the hotel after all tests had been made of the drinking water systems in the homes of households in contaminated communities, rather than testing only 10 percent of the households; and that the military provide long-term medical care for victims.

The case is still pending in court, but Hawaiian residents, garrison families, members of Congress and environmental groups are pushing for the closure and complete dismantling of the facility. They pointed out that the damage caused by the spill is incalculable and could lead to the implementation of water rationing in the local area this summer. The Hawaii Health Department statement noted that the Navy is "clearly not prepared to fulfill its responsibility to protect the hawaiian people and naval service personnel."