[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3647 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
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117th CONGRESS
2d Session
S. 3647
To direct the Secretary of the Navy to close the Red Hill Bulk Fuel
Storage Facility in Hawaii, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
February 14, 2022
Mr. Schatz introduced the following bill; which was read twice and
referred to the Committee on Armed Services
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To direct the Secretary of the Navy to close the Red Hill Bulk Fuel
Storage Facility in Hawaii, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Red Hill Watershed and Aquifer
Initiative Act'' or the ``Red Hill WAI Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress makes the following findings:
(1) The Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility (in this
section referred to as the ``Red Hill facility'') was
constructed in September 1943.
(2) The Red Hill facility was constructed underground in
hollowed-out volcanic rock to allow for maximum protection of
the fuel supply.
(3) The 20 steel tanks of the Red Hill facility are encased
by 2.5 to 4 feet of concrete and surrounded by basalt bedrock.
(4) The Red Hill facility is the largest single fuel
storage facility of the Department of Defense in the Pacific
theater.
(5) The Red Hill facility can store approximately
250,000,000 gallons of fuel. The fuels stored are marine
diesel, F-76, and two types of jet fuel, JP-5 and JP-8.
(6) The Red Hill facility is located approximately 100 feet
above the basal groundwater table and sits directly above the
federally designated sole-source groundwater aquifer of the
island of Oahu, the Southern Oahu Basal Aquifer, which provides
approximately 77 percent of the drinking water of Oahu.
(7) Historic records compiled by the Navy in a 2008
groundwater protection plan indicate that the Red Hill facility
has had dozens of fuel leaks dating back to 1947.
(8) Fuel leaks from the Red Hill facility pose an
existential threat to the federally designated sole-source
groundwater aquifer of Oahu.
(9) The Navy and the Defense Logistics Agency are
responsible for protecting the public from unscheduled fuel
leaks that may pose a risk to drinking water.
(10) Until the mid-1980s, most underground storage tanks
(in this section referred to as ``USTs'') were made of bare
steel, which is likely to corrode over time and allow contents
of USTs to leak into the environment. The greatest potential
hazard from a leaking UST is that its contents (petroleum or
other hazardous substances) can seep into the soil and
contaminate groundwater, the source of drinking water for
nearly half of all people in the United States.
(11) To address a nationwide problem of leaking USTs,
Congress passed a series of laws to protect human health and
the environment, including the Solid Waste Disposal Act (Public
Law 89-272), the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act
of 1986 (Public Law 99-499), the Energy Policy Act of 2005
(Public Law 109-58), and the American Recovery and Reinvestment
Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5) (commonly referred to as the
``Recovery Act'').
(12) The State of Hawaii obtained Environmental Protection
Agency State Program approval, effective on September 2, 2002,
for the UST program of Hawaii to operate in lieu of the UST
program of the Environmental Protection Agency.
(13) In January 2014, The Red Hill facility leaked
approximately 27,000 gallons of fuel.
(14) In 2015, the Environmental Protection Agency and the
State of Hawaii Department of Health negotiated an enforceable
agreement, an Administrative Order on Consent, with the Navy
and the Defense Logistics Agency (EPA DKT NO. RCRA 7003-R9-
2015-01/DOH DKT NO. 15-UST-EA-01).
(15) The 2015 Administrative Order on Consent includes a
Statement of Work that lays out the specific tasks the Navy and
the Defense Logistics Agency must implement. The Statement of
Work consists of eight sections on overall project management
as follows:
(A) Tank inspection.
(B) Repair and maintenance.
(C) Tank upgrade alternatives.
(D) Release detection and tank tightness testing.
(E) Corrosion and metal fatigue practices.
(F) Investigation and remediation of releases.
(G) Groundwater protection and evaluation.
(H) Risk and vulnerability assessment.
(16) On May 6, 2021, a burst pipeline in Red Hill spilled
fuel into the lower access tunnel of the facility and the Navy
failed to recover the entirety of the leaked fuel. Although the
Navy initially estimated that 1,618 gallons of fuel spilled,
with all but 38 gallons recovered, several months later, the
amount of fuel spilled estimated by the Navy increased to
19,000 gallons, with most of the spilled fuel not recovered.
(17) On November 20, 2021, the Navy announced a spill of
14,000 gallons of a water and fuel mixture from a fire
suppression drain line located 0.25 miles downhill of the fuel
tanks at Red Hill due to operator error.
(18) On November 22, 2021, the Navy announced that the
water and fuel mixture was removed from the tunnel and put into
a storage tank above ground and that there were no signs that
the fuel had escaped into the environment. The Navy
communicated that the water was safe to drink.
(19) On November 28, 2021, military families and civilians
living in the Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam military housing
installation began reporting contaminated tap water.
(20) Impacted families shared personal experiences of the
immediate and ongoing health impacts of exposure to the
contaminated water in their homes including chemical burns,
stomach and head pain, dizziness and nauseousness, rashes, and
more.
(21) Families reported noxious odors in impacted homes that
continued to make that housing unsuitable for many families.
(22) After it was definitively confirmed that the Red Hill
well was contaminated with petroleum, the State of Hawaii
Department of Health issued an emergency order on December 6,
2021, to the Navy to suspend operations and defuel the Red Hill
Facility. That emergency order was contested by the Navy in
late December, and on January 3, 2022, it was reaffirmed by the
State of Hawaii Department of Health in its final decision and
order.
(23) The December 6, 2021, emergency order has had broad
support from the communities of Oahu, the Governor of Hawaii,
the Department of Health of Hawaii, State Commission on Water
Resource Management, the City and County Board of Water Supply,
city council members, and State legislators. In short, the
whole-of-government in Hawaii believes that the Navy should
comply with the emergency order.
(24) On December 7, 2021, the Navy announced that they will
contest the order of the State of Hawaii to drain the fuel
tanks.
(25) On December 10, 2021, the Navy confirmed samples taken
from the Navy Red Hill Shaft contained fuel levels 350 times
more than the safe drinking limit in the State of Hawaii.
(26) On February 2, 2022, the Department of Justice filed
an appeal in both Federal and State court regarding the order
of the State of Hawaii to defuel the Red Hill Facility.
SEC. 3. CLOSURE OF NAVY RED HILL BULK FUEL STORAGE FACILITY, HAWAII.
(a) Closure Required.--The Secretary of the Navy shall--
(1) discontinue all fuel operations at the Red Hill Bulk
Fuel Storage Facility in Hawaii;
(2) defuel all bulk fuel storage tanks located at the
facility by not later than December 31, 2022; and
(3) permanently close the facility in accordance with
relevant regulations prescribed by the Administrator of the
Environmental Protection Agency.
(b) Navy Responsibility.--
(1) In general.--The Navy shall retain ownership and
possession of the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility and the
property on which such facility is located.
(2) Cleanup.--Consistent with existing Navy and legal
requirements, the Secretary of the Navy shall remain
responsible for the environmental condition of the Red Hill
Bulk Fuel Storage Facility.
(3) Cleanup costs.--The Navy shall be responsible for all
cleanup costs associated with--
(A) the fuel spill that occurred at the Red Hill
Bulk Fuel Storage Facility in November 2021; and
(B) each spill or leak that occurred at the
facility since the opening of the facility until
November 2021.
(4) Reimbursement of certain state and local entities.--The
Secretary of the Navy shall reimburse the Honolulu Board of
Water Supply and the Hawaii State Departments of Health and
Education for expenditures made in response to the threats
posed by operations at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility,
including expenditures made to drill new drinking water wells
and to install monitoring wells (both monitoring wells that
were previously installed and to be installed).
(5) Research.--The Secretary of the Navy shall conduct
relevant near-to-mid term research relating to the
environmental condition of the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage
Facility, including relating to hydrology and water monitoring.
(c) Establishment of New Facilities.--The Secretary of the Navy, in
coordination with the Director of the Office of Naval Research, shall
establish, at the site of the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility--
(1) a water treatment facility; and
(2) a permanent water quality testing facility.
(d) Monthly Reports.--Not later than 30 days after the date of the
enactment of this Act, and every 30 days thereafter until all bulk fuel
storage tanks located at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility have
been defueled, the Secretary of Defense shall provide a report and
briefing on the progress toward such defueling to--
(1) the Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on
Appropriations of the Senate; and
(2) the Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on
Appropriations of the House of Representatives.
(e) Hawaii Department of Health Emergency Order.--The Navy shall
comply with the emergency order of the Hawaii Department of Health
issued on December 6, 2021, which directs the Navy to carry out the
following:
(1) Immediately suspend operations at the bulk fuel storage
tanks at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility, including
fuel transfers, and continue to maintain environmental and
monitoring controls.
(2) Take immediate steps to install a drinking water
treatment system or systems at Red Hill Shaft to ensure
distribution of drinking water conforms to the standards
prescribed by the Safe Drinking Water Act and applicable
Federal and State regulations. Those steps should also minimize
movement of the contaminant plume or plumes.
(3) Submit a workplan and implementation schedule prepared
by a qualified independent third party approved by the State of
Hawaii Department of Health, to assess the operations and
system integrity to safely defuel the bulk fuel storage tanks
at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility.
(4) Upon approval by the State of Hawaii Department of
Health of the assessment, workplan, and implementation schedule
under paragraph (3), make necessary corrective actions to
address any deficiencies as expeditiously as possible.
(5) Not later than 30 days after completion of required
corrective actions under paragraph (4), remove fuel from the
bulk fuel storage tanks at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage
Facility.
(6) Submit a workplan and implementation schedule prepared
by a qualified independent third party approved by the State of
Hawaii Department of Health, to assess operations and system
integrity of the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility to
determine design and operational deficiencies that may impact
the environment and develop recommendations for corrective
action.
(7) Upon approval by the State of Hawaii Department of
Health of the assessment, workplan, and implementation schedule
under paragraph (6), perform work and implement corrective
actions as expeditiously as possible.
(f) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized to be
appropriated to carry out this section such sums as may be necessary
for each of fiscal years 2023 through 2028.
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