HONOLULU — Hundreds marched in the “Walk for Wai” on Saturday in support of the Honolulu Board of Water Supply’s demands that the U.S. Navy safeguard Oahu’s water and shut down the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility.
Wai is the Hawaiian language word for water.
The protest was organized in reaction to the Honolulu Board of Water Supply’s news conference on Dec. 1, when Chief Engineer Ernie Lau demanded that the Navy stop releasing chemicals, whether PFAs or fuel, from Red Hill into Oahu’s groundwater.
Lau also said the Navy must conduct weekly tests in all of its wells for PFAs and shorten its timeline for removing fuel from Red Hill. The Navy has said fuel will be removed from Red Hill by July 2024.
On Nov. 20, 2021, the Navy spilled fuel at Red Hill, which entered Oahu’s groundwater and impacted 93,000 people that use the Navy’s water system. On Nov. 29, 2022, the Navy spilled toxic fire suppressant, known as Aqueous Film Forming Foam or AFFF, at Red Hill. AFFF foam is used to suppress fires and contains PFAs, which are known as forever chemicals because they are very slow to degrade.
“For years, Ernie Lau has done everything in his power to keep our water safe, to keep our children, our keiki safe from this decrepit Navy facility, and I felt deep down that we had to answer his call,” Malia Marquez said in the news release about organizing the protest.
The protesters walked from Keehi Lagoon Beach Park to the Navy Facilities Engineering Systems Command Headquarters at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.
More than five dozen organizations supported the march.
Healani Sonoda-Pale, a community organizer with the Oahu Water Protectors, said in the news release that many other locations have been impacted by PFA contamination and that protesters flew in from Guam to join the march.
“People throughout Oceania and all across the continent are finding elevated levels of PFAS in their drinking water, in their fish, in their blood — nearly all sourced to Department of Defense facilities,” she said. “We have Chamoru who flew in from Guåhan [Guam], Okinawans marching shoulder to shoulder with us today because they know what it’s like to have this liquid cancer contaminating their homelands. …To think that we may be witnessing the U.S. military poison children who will be born after we have passed on — after we have become ancestors.”
“We have to shut down Red Hill before we witness our island, our home, our future get destroyed on our watch. This is the fight of our generation,” she added.
When asked about the protest by Spectrum News Hawaii, the Joint Task Force Red Hill Public Affairs said that "Joint Task Force Red Hill remains committed to safely and expeditiously defueling the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility. We continue to work with the regulatory agencies to speed up the defueling process, while also ensuring we take every precaution to mitigate risk to the local community and the environment."
Michelle Broder Van Dyke covers the Hawaiian Islands for Spectrum News Hawaii. Email her ideas and feedback at michelle.brodervandyke@charter.com.