U.S. Sens. Brian Schatz and Mazie Hirono and U.S. Reps. Ed Case and Kai Kahele on Monday said an independent investigation initiated by Congress must be conducted to determine how the Department of Defense and the Navy addressed spills of AFFF at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility.
The congressional call comes a day after Honolulu Civil Beat reported that the Navy spilled toxic fire suppressant, known as Aqueous Film Forming Foam or AFFF, at the Red Hill fuel facility in 2020 but told health inspectors that no foam had been released.
The Navy also spilled over 1,100 gallons of the concentrated form of AFFF at Red Hill on Nov. 29, but the military agency has not determined what caused the spill and will not release the video of the spill to the public.
AFFF foam is used to suppress fires caused by flammable liquids such as fuel and contains PFAS, which are known as forever chemicals because they are very slow to degrade. PFAs increase the risk of certain cancers, high blood pressure in pregnant women and other health problems.
“The November 29th leak of a fire suppression system at the Red Hill complex that spilled over 1,100 gallons of AFFF into the environment, as well as other previous PFAS contamination events affecting Red Hill and Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, have potentially exposed the community surrounding the Red Hill complex to enduring threats to their health,” the delegation wrote in a letter to Gene Dodaro, the Comptroller General of the Government Accountability Office. “This community and the people of Hawaii deserve answers regarding how the Navy undertook efforts to address these incidents and complete the clean-up and remediation of impacted sites.”
The letter asks if the Navy “inappropriately (withheld) any pertinent information from state and federal regulators” during any PFAS exposure investigations.
It also asks if any previously cleaned PFAS sites need further cleaning and testing.
The full text of the letter can be found here.
Michelle Broder Van Dyke covers the Hawaiian Islands for Spectrum News Hawaii. Email her ideas and feedback at michelle.brodervandyke@charter.com.