HONOLULU — A video of the Navy’s AFFF spill at Red Hill was shown to the Department of Health and the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday, according to a Navy news release. However, the DOH urges the Navy to release the video to the public.  

What You Need To Know

  • The Navy spilled 1,100 gallons of toxic fire suppressant, known as Aqueous Film Forming Foam or AFFF, at the Navy’s Red Hill fuel facility on Nov. 29

  • Footage of the spill was captured by a video camera outside of Adit 6 at the Red Hill facility

  • The Navy said it showed the video to Hawaii Department of Health and the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday

  • However, the Navy said it won't publicly release the video until its investigation into the spill is complete 

The Navy spilled 1,100 gallons of toxic fire suppressant, known as Aqueous Film Forming Foam or AFFF, at the Navy’s Red Hill fuel facility on Nov. 29. AFFF 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.  

Footage of the spill was captured by a video camera outside of Adit 6 at the Red Hill facility. 

“The footage is part of the Department of Defense investigation into the incident and will be publicly released when doing so will no longer affect the course of the investigation,” the Navy’s release said. 

At a press conference on Nov. 30, Navy Adm. John Wade originally said there were no security cameras at the location of the leak.

The Navy has not yet determined how or when the AFFF was spilled. 

Katie Arita-Chang, a spokesperson for the DOH, confirmed to Spectrum News Hawaii that DOH staff had viewed the AFFF spill surveillance video on Dec. 8 at a military facility. 

“We are working with the Department of the Attorney General to obtain the video’s public release and to determine whether DOH may legally share information from the viewing at this time,” said Arita-Chang. “DOH remains concerned about this incident and urges the Department of Defense to release the video for public viewing.”

The Navy also said in the news release that remediation efforts continue. Soil samples are being collected from the site of the leak to test for PFAs. The test samples are being sent to a U.S. EPA-certified lab that is not on Oahu, and results are expected next week. 

In order to monitor water quality, the Navy is collecting groundwater samples from nine monitoring wells near the leak of the AFFF. The Navy is also collecting samples from the Red Hill shaft, which the Navy stopped using after last year’s fuel leak at the Red Hill storage facility. 

The Navy said that excavating soil around the spill site is now complete. Last week at the news conference, Rear Admiral Stephen Barnett said his team was working to remediate the spill by excavating contaminated surfaces.

A storm culvert that runs beneath the access road near the spill site is scheduled to be removed too. 

Some people in Hawaii have already lost trust in the Navy after last year’s fuel leak, as thousands of families that live near Pearl Harbor were sickened. Since the fuel leak, activists have held protests and passed out water to affected families. 

With the AFFF spill, organizers are also holding rallies and encouraging Hawaii residents to ask Congressional members to require the Navy to bring in emergency responders to handle the latest spill. 

“A few parts per quadrillion of PFAS (a key ingredient in the type of foam used at the facility) is enough to exceed the EPA's ‘safe’ limit for these chemicals. In other words, a few gallons of PFAS may be enough to render thousands of trillions of gallons of water potentially unsafe to drink,” wrote Wayne Tanaka, the director for the Sierra Club of Hawaii, in a news release about the Navy’s latest spill.  

Michelle Broder Van Dyke covers the Hawaiian Islands for Spectrum News Hawaii. Email her ideas and feedback at michelle.brodervandyke@charter.com.

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