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Melissa Harris-Perry: I'm Melissa Harris-Perry. This is The Takeaway. Earlier this month the Pentagon announced it would be closing the Red Hill Fuel Facility in Hawaii, amid a contamination crisis affecting thousands of people in O’ahu. The facility, which consists of 20 massive tanks is located just 100 feet above the primary drinking aquifer in O’ahu. For years, petroleum has been found in the water supply. Native Hawaiians have demanded the dismantling of the World War II era facility with months of protesting, including a demonstration outside the headquarters of the US Pacific Fleet in December.

[protestors chanting]

To better understand the contamination crisis, we spoke with an expert close to the issue.

Dr. Kamanamaikalani Beamer: My name is Dr. Kamanamaikalani Beamer, I am the Dana Naone Hall Chair at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. I'm also a member of O’ahu Water Protectors and Kaohewai.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Dr. Beamer, walk me through how the contamination crisis began.

Dr. Kamanamaikalani Beamer: We really should go back to the beginning of the construction of these tanks. There are 20 tanks they're gigantic in size, roughly 250 feet tall and about 100 feet wide. Each of these tanks can hold about 2.5 million gallons of fuel and they were constructed in the midst of World War II finished in 1943. Over the years, they've been broken down and corroded. They're steel tanks that are lined with concrete and because of our saltwater environment, they've just corroded and leaked over time.

Leading up to where we are today in 2022, there's been successive leaks probably in the area of 180,000 gallons of fuel that have been spilled out of these tanks. They sit 100 feet above O’ahu's most important sole source aquifer, really the source of drinking water for nearly 400,000 residents of O’ahu Island. In 2014 I was a member of the State Water Resource Management Commission. At that time about 27,000 gallons of fuel leaked out of the tanks and was unaccounted for. It was really all hands on deck, our local regulators and then politicians sounded the alarm.

Unfortunately, over time just the power of the military-industrial complex and I think some people's trust allowed these tanks to really go unaddressed. The EPA got involved, our Hawaii State Department of Health, and the Navy. They signed an agreement called an Order of Authorization of Consent. That was really a plan that many people spoke out against. It was going to allow the Navy another 20 years to deal with these leaks. At that time, our water commission was really promised that we'd never have a catastrophic leak.

That they had the most thorough and robust systems in place to prevent any future spills. We were promised that they would never allow their own servicemen and women to be poisoned because we all drank out of the same aquifer. However, none of those things were truthful. In late 2021 right around Thanksgiving actually, servicemen and women on base started to report the smell of fuel coming out of their kitchen sinks, their showers, their bathtubs and that's really where this whole thing unraveled.

At that time, initially, the Navy said the water was safe about a day later. They said, there's no evidence the water isn't safe. It took weeks to get the test results that came out of the wells. When they initially came back, they were over 350 times safe drinkable limits for petroleum hydrocarbons which, to be frank, no one should ever drink.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Talk to me about the impacted populations, service members, yes, but what has this meant for indigenous Hawaiians?

Dr. Kamanamaikalani Beamer: The military has a long and complex history with Kānaka Maoli, with Oiwi, with native Hawaiians. Some of us have served in the military. My own grandfather was in World War II and passed away as a result of the radioactive testing across the Pacific during that time when they were developing these massive weapons of war. Some of our indigenous Kānaka also consumed the water and were affected. This is a travesty. This is the most severe attack on our public trust resources that we've ever had in our islands.

People were sick and pets hospitalized. There are still schools across the O’ahu that have no safe drinking water, no water in the schools. It's a major travesty but from a native Hawaiian broader worldview and perspective, our ancestors really looked at water as the most precious resource. We deified natural systems and resources because they gave our islands and our people life. One of our sayings is Ola i ka Wai and that translates roughly to living because of water.

Our ancestors really understood that that's not just about people living. That's about the unique niche ecosystems that exist across our islands from anchialine shrimp to these amazing opah fish that swim up our streams and let their eggs down into the nearshore environments. Our islands are tremendously connected where high islands and water is really what allows life to survive in the middle of the Pacific, the most physically isolated islands on the planet.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Are people getting sick?

Dr. Kamanamaikalani Beamer: At one of our recent rallies, there was a mother, her husband was out on active duty. I believe he was in a submarine and may not even have known that his family drank contaminated water. She shared the results of her daughter recent testing for petroleum that she had ingested. Still had really high counts and lingering effects from the jet fuel she consumed as a result of this contamination. Many got sick.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Has the Navy responded in a way that is both seeking to remediate and to make amends?

Dr. Kamanamaikalani Beamer: The truth is even after they had spilled in May of 2021, the Navy was in the midst of this contested case here in with the Department of Health. Although they had promised full transparency after 2014 and that they wanted to work very closely with the community. The truth is that Hawaii officials were only made aware of these leaks that were happening in May because of whistleblowers. Brave, I don't know if it was a serviceman or woman but they were confidential whistleblowers that leaked the news.

That even in the midst of this contested case hearing, the Navy was withholding evidence. The Department of Health at that time potentially wasn't going to approve the underground storage permits for these tanks. The Navy was withholding this evidence. Really, this crisis became-- Prior to jet fuel coming out of people's sinks where there was clear evidence of it, the disclosures were happening because of whistleblowers. The Navy has not unfortunately been transparent but once people did consume fuel and and they were forced to have to address the issue.

At one point the Secretary of the Navy came out to our islands and this is almost difficult for me to say and I'm not quoting him verbatim. It left such an extreme feeling of distrust and disgust when he visited our islands. He said this in an open, under questioning where he said, "It's not the fuel in the tanks that are making people sick, it's the fuel in the water." It was really in poor and bad taste. I'm not trying to be disparaging in any way, but for a leader to do that in the midst of this crisis was really unfortunate.

Now, after these courageous calls for the decommissioning of tanks, you had these community groups that formed O’ahu Water Protectors and Kaohewai. We began holding rallies and events across the islands. We tried to make them as COVID safe as possible with social distancing and masking. We did stage the die-in event and a rise-up event to symbolize if we don't have clean safe water in our islands there can be no life. They really started to garner the attention I think of broader public and the head of the US military has called for the formal decommissioning of the tanks.

It shows the importance I think of community activism.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Dr. Kamanamaikalani Beamer who is Professor at the University of Hawaiʻi and a member of the O’ahu Water Protectors. Thank you for joining us.

Dr. Kamanamaikalani Beamer: Thank you so much.

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