We recently posted about how on the 80th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, over 1,000 military families have been forced from their homes and suffered illness by drinking water apparently contaminated by petroleum from a leaking, World War II era, underground fuel storage facility on the base in Oahu, Hawaii. The State of Hawaii issued an emergency order compelling the Navy to empty the massive storage tanks and make needed repairs. The Navy objected to the order.

Now, David Day, Hawaii deputy attorney general, has upheld the emergency order, saying that the fuel storage facility at Pearl Harbor is a “ticking time bomb” that the U.S. military is unable to manage. 

The Washington Post reports that the Hawaii Department of Health on Dec. 6 ordered the Navy to suspend operations at Red Hill, which officials have described as the most important fuel depot in the Pacific. The Navy fought the order, saying in testimony last week that its decision to pause operations, rush water-filtration systems to the island and investigate the leak was an adequate response. 

The Navy’s water system serves about 93,000 people at and near Pearl Harbor. The Red Hill water shaft, the site of the November contamination, is near the huge facility of 20 underground steel fuel tanks encased in concrete, each about 20 stories tall. The tanks were carved into the basalt rock after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, following concerns that aboveground fuel depots would be targets for subsequent strikes.

Red Hill was constructed about 100 feet above Oahu’s sole drinking-water aquifer. Leaks and contamination issues have plagued the facility for years, culminating in a November spill that percolated into a well used by military families and civilians near the base.

Day said problems at Red Hill threaten more than the Navy water supply, given the aquifer’s role serving Oahu. The 76 spills since World War II, resulting in leaks of nearly 200,000 gallons of fuel, probably constitute an undercount, he wrote, adding the Navy’s oversight has failed to keep up with the aging infrastructure. The tanks, he said, “have a serious corrosion problem that the Navy will be unable to address over time.”