Navy’s Accidental Water Contamination Affects Over 400k Hawai’i Residents

Recent water quality tests at containment facilities near Pearl Harbor on Oahu in late November uncovered extreme levels of petroleum fuel contamination, forcing the shutdown of a major well for island residents. The petroleum-contaminated water was recorded with more than 350 times the safe level of possible hydrocarbon contaminants forcing the shutdown on December 3rd.

Hundreds of military families in the impacted area were affected with reported cases of mouth and body sores, pet sickness, stomach issues, and other attributable illnesses. Preliminary concerns were first warranted when residents reported their water smelling and tasting like gasoline, corroborating the recent illnesses. This shocking public health threat has forced the relocation of at least 3,000 Pearl Harbor-Hickam military families and posed risks to several day cares, schools, and hundreds of businesses. 

Investigations into the contamination suggested wells were originally contaminated after jet fuel spilled into access tunnels on November 20th. The spill was immediately cleaned and responded to, but not before contaminants could leach through to underground water wells. 

Residents are rightly upset due to the Navy's knowledge about the spill, potential health threats, and their inability to take necessary preventative steps until a week after the initial fuel accident. Governor David Ige described the contamination as a crisis, and state health officials have since suspended activities at the Red Hill well and ordered the Navy to clean up all impacted water systems. 

The Navy has taken full responsibility for the accident and plans to clean up the petroleum spill by completely flushing the Red Hill well with more than 25 million gallons of clean drinking water before assessing other potentially affected systems. Nevertheless, the event has put a bad taste in many Hawaii residents’ mouths and added extreme caution in regards to the cleanliness and safety of their water. 

Closing the major well near the state’s capital Honolulu has also elicited a response from the state department telling residents to conserve water to mitigate potential future shortages. The Halawa well directly contributes water to more than 400k residents and local businesses, and the cleaning process is expected to take several weeks.

Biden’s $1 Trillion Infrastructure Bill Could Be a Step Towards Improving America’s Aging Water Infrastructure and Protecting It From Climate Change

In September of 2021, Vox released an article exploring the drinking water crisis impacting millions of people across the country. In this article, Li Zhou performs an in-depth case study on the drinking water crisis in Jackson, Mississippi, specifically. The resident that Zhou interviewed has been using bottled water for cooking and drinking for years due to the city’s unsafe and frequently interrupted drinking water service. This past winter, a sudden period of extreme cold caused pipes to burst and left approximately 40,000 Jackson residents without access to water for over two weeks. Many cities around the United States are facing similar consequences of poor water infrastructure. A report from McKinsey found that, on average, anywhere from 14-18% of total daily treated, potable drinking water in the United States is lost due to leaking, with some water systems reporting much higher loss rates of over 60%. 

Water infrastructure in the United States is extremely outdated, with the average US water-network pipe being at least 45 years old and some cast-iron pipes being over 100 years old. Aside from the aging water infrastructure, the increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events caused by climate change are expected to further strain drinking water supplies around the country and the world. Replacing water infrastructure is a massive but necessary project that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates will take $839 million/year to replace and monitor. However, the United States has historically been slow to adapt and invest in new technology to improve health, safety, and efficiency. 

Aside from improvements to the physical infrastructure, researchers have also argued that stronger enforcement of drinking water regulations is essential for improving the overall safety of drinking water in the United States. Many water systems around the country do not comply with requirements outlined in the Clean Water Act. However, they have been allowed to continue to operate due to inadequate enforcement of the Act. Another issue threatening drinking water supplies is the lack of regulations for discharging wastewater. Improper wastewater discharge can result in excessive amounts of phosphorus and nitrogen entering waterways which causes algae blooms.

More recently, the House passed Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure bill, which includes a total of $1 trillion in funding to repair aging infrastructure, fund new climate initiatives, expand access to high-speed internet service, and more. The bill has specifically carved out $48 billion to fund water-related repairs, such as replacing lead pipes and studying emerging water contaminants. Individual states have quite a bit of freedom in determining how such funding will be spent. Still, the passing of this bill is a step in a positive direction towards improving the nation’s drinking water infrastructure.