After shut session with senior civilian and army leaders, I’ve determined to defuel and completely shut the Pink Hill bulk gasoline storage facility in Hawaii.
This can be a multi-step course of. All through the method, we are going to work carefully with the Hawaii Division of Well being and with the Environmental Safety Company to soundly defuel the Pink Hill facility. No later than Might 31, the Secretary of the Navy and Director of the Protection Logistics Company will present an motion plan for secure and expeditious defueling of the ability, with a completion date goal of 12 months. Then, as quickly as we now have made corrective actions to make sure that defueling will probably be secure, we are going to start defueling. Then we are going to transfer to completely shut the Pink Hill facility, together with conducting any and all mandatory environmental remediation across the facility.
That is the best factor to do.
Centrally-located bulk gasoline storage of this magnitude possible made sense in 1943, when Pink Hill was constructed. And Pink Hill has served our armed forces effectively for a lot of many years. But it surely makes loads much less sense now. The distributed and dynamic nature of our drive posture within the Indo-Pacific, the subtle threats we face, and the expertise obtainable to us demand an equally superior and resilient fueling functionality. To a big diploma, we already avail ourselves of dispersed fueling at sea and ashore, everlasting and rotational. We are going to now develop and speed up that strategic distribution.
Furthermore, after we use land for army functions, at residence or overseas, we decide to being good stewards of that useful resource. Closing Pink Hill meets that dedication.
We are going to proceed our work with the Hawaii Division of Well being, nationwide and native elected officers, and different group leaders, to wash up the water on the Pink Hill effectively. And we are going to develop an environmental mitigation plan to deal with any future contamination issues. Once we start to contemplate land-use choices for the property after the fueling facility is closed, we are going to keep in lockstep with communities in Hawaii. Nothing will probably be determined with out cautious and thorough session with our companions.
The identical goes for our workforce and their households. Your well being has been impacted, your lives and livelihoods have been disrupted, and in lots of instances, your very houses have been rendered unavailable to you. We owe you the easiest well being care we will present, solutions to your many questions, and clear, secure ingesting water. Fairly frankly, we owe you a return to regular. And you’ve got my dedication to that finish.
All through this course of, and transferring ahead, we now have remained grateful for the partnership and steerage of our federal, congressional, state, and group stakeholders. These consultations, which is able to proceed, have each knowledgeable and strengthened our planning, and we’re deeply appreciative of this help.
I set about reaching three priorities once I took this workplace: defend the nation, deal with our folks, and succeed by teamwork. I consider my choice to close down the Pink Hill bulk gasoline storage facility aligns with all three of those priorities.
The Secretary’s memorandum could be discovered right here; the Truth Sheet could be discovered right here.
