When gasoline spilled from the Navy‘s Pink Hill facility in Hawaii and tainted the consuming water for hundreds of army houses in Hawaii, it sickened households and compelled hundreds to evacuate. However did that gasoline carry different dangerous toxins into individuals’s houses within the type of so-called endlessly chemical compounds?
If it did, the Navy is just not saying.
The Navy’s official report on the 2021 spill discovered that, after the gasoline escaped, it sat in a hearth suppression system line for months, the form of line that usually accommodates chemical compounds utilized in firefighting foams.
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A few of these chemical compounds, dubbed “endlessly chemical compounds” as a result of they don’t break down and formally often known as PFAS, are a group of practically 9,000 compounds which have business and industrial use. However additionally they can accumulate within the physique and have been linked to infertility, some forms of most cancers and start defects.
Throughout a Home listening to July 19, Rep. Kaiali’i Kahele, D-Hawaii, requested a Navy official concerning the potential for contamination with per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, on account of the gasoline leak into the Navy’s water system at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.
Kahele stated that he has “repeatedly” requested the Navy the query for the reason that spill.
“I needed to ask it once more should you had any info to substantiate that the discharge from the damaged [aqueous film forming foam, AFFF] line contained solely a mix of gasoline and water, petroleum product, however didn’t include any kind of fireplace retardant equivalent to PFAS?” Kahele requested throughout the Home Armed Providers Readiness Subcommittee listening to.
Vice Adm. Randy Crites, deputy chief of naval operations for capabilities and assets, replied that he did not know and would get again to Kahele.
However as of Thursday, Kahele’s workers couldn’t verify whether or not the Navy had responded.
Navy officers additionally didn’t reply by publication to a query from Navy.com about whether or not the service thought there have been PFAS within the contaminated water.
In November, the Navy’s World Battle II-era Pink Hill Bulk Gasoline Storage Facility unintentionally launched hundreds of gallons of gasoline and water right into a tunnel that homes a hearth suppression system drain line, ensuing within the contamination of a close-by consuming water nicely that serves Pearl Harbor.
The spill sickened a whole bunch of army households dwelling on or close to the set up, forcing them to rely solely on bottled water of their houses or to stay in inns for a number of months whereas the Navy labored to flush the strains and restore secure consuming water.
Provided that the gasoline that leaked into the Navy’s water system close to Pink Hill in November had been contained in a line meant to hold PFAS-containing firefighting foam, contamination would appear seemingly.
However the facility’s fundamental fireplace suppression system line was not absolutely purposeful, with its AFFF fireplace suppression system disabled for not less than a yr, in response to paperwork obtained by the Freedom of Data Act by the Hawaii media outlet Civil Beat, leaving the opportunity of extra contamination with PFAS unsure.
Throughout an inspection in early November 2021, the Occupational Security and Well being Administration decided that the system was succesful solely of deploying water within the occasion of a fireplace. The AFFF fireplace suppression system had been deliberately disabled following an “unknown mechanical failure” that raised considerations that it might doubtlessly pollute the atmosphere, in response to OSHA paperwork.
The AFFF strains had been drained and its valves locked, in response to the inspectors. The strains did include PFAS in some unspecified time in the future, as indicated by the leak that triggered the Navy to disable the automated system. However whether or not residual foam or PFAS remained within the system has not been decided.
A Navy engineer escorting the inspectors stated he was not conscious that the system had been disabled and was beneath the impression that the system was in “handbook” mode, that means the strains didn’t include firefighting foam however might be activated by an worker within the occasion of a fireplace.
On account of that inspection, OSHA served the Navy with two violations of office security requirements, to incorporate failing to keep up an enough fireplace security system and never telling staff concerning the danger.
The Navy accepted the discovering that it failed to inform its staff that the system was problematic, nevertheless it disagreed with the discovering that the system was insufficient.
“Though the water suppression functionality was absolutely purposeful, and would activate robotically as designed if a hearth have been detected, activation of the Aqueous Movie Forming Foam (AFFF) provide to the system was in handbook vice computerized mode,” wrote Rear Adm. Timothy Kott, commander of Navy Area Hawaii, in a letter to OSHA on April 21, 2022.
The Navy agreed to place up indicators warning staff that the AFFF system was in handbook mode and added {that a} watchstander be posted within the system’s pump home to activate the froth response as needed.
“Moreover, motion is being taken to return the AFFF provide portion of the system to full computerized mode by the tip of the month,” Kott wrote.
In its investigation of a spill that occurred on Might 6, 2021, dumping gasoline into the hearth suppression line, and the following Nov. 20 spill that polluted the bottom consuming water provide, the Navy additionally stated the AFFF used at Pink Hill met army specs established in 2017 that required considerably lowered ranges of two chemical compounds, PFOS and PFOA.
“Because of the age of the Pink Hill AFFF system, it has solely ever contained this new formulation,” they wrote within the investigation.
Assessments accomplished on the water following the November spill didn’t seem to measure for PFAS. The bottom itself is a recognized PFAS-contamination web site on account of long-term use of AFFF, in response to the Environmental Working Group, a watchdog nonprofit that displays PFAS websites nationwide.
The Environmental Safety Company stated in June that no quantity of PFAS publicity is secure and will trigger well being issues at “close to zero and beneath EPA’s capability to detect at the moment.”
In the course of the listening to, Kahele stated he stays involved.
“Making certain that PFAS, which is a really, very harmful chemical, clearly recognized to trigger most cancers, was not in that pipe and didn’t enter the Pink Hill nicely and, finally, was not consumed by our army service members and their households, it is actually, actually vital for these households to know that,” Kahele stated.
— Patricia Kime may be reached at Patricia.Kime@Navy.com. Observe her on Twitter @patriciakime
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