A brand new army evaluation has recognized 153 repairs that have to be made to the pipelines on the Navy‘s Pink Hill gas facility with a view to safely defuel it.
That is on high of 43 crucial repairs recognized 5 months in the past by Simpson, Gumpertz &Heger, a third-party contractor, solely 5 of which have since been accomplished.
The newly recognized repairs are estimated to take practically a 12 months to finish, however the Division of Protection says they should not prolong its proposed timeline for draining the underground tanks, which is slated for completion in July 2024.
The repairs have been mentioned in a supplementary report that the DOD submitted Wednesday to the state Division of Well being as a part of the Navy’s Pink Hill defueling plan.
The DOD contractor finishing the pipeline evaluation discovered that the Pink Hill piping system was in “honest to passable situation ” and “serviceable to help defueling operations, ” based on the report. DOD discovered that 125 of the 153 repairs had not but been recognized, whereas others have been already underneath contract. It described many of the repairs as “comparatively minor, ” akin to tightening fasteners on valves and putting in new wheel nuts. One other 26 of the repairs require design work, based on DOD, and shall be put underneath an current design-build pipeline restore contract.
Protection officers say they plan to submit a complete listing of repairs to state well being officers by the top of October.
The brand new pipeline evaluation relied on superior expertise, akin to ultrasonic testing, whereas the earlier report was based mostly on visible inspections, based on the DOD.
Most of the 43 repairs recognized by Simpson, Gumpertz & Heger in its April report stay within the early phases of completion. 5 are accomplished and 4 are nearing completion, based on DOD paperwork. For 18 of the repairs, 15 %
or much less of the work has been accomplished. The Navy is searching for various options for among the repairs, whereas evaluating whether or not they can safely disregard others.
For instance, Simpson, Gumpertz & Heger’s report recognized the restore of a portion of Pink Hill’s hearth suppression system as crucial for defueling. On Might 6, 2021, gas leaked from a Pink Hill pipe throughout a gas switch. About 19, 000 gallons of the gas was sucked up right into a pipeline that is purported to reclaim aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF ) after it is deployed throughout a fireplace. AFFF, which incorporates poisonous chemical compounds, is used to extinguish gas fires. That gas, unbeknownst to staff, based on a Navy investigation, then sat within the pipeline for months till it was hit by a trolley automobile in November and burst, spewing gas right into a tunnel for hours.
The AFFF retention line was broken past use after holding the gas for months.
The Navy seeks to keep away from changing the mile-long pipeline, saying that it might delay defueling the ability. The DOD estimates that the work could not be accomplished till the top of December 2023.
The DOD says that it has a backup pumping system that it could actually depend on within the occasion of a fireplace during which AFFF is deployed.
Beneath a worst-case situation, during which 24, 000 gallons of AFFF and water is launched, the answer might be recovered from the decrease tank gallery and sumps inside about 4 hours underneath the ability’s backup system, based on DOD studies.
If the AFFF retention line was changed and the system restored to its unique design, the AFFF and water answer could be recovered in underneath an hour, based on a Navy spokesperson.
State well being officers nonetheless must approve the Navy’s defueling plans.
U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz stated the DOD must do extra to expedite repairs. The prospect of roughly 100 million gallons of gas remaining within the underground tanks for one more two years has alarmed native officers nervous that further leaks on the Pink Hill Bulk Gas Storage Facility might additional pollute the aquifer.
“The DOD must be on an emergency footing and deal with this like an ongoing emergency, ” stated Schatz. “They need to do higher and transfer sooner.”
In March, the Pentagon ordered the Navy’s Pink Hill gas facility to be drained and completely shut down after jet gas from the 2021 leaks polluted the Navy’s consuming water system, sickening army households residing round Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.
Additionally, the Navy is underneath strain this week from state regulators for discharging untreated or partially handled sewage into the ocean, in addition to associated upkeep failures at its Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam wastewater therapy plant. Earlier this week DOH introduced that it was fining the army $8.7 million for the environmental breaches.
On Thursday the Navy introduced that there was one other failure at its wastewater therapy plant, with greater than 1, 000 gallons of wastewater spilling into Pearl Harbor close to Pier B-23 after a 12-inch wastewater line break.
It took about 5 hours to comprise the leak, and the state Well being Division was notified, the Navy stated in a information launch. The pipeline had been scheduled to get replaced at first of October underneath a Naval Services Engineering Programs Command contract.
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