Statement by Regional Administrator Martha Guzman on the Drinking Water Emergency at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam and the Plan for EPA Inspections

 U.S. EPA News Release:

Statement by Regional Administrator Martha Guzman on the Drinking Water Emergency at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam and the Plan for EPA Inspections

SAN FRANCISCO – EPA Regional Administrator for the Pacific Southwest Martha Guzman issued the following statement today regarding EPA’s ongoing efforts to ensure a safe drinking water supply at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam and the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility. The EPA announced its intent to conduct inspections at the facility within weeks.

Statement from Regional Administrator Guzman:

EPA, an independent regulatory and executive agency, is committed to ensuring clean water for the residents of Hawaii and ensuring that the O’ahu aquifer is protected. The agency has been on the ground with an emergency response team since the earliest days following the November 2021 release and EPA Deputy Administrator Janet McCabe recently visited to see firsthand the ongoing work and engage with stakeholders. As Deputy Administrator McCabe has conveyed, EPA will continue to work diligently and leverage its authorities to ensure a safe drinking water supply.

As co-regulators with the Hawaii Department of Health, under the 2015 Joint Administrative Order on Consent (AOC), EPA has been engaged in a longstanding partnership with the state to require actions from Navy to take steps to ensure that the groundwater resource in the vicinity of the facility is protected and to ensure that the facility is operated and maintained in an environmentally protective manner, including groundwater monitoring and the completion of a comprehensive risk assessment. In connection with that ongoing work, the EPA and the Hawaii Department of Health are taking active measures in their oversight of the Navy’s groundwater monitoring to ensure the protection of the O’ahu aquifer.

Given the recent events impacting the drinking water supply, and EPA’s ongoing regulatory and oversight responsibilities related to the AOC, EPA will, within weeks, be conducting an underground storage tank inspection and a Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure (SPCC) and Facility Response Plan (FRP) inspection at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. The focus of the inspections will be to assess compliance with regulations governing underground storage tanks, aboveground tanks, and associated fuel transfer piping.

A copy of the letter notifying Navy of this action is available at: https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2022-02/notice-of-inspection-at-joint-base-pearl-harbor-hickham-2022-02-04.pdf

More information about EPA’s actions with regard to Red Hill can be found at: https://www.epa.gov/red-hill