I 
117TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 6714 
To direct the Secretary of the Navy to close the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage 
Facility in Hawaii, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
FEBRUARY 11, 2022 
Mr. KAHELE (for himself and Mr. CASE) introduced the following bill; which 
was referred to the Committee on Armed Services 
A BILL 
To direct the Secretary of the Navy to close the Red Hill 
Bulk Fuel Storage Facility in Hawaii, and for other 
purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Red Hill Watershed 
and Aquifer Initiative Act’’ or the ‘‘Red Hill WAI Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress makes the following findings: 
(1) The Red Hill Underground Fuel Storage 
Facility (in this section referred to as the ‘‘Red Hill 
facility’’ ) was constructed in September 1943. 
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(2) The Red Hill facility was constructed un-
derground in hollowed-out volcanic rock to allow for 
maximum protection of the fuel supply. 
(3) The Red Hill facility’s 20 steel tanks are 
encased by 2.5 to 4 feet of concrete and surrounded 
by basalt bedrock. 
(4) The Red Hill facility is the largest single 
Department of Defense fuel storage facility in the 
Pacific theater. 
(5) The Red Hill facility can store approxi-
mately 250,000,000 gallons of fuel. The fuels stored 
are marine diesel, F–76, and two types of jet fuel: 
JP–5 and JP–8. 
(6) The Red Hill facility is located approxi-
mately 100 feet above the basal groundwater table 
and sits directly above the island of Oahu’s federally 
designated sole-source groundwater aquifer, the 
Southern Oahu Basal Aquifer, which provides ap-
proximately 77 percent of Oahu’s drinking water. 
(7) Historic records compiled by the Navy in a 
2008 groundwater protection plan indicate that the 
Red Hill facility has had dozens of fuel leaks dating 
back to 1947. 
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(8) The Red Hill facility’s fuel leaks pose an ex-
istential threat to Oahu’s federally designated sole- 
source groundwater aquifer. 
(9) The Navy and the Defense Logistics Agency 
are responsible for protecting the public from un-
scheduled fuel leaks that may pose a risk to the 
drinking water. 
(10) Until the mid-1980s most underground 
storage tanks (in this section referred to as 
‘‘USTs’’) were made of bare steel, which is likely to 
corrode over time and allow UST contents to leak 
into the environment. The greatest potential hazard 
from a leaking UST is that its contents (petroleum 
or other hazardous substances) can seep into the soil 
and contaminate groundwater, the source of drink-
ing water for nearly half of all Americans. 
(11) To address a nationwide problem of leak-
ing USTs, Congress passed a series of laws to pro-
tect human health and the environment, including 
the Solid Waste Disposal Act, the Superfund 
Amendments Reauthorization Act, the Energy Policy 
Act of 2005, and the American Recovery And Rein-
vestment Act of 2009 (commonly referred to as the 
‘‘Recovery Act’’). 
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(12) The State of Hawaii obtained Environ-
mental Protection Agency State Program approval, 
effective on September 2, 2002, for Hawaii’s UST 
program to operate in lieu of the Environmental 
Protection Agency UST program. 
(13) In January 2014, The Red Hill facility 
leaked approximately 27,000 gallons of fuel. 
(14) In 2015, the Environmental Protection 
Agency and the State of Hawaii Department of 
Health negotiated an enforceable agreement, an Ad-
ministrative Order on Consent, with the Navy and 
the Defense Logistics Agency (EPA DKT NO. 
RCRA 7003–R9–2015–01/DOH DKT NO. 15– 
UST–EA–01). 
(15) The 2015 Administrative Order on Con-
sent includes a Statement of Work that lays out the 
specific tasks the Navy and the Defense Logistics 
Agency must implement. The Statement of Work 
consists of 8 sections on overall project management, 
as follows: 
(A) Tank inspection. 
(B) Repair and maintenance. 
(C) Tank upgrade alternatives. 
(D) Release detection and tank tightness 
testing. 
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(E) Corrosion and metal fatigue practices. 
(F) Investigation and remediation of re-
leases. 
(G) Groundwater protection and evalua-
tion. 
(H) Risk and vulnerability assessment. 
(16) On May 6, 2021, a burst pipeline in Red 
Hill spilled fuel into the facility’s lower access tunnel 
and the Navy failed to recover the entirety of the 
leaked fuel. While the Navy initially estimated that 
1,618 gallons of fuel spilled, with all but 38 gallons 
recovered, several months later, the Navy’s esti-
mated amount of fuel spilled increased to 19,000 
gallons, with most of the spilled fuel not recovered. 
(17) On November 20, 2021, the Navy an-
nounced a spill of 14,000 gallons of a water and fuel 
mixture from a fire suppression drain line located 
0.25 miles downhill of the fuel tanks at Red Hill due 
to operator error. 
(18) On November 22, 2021, the Navy an-
nounced that the water and fuel mixture was re-
moved from the tunnel and put into a storage tank 
above ground and that there were no signs that the 
fuel had escaped into the environment. The Navy 
communicated that the water was safe to drink. 
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(19) On November 28, 2021, military families 
and civilians living in the Joint Base Pearl Harbor- 
Hickam military housing installation began report-
ing contaminated tap water. 
(20) Impacted families shared personal experi-
ences of the immediate and ongoing health impacts 
of exposure to the contaminated water in their 
homes including chemical burns, stomach and head 
pain, dizziness and nauseousness, rashes and more. 
(21) Families reported noxious odors in im-
pacted homes that continued to make this housing 
unsuitable for many families. 
(22) After it was definitively confirmed that the 
Red Hill well was contaminated with petroleum, the 
State of Hawaii Department of Health issued an 
emergency order on December 6, 2021, to the 
United States Navy to suspend operations and 
defuel the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility. That 
emergency order was contested by the Navy in late 
December, and on January 3, 2022, it was re-
affirmed by the State of Hawaii, Department of 
Health in its final decision and order. 
(23) The December 6, 2021, emergency order 
has had broad support from the communities of 
Oahu, the Governor, the Department of Health, 
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State Commission on Water Resource Management, 
the City and County Board of Water Supply, city 
council members, and State legislators. In short, the 
whole-of-government in Hawaii believes that the 
Navy should comply with the emergency order. 
(24) On December 7, 2021 the Navy announced 
that they will contest the State of Hawaii’s order to 
drain the fuel tanks. 
(25) On December 10, 2021, the Navy con-
firmed samples taken from the Navy Red Hill Shaft 
contained fuel levels 350 times more than the State 
of Hawaii’s safe drinking limit. 
(26) On February 2, 2022, the Department of 
Justice filed an appeal in both Federal and State 
court over the State of Hawaii’s order to defuel Red 
Hill. 
SEC. 3. CLOSURE OF NAVY RED HILL BULK FUEL STORAGE 
FACILITY, HAWAII. 
(a) CLOSURE REQUIRED.—The Secretary of the 
Navy shall— 
(1) discontinue all fuel operations at the Red 
Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility in Hawaii; 
(2) defuel all bulk fuel storage tanks located at 
the facility by not later than December 31, 2022; 
and 
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(3) permanently close the facility in accordance 
with relevant Environmental Protection Agency reg-
ulations. 
(b) NAVY RESPONSIBILITY.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—The Navy shall retain own-
ership and possession of the Red Hill Bulk Fuel 
Storage Facility and the property on which such fa-
cility is located. Consistent with existing Navy and 
legal requirements, the Secretary of the Navy shall 
remain responsible for the environmental condition 
of the property. 
(2) CLEANUP COSTS.—The Navy shall be re-
sponsible for all cleanup costs associated with— 
(A) the fuel spill that occurred at the Red 
Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility in November 
2021; and 
(B) each prior spill or leak that occurred 
at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility 
since the opening of the facility. 
(3) REIMBURSEMENT OF CERTAIN STATE AND 
LOCAL ENTITIES.—The Secretary of the Navy shall 
reimburse the Honolulu Board of Water Supply and 
the Hawaii State Departments of Health and Edu-
cation for expenditures made in response to the 
threats posed by operations at the Red Hill Bulk 
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Fuel Storage Facility, including expenditures made 
to drill new drinking water wells and to install moni-
toring wells (both monitoring wells that were pre-
viously installed and to be installed). 
(4) RESEARCH.—The Secretary of the Navy 
shall conduct relevant near-to-mid term research, in-
cluding on hydrology and water monitoring. 
(c) ESTABLISHMENT OF NEW FACILITIES.—The Sec-
retary of the Navy, in coordination with the Director of 
the Office of Naval Research, shall establish, at the site 
of the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility— 
(1) a water treatment facility; and 
(2) a permanent water quality testing facility. 
(d) MONTHLY REPORTS.—Not later than 30 days 
after the date of the enactment of this Act, and every 30 
days thereafter until all bulk fuel storage tanks located 
at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility have been 
defueled, the Secretary of Defense shall provide a report 
and briefing on the progress toward such defueling to— 
(1) the Committee on Armed Services and the 
Committee on Appropriations of the Senate; and 
(2) the Committee on Armed Services and the 
Committee on Appropriations of the House of Rep-
resentatives. 
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(e) HAWAII DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH EMERGENCY 
ORDER.—The Navy shall comply with the emergency 
order of the Hawaii Department of Health issued on De-
cember 6, 2021, which directs the Navy to carry out the 
following: 
(1) Immediately suspend operations at the Red 
Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Tanks, including fuel trans-
fers. The Navy must continue to maintain environ-
mental and monitoring controls. 
(2) Take immediate steps to install drinking 
water treatment system(s) at Red Hill Shaft to en-
sure distribution of drinking water conforms to the 
standards prescribed by the Federal Safe Drinking 
Water Act and applicable Federal and State regula-
tions. This action should also minimize movement of 
the contaminant plume(s). 
(3) Submit a workplan and implementation 
schedule within 30 days, prepared by a qualified 
independent third party approved by the State De-
partment of Health, to assess the operations and 
system integrity to safely defuel the Bulk Fuel Stor-
age Tanks. Upon the State Department of Health’s 
approval of the assessment, workplan and implemen-
tation schedule, the Navy must make necessary cor-
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rective actions to address any deficiencies as expedi-
tiously as possible. 
(4) Within 30 days of completion of required 
corrective actions, remove fuel from the Bulk Fuel 
Storage Tanks at the Red Hill facility. 
(5) Within 30 days, submit a workplan and im-
plementation schedule, prepared by a qualified inde-
pendent third party approved by the State Depart-
ment of Health, to assess operations and system in-
tegrity of the Red Hill facility to determine design 
and operational deficiencies that may impact the en-
vironment and develop recommendations for correc-
tive action. Upon the Department’s approval, the 
Navy must perform work and implement corrective 
actions as expeditiously as possible. 
(f) AUTHORIZATION
OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 
are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section 
such sums as may be necessary for each of fiscal years 
2023 through 2028. 
Æ 
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