Red Hill WAI Act
Bill: S.3647 | Sponsor: Sen. Schatz, Brian (D-HI)
Policy area: Armed Forces and National Security

Summary:
Red Hill Watershed and Aquifer Initiative Act or the Red Hill WAI Act
This bill requires the Department of the Navy to discontinue all fuel operations at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility in Hawaii and permanently close the facility in accordance with relevant Environmental Protection Agency regulations.
Among other responsibilities, the Navy must reimburse the Honolulu Board of Water Supply and the Hawaii State Departments of Health and Education for expenditures made in response to the threats posed by operations at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility.

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 Representatives 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 Bulk Fuel Storage Facility (in this 
        section referred to as the ``Red Hill facility'') was 
        constructed in September 1943.
            (2) The Red Hill facility was constructed underground in 
        hollowed-out volcanic rock to allow for maximum protection of 
        the fuel supply.
            (3) The 20 steel tanks of the Red Hill facility are encased 
        by 2.5 to 4 feet of concrete and surrounded by basalt bedrock.
            (4) The Red Hill facility is the largest single fuel 
        storage facility of the Department of Defense in the Pacific 
        theater.
            (5) The Red Hill facility can store approximately 
        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 approximately 100 feet 
        above the basal groundwater table and sits directly above the 
        federally designated sole-source groundwater aquifer of the 
        island of Oahu, the Southern Oahu Basal Aquifer, which provides 
        approximately 77 percent of the drinking water of Oahu.
            (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.
            (8) Fuel leaks from the Red Hill facility pose an 
        existential threat to the federally designated sole-source 
        groundwater aquifer of Oahu.
            (9) The Navy and the Defense Logistics Agency are 
        responsible for protecting the public from unscheduled fuel 
        leaks that may pose a risk to 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 contents 
        of USTs 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 drinking water for 
        nearly half of all people in the United States.
            (11) To address a nationwide problem of leaking USTs, 
        Congress passed a series of laws to protect human health and 
        the environment, including the Solid Waste Disposal Act (Public 
        Law 89-272), the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act 
        of 1986 (Public Law 99-499), the Energy Policy Act of 2005 
        (Public Law 109-58), and the American Recovery and Reinvestment 
        Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5) (commonly referred to as the 
        ``Recovery Act'').
            (12) The State of Hawaii obtained Environmental Protection 
        Agency State Program approval, effective on September 2, 2002, 
        for the UST program of Hawaii to operate in lieu of the UST 
        program of the Environmental Protection Agency.
            (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 Administrative 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 Consent 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 eight 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.
                    (E) Corrosion and metal fatigue practices.
                    (F) Investigation and remediation of releases.
                    (G) Groundwater protection and evaluation.
                    (H) Risk and vulnerability assessment.
            (16) On May 6, 2021, a burst pipeline in Red Hill spilled 
        fuel into the lower access tunnel of the facility and the Navy 
        failed to recover the entirety of the leaked fuel. Although the 
        Navy initially estimated that 1,618 gallons of fuel spilled, 
        with all but 38 gallons recovered, several months later, the 
        amount of fuel spilled estimated by the Navy increased to 
        19,000 gallons, with most of the spilled fuel not recovered.
            (17) On November 20, 2021, the Navy announced 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 announced that the 
        water and fuel mixture was removed 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.
            (19) On November 28, 2021, military families and civilians 
        living in the Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam military housing 
        installation began reporting contaminated tap water.
            (20) Impacted families shared personal experiences 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 impacted homes that 
        continued to make that 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 Navy to suspend operations and defuel the Red Hill 
        Facility. That emergency order was contested by the Navy in 
        late December, and on January 3, 2022, it was reaffirmed 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 of Hawaii, 
        the Department of Health of Hawaii, 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 order of the State of Hawaii to drain the fuel 
        tanks.
            (25) On December 10, 2021, the Navy confirmed samples taken 
        from the Navy Red Hill Shaft contained fuel levels 350 times 
        more than the safe drinking limit in the State of Hawaii.
            (26) On February 2, 2022, the Department of Justice filed 
        an appeal in both Federal and State court regarding the order 
        of the State of Hawaii to defuel the Red Hill Facility.

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
            (3) permanently close the facility in accordance with 
        relevant regulations prescribed by the Administrator of the 
        Environmental Protection Agency.
    (b) Navy Responsibility.--
            (1) In general.--The Navy shall retain ownership and 
        possession of the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility and the 
        property on which such facility is located.
            (2) Cleanup.--Consistent with existing Navy and legal 
        requirements, the Secretary of the Navy shall remain 
        responsible for the environmental condition of the Red Hill 
        Bulk Fuel Storage Facility.
            (3) Cleanup costs.--The Navy shall be responsible 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 spill or leak that occurred at the 
                facility since the opening of the facility until 
                November 2021.
            (4) 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 
        Education for expenditures made in response to the threats 
        posed by operations at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility, 
        including expenditures made to drill new drinking water wells 
        and to install monitoring wells (both monitoring wells that 
        were previously installed and to be installed).
            (5) Research.--The Secretary of the Navy shall conduct 
        relevant near-to-mid term research relating to the 
        environmental condition of the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage 
        Facility, including relating to hydrology and water monitoring.
    (c) Establishment of New Facilities.--The Secretary 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 Representatives.
    (e) Hawaii Department of Health Emergency Order.--The Navy shall 
comply with the emergency order of the Hawaii Department of Health 
issued on December 6, 2021, which directs the Navy to carry out the 
following:
            (1) Immediately suspend operations at the bulk fuel storage 
        tanks at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility, including 
        fuel transfers, and continue to maintain environmental and 
        monitoring controls.
            (2) Take immediate steps to install a drinking water 
        treatment system or systems at Red Hill Shaft to ensure 
        distribution of drinking water conforms to the standards 
        prescribed by the Safe Drinking Water Act and applicable 
        Federal and State regulations. Those steps should also minimize 
        movement of the contaminant plume or plumes.
            (3) Submit a workplan and implementation schedule prepared 
        by a qualified independent third party approved by the State of 
        Hawaii Department of Health, to assess the operations and 
        system integrity to safely defuel the bulk fuel storage tanks 
        at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility.
            (4) Upon approval by the State of Hawaii Department of 
        Health of the assessment, workplan, and implementation schedule 
        under paragraph (3), make necessary corrective actions to 
        address any deficiencies as expeditiously as possible.
            (5) Not later than 30 days after completion of required 
        corrective actions under paragraph (4), remove fuel from the 
        bulk fuel storage tanks at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage 
        Facility.
            (6) Submit a workplan and implementation schedule prepared 
        by a qualified independent third party approved by the State of 
        Hawaii Department of Health, to assess operations and system 
        integrity of the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility to 
        determine design and operational deficiencies that may impact 
        the environment and develop recommendations for corrective 
        action.
            (7) Upon approval by the State of Hawaii Department of 
        Health of the assessment, workplan, and implementation schedule 
        under paragraph (6), 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.
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