It’s the first time so-called PAH’s have been detected at the shuttered wells, although regulators disagree about whether the chemicals stem from the Navy’s fuel spill. Honolulu Board of Water Supply tests taken this summer indicate that a plume of contaminants found in fuels and other industrial sources recently drifted through a pair of shuttered and sealed drinking wells in Aiea. The local water agency believes the plume of so-called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, may be linked to the Navy’s 2021 Red Hill fuel spill and that remnants of the spill, which sickened hundreds of military families through a separate water system, could be drifting further west underground.
“There’s no reason for secrecy any more, no reason not to share the complete history of the facility so we know what we’re dealing with there,” BWS Manager and Chief Engineer Ernie Lau said of the Navy’s recently closed Red Hill underground fuel storage complex. The Navy should also test more frequently and at more sites to better understand how leaked fuel and other pollutants that pose health risks are moving underground, he said. “They definitely have to install a lot more monitoring wells,” Lau said.
Traces of PAHs were detected in the local water agency’s shut-off Aiea wells first on May 13 and then on June 4 in higher amounts, according to BWS officials. The chemicals were not found in subsequent weekly test samples, leading agency officials to conclude the plume moved.