Navy poised to reactivate Hawaii well shut down in wake of 2021 jet fuel spill

The Hawaii Department of Health has given the Navy the go-ahead to reactivate a groundwater well near Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam that has been dormant since a 2021 jet fuel spill.

The department gave conditional approval to reactivate the Aiea-Halawa shaft, one of three used by the Navy to supply its distribution system that supplies thousands of homes in military communities on and near the joint base.

“With robust treatment and monitoring protocols in place, reactivation of the shaft will enhance system reliability by supplementing the existing water supply and providing a critical source of potable water,” the department said in a Friday news release.

The shaft will begin “routine operations in the coming weeks,” the Navy said in a news release Saturday.

In November 2021, jet fuel from the World War II-era underground Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility near the joint base spilled, seeped into the aquifer and contaminated the nearby Red Hill shaft.

The Navy isolated that shaft from the system days after residents began complaining of tainted tap water. It remains disconnected from the system.

The Navy deactivated the Aiea-Halawa shaft in early December 2021 in what it called “an abundance of caution.”

A Navy water sample taken from the Aiea-Halawa shaft on Dec. 5, 2021, indicated the presence of petroleum, but a forensic analysis by the Hawaii Health Department concluded the carbon was from “naturally-occurring trace organic material.”

Extensive monitoring of that shaft has shown no evidence that it was affected by the November 2021 jet fuel release, the Navy release states.

The Navy has installed a carbon filtration system and an ion exchange treatment system to remove potential contaminants in water to be pumped from the Aiea-Halawa shaft.

The carbon system is designed to capture organic compounds, which would include dissolved hydrocarbons and solvents.

The ion exchange targets PFAS compounds, which have been detected in low levels in the shaft.

“Reactivation of this shaft is a key step to ensuring that the Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam drinking water system remains resilient for the long term,” Capt. John Frye, commander of the joint base, said in the Navy release.

The twin closures had left the Navy relying on a single source, the Waiawa shaft, to supply water to roughly 93,000 users.

In March, the Environmental Protection Agency released a final assessment of the Navy’s drinking water system, concluding it was free from residual fuel contamination stemming from the November 2021 spill.