EPA called on to lead tests amid Navy water crisis in Hawaii

HONOLULU – A U.S. legislator called connected the Environmental Protection Agency to instrumentality the pb successful investigating to find whether it's harmless to portion h2o that the Navy provides to and astir Pearl Harbor.

U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz said the EPA should measurement successful aft the Navy disputed the Hawaii Department of Health's investigation of substance contamination astatine a good that provides drinking h2o to the Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam's h2o system.

Military households person complained astir their pat water, with immoderate saying they suffered ailments specified arsenic cramps and vomiting aft drinking it.

Testing past week showed the beingness of petroleum successful h2o that comes from a good adjacent the underground substance vessel analyzable supra an aquifer that has been the root of aggregate substance leaks implicit the years.

On Wednesday the authorities wellness section said the Navy reported diesel substance levels much than treble Hawaii wellness limits for drinking h2o successful samples collected astatine 1 of the Navy's shafts.

Ad

But the Navy said the illustration didn't travel straight from the Navy's good and that Navy officials don't judge it indicated contamination.

That prompted Honolulu Board of Water Supply officials to question the results and impulse much sampling to find the root of the contamination and fig retired which mode the contaminated groundwater beneath the Navy’s tanks is flowing, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported.

Ernest Lau, manager and main technologist for the Board of Water Supply, said the Navy informed the metropolis bureau connected Wednesday that a precocious level of diesel substance was recovered successful samples of the Aiea-Hala­wa h2o shaft.

“I got a telephone a mates hours later, from the aforesaid idiosyncratic successful the Navy, fundamentally trying to downplay the trial effect was not indicative of what’s successful the aquifer. So my question to that idiosyncratic was: ‘Wasn’t the h2o successful that tube you took the illustration from coming retired of that shaft? If it’s not coming retired of the shaft, wherever did the diesel travel from?’” Lau said.

Ad

The Navy did not respond to the Board of Water Supply's questions, oregon those submitted by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

But Lydia Robertson, a spokesperson for Navy Region Hawaii, said successful an email to The Associated Press connected Friday that Navy officials are investigating further and that further h2o illustration investigating is being conducted.

Schatz wants the EPA to beryllium the pb bureau handling collection, testing, investigation and nationalist connection of the h2o crisis.

“We can't spend different time of the Navy and the authorities and region agencies disagreeing connected the basal question of whether the drinking h2o is safe,” helium said successful a connection Thursday.

The EPA is providing support, Julia Giarmoleo, an bureau spokesperson, told the newspaper.

The EPA isn't independently investigating the water, but reviewing Navy trial results, Giarmoleo said.

For copyright information, cheque with the distributor of this item, Honolulu Star-Advertiser.