Toxic foam spill at Hawaii’s Red Hill facility due to contractor error

A upkeep contractor’s error, and lack of sufficient oversight by the Navy, led to the spill of 1,300 gallons of poisonous hearth suppressant on the Purple Hill Bulk Gas Storage web site close to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, on Nov. 29, 2022.

Navy investigators discovered that the contractor improperly put in an air vacuum valve on the system that carries Aqueous Movie Forming Foam, used to suppress fires brought on by flammable liquids, simply contained in the underground facility’s Adit 6 tunnel in April 2022.

The identical contractor additionally didn’t disable AFFF pumps from robotically beginning prior to fireplace suppression system testing on Nov. 29, 2022, which led to an uncontrolled discharge of the poisonous chemical substances, investigators discovered.

The focus pooled on the ground inside the power after which seeped below a door and onto a paved entry street, in addition to soil on the sting of the paved street exterior of Adit 6. Federal firefighters, contractors and authorities civilians from JB Pearl Harbor-Hickam responded to the positioning and took actions to include the discharge, together with the removing of impacted asphalt and soil.

Aqueous Movie Forming Foam, which is used to suppress fires brought on by flammable liquids, accommodates perfluorinated chemical substances, collectively referred to as PFAS. These so-called “without end chemical substances” have been used throughout the army to battle plane and ship fires, and the Division of Protection has recognized 400-500 army websites which were contaminated by them.

PFAS, that are additionally present in home items similar to nonstick cookware, stain repellents and meals wrappers, have been linked to some sorts of most cancers and delivery defects, and can also have an effect on progress and growth, replica, thyroid operate, the immune system and the liver.

Notifications of the Purple Hill leak had been made that very same day to the U.S. Environmental Safety Company and the Hawaii Division of Well being, in addition to senior DoD officers, legislators and different stakeholders.

Navy groundwater monitoring pattern leads to the affected space after the November spill confirmed no violation of PFAS requirements primarily based on state and federal screening ranges, Hawaii Information Now reported.

Investigators additionally faulted the Navy’s high quality assurance course of for failing to establish and proper the improperly put in air vacuum valve in April 2022.

The leak of firefighting foam got here nearly a 12 months to the day after the late November 2021 leak of jet gasoline from the underground storage facility.

Lots of of households on JB Pearl Harbor-Hickam and the Military’s Aliamanu Navy Reservation and Purple Hill Housing, reported petroleum odors coming from residential faucet water provided by the Navy water system. About 6,000 folks had been sickened after ingesting the contaminated water.

In all, about 93,000 water system customers had been impacted, lots of whom relocated to momentary housing through the disaster.

Following the gasoline spill, the Hawaii Division of Well being issued an emergency order requiring the Navy to close down Purple Hill and, in March 2022, Protection Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered that the gasoline storage facility be defueled and completely closed.

Austin established Joint Process Drive-Purple Hill on Sept. 30, 2022, to make sure the secure and expeditious defueling of the power. Vice Adm. John Wade was chosen to command the duty drive.

After the leak of firefighting foam, Wade appointed Maj. Gen. Richard Heitkamp, deputy commander of the Military Corps of Engineers, to conduct a targeted investigation to find out the reason for the leak.

Throughout the Friday press convention to announce the investigation’s findings. Wade mentioned that he believes stricter safeguards and extra assertive Navy oversight ought to have been in place to scale back the danger of this sort of mishap.

“I ordered this investigation to find out what induced the unintentional launch of AFFF focus and to scale back the danger of a future mishap,” Wade mentioned, in line with a Navy launch. “A targeted investigation allowed us to successfully decide how and why the discharge occurred. We used this data to instantly implement danger discount measures throughout the complete facility and to inform the Division of Protection of actions that may be taken to additional cut back danger in areas exterior the purview of JTF-RH.

“The secure and expeditious defueling of Purple Hill res our prime precedence to guard the folks and surroundings of Hawaii.”

Shortly after the leak of the hearth suppressant, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command directed that JTF-RH’s mission be expanded from overseeing the defueling to additionally embody implementation of centralized administration and security controls at Purple Hill, the Navy launch famous. To execute these expanded duties, greater than 100 army personnel had been added to the duty drive.

Since then, the duty drive has established bodily management of gasoline storage facility, in line with the discharge. It manages the entry factors and oversees all safety screening of personnel looking for to enter the power. All tenance, restore and environmental remediation contractors who enter should now have a army escort with the information to supply acceptable oversight.

The duty drive has forwarded its investigation to the Division of the Navy to evaluation doable contractor legal responsibility for the inadvertent discharge, in line with the discharge.

U.S. Indo-Pacific Command has additionally directed its elements to evaluation high quality assurance mechanisms in place for oversight of upkeep and restore work by contractors on methods containing hazardous supplies, the discharge states.

As well as, a 30-day evaluation has been directed to: establish sources of HAZMAT or different substances, similar to PFAS-containing AFFF, that current danger to human well being or the surroundings; guarantee controls are in place to guard the surroundings; and apply response protocols.

Navy Area Hawaii and Naval Amenities Engineering Programs Command proceed to conduct environmental testing as they totally remediate the Purple Hill web site, the discharge states.

— The Related Press contributed to this story.