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HB1367
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
H.B. NO.
1367
THIRTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2025
STATE OF HAWAII
A BILL FOR AN ACT
RELATING
TO WATER RESOURCES.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:
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SECTION
1.
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The legislature finds that protection
of the environment and underground sources of drinking water is in the best
interest of public health and safety and a requirement defined under section 7
of Article XI of the state Constitution.
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The Red
Hill bulk fuel storage facility is a field‑constructed underground
storage tank system on Oahu that is owned and operated by the United States
Department of the Navy.
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The facility
consists of twenty systems that sit approximately one hundred feet above Oahu�s
sole-source groundwater aquifer, with the southern Oahu basal aquifer as the
principal source of drinking water for the island.
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Twenty systems,
as well as pipelines and other infrastructure, were constructed during the
early 1940s and, since then, multiple contaminant releases have occurred,
negatively impacting the environment and threatening public health.
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The nature and extent of the reported release
in January 2014 of approximately twenty-seven thousand gallons of fuel from one
of the tanks into the rocks and groundwater beneath the facility is still
unknown.
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The May 2021 department of health
hearings officer�s decision found that approximately one thousand six hundred
gallons of jet fuel from the supply piping was released into the environment.
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According to the department of health's
Emergency Order Docket No. 22-UST-EA-01, a release and recovery of
approximately fourteen thousand gallons of a fuel mixture occurred on November
20, 2021.
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The fuel release flowed from
the Red Hill facility to occupied structures, including the homes of residents
through the water pipelines.
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The release
resulted in "a humanitarian and environmental emergency and disaster."
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It is
estimated that up to 1,500,000 gallons of fuel has been released from the
facility during its eighty years of operation.
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The underground storage tanks have been gravity defueled and are planned
for closure, but remnant fuel and sludge remain.
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Contaminants from the facility can migrate to
the west and northwest direction, reaching various well sources managed by the
board of water supply and landmarks.
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Furthermore,
the department of health's analysis on the amount of fuel contaminants at
different points in time and different locations showed movement of the fuel
through a total petroleum hydrocarbon.
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The total petroleum hydrocarbon in the Red Hill monitoring wells exceed
existing environmental action limits set by the department for gross
contamination and drinking water toxicity.
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According
to the November 8, 2024 Management Advisory: Concerns with the Navy�s Handling
of Incidents Involving Aqueous Film-Forming Foam at Joint Base Pearl
Harbor�Hickam Office Report No. DODIG-2025-013, one thousand three hundred
gallons of aqueous film-forming foam concentrate that contains per- and
polyfluoroalkyl substances spilled from the facility on November 29,
2022.
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The persistence of the substances
in the environment poses serious risks to the groundwater resources in Oahu and
undesirable health effects.
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The
legislature finds that more information is needed to inform and protect the
people of Hawaii.
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Additional wells that
monitor the condition of the aquifer and alert in the presence of an
underground fuel plume and other contaminants from the Red Hill facility must
be installed.
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Also, the furtherance of a
monitoring grid between the facility and water production wells, consisting of
up to one hundred twenty-two monitoring wells over sixty-one sites, is critical
to assess immediate and future risks and to inform trend and directional
analyses necessary for remediation planning.
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Past fuel releases from the facility could migrate to and impact
critical drinking water receptors.
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Without
the data derived from the monitoring grid, there can be no reliable predictions
of where contamination may migrate in the subsurface.
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The
purpose of this Act is to authorize the issuance of general obligation bonds for
the board of water supply to install two monitoring wells for the purpose of collecting
important data to understand the condition of the groundwater aquifer
underneath and surrounding the Red Hill facility and its implications to the drinking
water supply in Oahu.
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SECTION
2.
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The director of finance is authorized
to issue general obligation bonds in the sum of $20,000,000 or so much thereof
as may be necessary and the same sum or so much thereof as may be necessary is
appropriated for fiscal year 2025-2026 for the purpose of a capital improvement
project to plan, design, and construct two groundwater aquifer monitoring
wells.
The sum appropriated shall be
expended by the board of water supply of the city and county of Honolulu for
the purposes of this Act.
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SECTION
3.
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The appropriation made for the
capital improvement project authorized by this Act shall not lapse at the end
of the fiscal biennium for which the appropriation is made; provided that all
moneys from the appropriation unencumbered as of June 30, 2028, shall lapse as
of that date.
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SECTION 5.
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This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2025.
INTRODUCED BY:
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Report Title:
Water
Resources; Monitoring Wells; BWS; GO Bonds; Appropriation
Description:
Appropriates
general obligation bonds to the Board of Water Supply for the planning, design,
and construction of two monitoring wells.
The summary description
of legislation appearing on this page is for informational purposes only and is
not legislation or evidence of legislative intent.