Over the past six months, the Red Hill WAI group met regularly to conduct research, listen to subject matter experts, and formulate recommended policies. A comprehensive plan has been finalized, which serves as a blueprint and living document outlining the necessary steps to clean up Red Hill and remediate the aquifer.
The Hawaiʻi State Department of Health received an updated defueling plan this week for the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility. The plan, submitted by Joint Task Force-Red Hill, moves up defueling to begin in October 2023.
US Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) pressed Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro during a Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee hearing today, calling on the Navy to stay on track with the defueling timeline for Red Hill.
defense launched a thorough review of the facility s long-term future, work that was grounded in analysis and completely a lined with our focus, a few points on today s decision. first national security. we will defuel red hill and reposition the fuel. this will meet our objectives by better positioning the united states to meet future challenges in the pacific region and protecting the population. secondly, we ll take care of our people and the community. we re committed to mitigating the impacts of the november incident and we re restoring safe drinking water to all affected residents and providing best in class sampling and testing to ensure the safety of the drinking water. finally, we re going to complete environmental mitigation efforts for red hill and any other impacted areas. continue to engage the community on land use.
review of the facility s long-term future. work that was grounded in analysis and completely aligned with our focus. a few points on today s decision. first, national security. we will defuel red hill and reposition the fuel to land in a float locations. this will meet our national security objectives by better positioning the united states to meet future challenges in the pacific region while ensuring environmental stewardship and protecting the population. secondly, as the secretary noted, we ll take care of our people and the community. we are committed to mitigating the impacts of the november incident and we are restoring safe drinking water to all affected residents and providing best in class sampling and testing to ensure the continued 1 safety of the drinking water. we re going to complete mitigation efforts for the area and continue to engage the community on land use. one additional note which i believe many of you are tracking