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Navy updates commission on Red Hill sampling and groundwater monitoring; no JP‑5 detected in drinking water program
Summary
Navy briefed the Commission on Water Resource Management on Red Hill drinking-water and groundwater monitoring, reporting no JP‑5 detections in drinking-water sampling programs and describing an expanded network of monitoring wells and modeling work underway.
The Navy Closure Task Force and environmental staff briefed the Commission on Water Resource Management Jan. 28 on drinking-water and groundwater monitoring related to the Red Hill bulk fuel facility.
Commander Ben Dunn, Navy environmental monitoring and remediation officer, said the Navy has collected nearly 15,000 drinking-water samples across emergency and long-term programs and continues an extended drinking-water monitoring program with interagency oversight. "We've not detected any JP‑5 fuel in the system to date across both programs," he told the commission.
The Navy described a multi-tiered monitoring effort: source-well sampling, distribution and hydrant sampling by zone, and residential and priority-location testing. The Navy also said EPA and the Hawaii Department of Health have performed split analyses and oversight and that results are published on the Navy's Safe Waters website.
On groundwater, the Navy said it has completed dozens of monitoring wells across the Red Hill site and surrounding areas. The task force reported 44 monitoring well locations in active use with two more due online, and identified three monitoring wells where fuel-related total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) results have been confirmed. Navy staff said the network has not shown evidence of contaminant migration beyond those locations over three years of sampling and that sampling frequency has been increased in response to operational changes: monthly during the extended drinking-water monitoring program and twice monthly at some locations after a flow reduction in April 2024.
Navy presenters described a composite groundwater-flow and fate-and-transport modeling program that integrates vadose-zone work and contaminant-transport components. The Navy said it will refine the vadose-zone portion over the next year and then incorporate findings from an independent model being prepared under a federal-funded study. Navy staff also noted that access to certain private or county-owned wells for independent researchers has been a point of coordination.
Commissioners and staff pressed the Navy on monitoring details, detection thresholds (TPH screening levels), data transparency and long-term remediation planning. The Navy said it will continue to post results and maintains an itemized Safe Waters website and a mobile app with updates and public outreach; it also described planned upgrades and a long-term treatment project funded in the federal budget authorization (project p716) and interim granular activated carbon (GAC) treatment systems.
Why it matters: The Red Hill fuel release has statewide attention because the facility overlies critical O?ahu aquifers. The Navy's monitoring and remediation programs — sampling, monitoring-well expansion, modeling and planned treatment facilities — shape immediate drinking-water safety measures and long-term cleanup and aquifer stewardship.
Public-access data: Navy Safe Waters website and the Navy's public dashboards contain laboratory results for drinking-water and groundwater sampling; the Navy briefed the commission that EPA and DOH conduct split-sample verification and oversight.
