EPA moves to disband Red Hill advisory board

The Environmental Protection Agency is making moves to disband the elected community advisory board it established as part of a federal consent decree regarding the closure of the Navy’s underground Red Hill fuel storage facility. As it does, it’s facing pushback by the board as well as from Hawaii’s congressional delegation.

EPA Region 9 Director Amy Miller told the members of the Red Hill Community Representation Initiative during a Wednesday Zoom meeting that the EPA is talking to the Navy and Defense Logistics Agency to find “alternatives” after the CRI resisted calls to bring in a mediator and establish meeting protocols, and that they are seeking to retroactively change the consent order to not include the CRI.

Public meetings have been contentious, with CRI members accusing officials of dodging questions and federal officials accusing CRI members of being disrespectful and going off-topic.

Miller told the board, “I am very, very disappointed that we have gotten to this place. I personally have taken a lot of interest in wanting this unique opportunity to have a community representation initiative approach to engagement. I have seen a lot of value, and I am very disappointed that we weren’t able to come up with mutually agreed-upon ground rules. But that being said, I still want to continue to work with you all.”

The CRI is made up of a mixture of local residents and activists along with people directly affected by the Red Hill water crisis, which began in November 2021 when fuel from the Navy’s bulk Red Hill fuel storage facility entered and contaminated the Navy’s Oahu water system, which serves 93,000 people.

It was established based on community requests for a voice in the defueling and shutdown process. The Red Hill facility sits just 100 feet above a critical aquifer most of Honolulu relies on for drinking water. EPA officials will meet with the CRI on Thursday as scheduled, but military officials will not attend.

Miller was met with immediate pushback. During the Zoom meeting, CRI member Walter Chun told Miller, “People in the public put some faith in the consent order because you would put this in there, because the CRI was in there, that there would be representatives of the people that would be able to ask questions, that there would be some kind of a communication thing.”

“By just taking the CRI out of the consent order, you’re really just pulling the rug out from under us and taking whatever little power we had away from us to seek answers for our community,” said CRI member Healani Sonoda-Pale.

CRI Chair Marti Town­send said, “We have always been open to input on the agenda. What we will not cede is control of the agenda, and we don’t want the Navy to have the ability to dictate to us what we’re going to talk about. I think that is where the line is drawn. … By conceding to the military’s pressure in this way, the EPA is undermining its own authority and standing in the community, and it will make it difficult for the EPA (and) embolden the Navy to continue to not be straightforward and honest with the community.”

When asked by CRI members what Hawaii’s congressional delegation thought of amending the consent decree to remove the CRI, Miller claimed that in a meeting with representatives of U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono, U.S. Rep. Ed Case and U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda, each told EPA officials they did not support the initiative. Miller said, “They thought it was out of hand, they thought it needed ground rules, they thought it was disruptive. It was a pretty negative meeting, and it was very, very difficult.”

In a joint statement Thursday, the lawmakers fired back, saying that “any suggestion that the delegation supports disbanding the CRI is baseless and completely inaccurate. The Red Hill fuel leak was a breach of public trust. The federal government has a long way to go to regain it — and that can only happen with strong community engagement and oversight. The EPA and Department of Defense must work directly with the community to clean up Red Hill and keep people safe.”