City Council takes a strong stand to protect O‘ahu drinking water

HONOLULU, HAWAI‘I — After hearing unanimous public testimony in support of proposed measures today and reviewing around 1,000 pages of written testimony in support, the Honolulu City Council passed Bill 48 on first reading and adopted an amended version of Resolution 21-267. Both measures address the ongoing contamination of drinking water serving military housing facilities and seek to assert control over protecting O‘ahu’s pure drinking water sources for now and for future generations.

“This body has no greater kuleana than to protect the health and well-being of the people of this island,” said Honolulu City Council Chair Tommy Waters, as he opened the special meeting of the Council, which was called to preserve the island’s irreplaceable sources of pure water.

Bill 48 seeks to prevent future fuel leaks by making the granting of a permit contingent upon the owner of an underground fuel tank more than 100,000 gallons demonstrating that the tank will never leak during its operational lifespan.

Resolution 21-276 calls for the immediate defueling and permanent removal of the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility underground tanks. It also orders the transmittal of the resolution to President Joseph Biden and to the Chair of the State Commission on Water Resource Management, to relay the wishes of the people of the City and County of Honolulu to those and other jurisdictions with authority relating to the tanks.

Summary:

Remote oral testimony presented by the public this morning was unanimously in support of the Bill, the resolution, or both, including supportive testimony from a retired Army Colonel and U.S. diplomat.

Bill 48 passed first reading - unanimous vote

By 4:22 p.m. 764 pages of testimony had been submitted.

Read the bill and the testimony and view the status here (will be updated soon):

https://hnldoc.ehawaii.gov/hnldoc/measure/2041

Resolution 21-276 FD1 - adopted by unanimous vote; amended on the floor, during the meeting.

It calls for the immediate removal of fuel from the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility and for relocation of the tanks and was further amended to call for the distribution of the resolution to President Joseph Biden and to the Chair of the State Commission on Water Resource Management.

As of 4:22 p.m. 444 pages had been submitted.

Read the resolution and testimony and view the status here:

https://hnldoc.ehawaii.gov/hnldoc/measure/2042

Approved amendment: https://hnldoc.ehawaii.gov/hnldoc/document-download?id=12669

Full video of the special Honolulu City Council meeting will be posted at: https://www.honolulucitycouncil.tv/