More than a dozen military families in Hawaii spark trial over 2021 jet fuel leak that tainted water
HONOLULU– A trial in a massive environmental damage case is set to begin in Hawaii on Monday, more than two years after an underground US military fuel refueling facility poisoned thousands of people when it leaked jet fuel into Pearl Harbor’s drinking water.
Instead of a jury, a judge at the US District Court in Honolulu will hear about a lawsuit against the United States by 17 “bellwether” plaintiffs: a cross-selection of family members of military members representing more than 7,500 others, including military personnel, in three federal lawsuits.
According to court documents, the U.S. government has admitted that the spill at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility on November 20, 2021 caused a nuisance to the plaintiffs, that the United States “breached its duty of care” and that the plaintiffs suffered damages. injuries.
But they dispute whether residents were exposed to jet fuel at levels high enough to cause alleged health effects ranging from vomiting to skin rashes.
The plaintiffs have filed affidavits detailing how the water crisis has made them sick and left them with persistent health problems, including seizures, asthma, eczema and vestibular dysfunction.
Nastasia Freeman, wife of a Navy lieutenant and mother of three, described how the family thought their vomiting and diarrhea were food poisoning on Thanksgiving.
“I had developed a rash on my arms with sores and lesions on my scalp, feet and hands, accompanied by a headache,” she wrote. “I had a very strange feeling that I had never had before: it felt like my blood was on fire.”
Even their dogs threw up.
On November 29, a nurse told her she was receiving multiple calls, all with a common theme: tap water.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs allege that Navy officials knew there was fuel in the water and failed to warn people not to drink it, even while telling residents the water was safe.
“It felt like we were being lit by gas,” Freeman’s statement in the case said. “We knew the water wasn’t safe, but the Navy told us it was. They said they didn’t know what was in the water and that they were ‘investigating’.”
A 2022 Navy investigative report noted a back-to-back series of errors dating from May 6, 2021, when an operator error caused a pipe to rupture and caused 21,000 gallons (80,000 liters) of fuel to leak while being transferred between tanks. Most of this fuel flowed into a fire extinguishing pipe and remained there for six months, causing the pipe to sag. When a cart collided with this collapsed line on November 20, 75,700 liters of fuel were released.
The military ultimately agreed to empty the tanks after the spill in 2021, amid state orders and protests from Native Hawaiians and other Hawaii residents concerned about the threat to Honolulu’s water supply. The tanks are located above an aquifer that supplies water to 400,000 people in urban Honolulu.
A lot depends on this test.
“A closer process helps attorneys understand the likely success or failure of the cases in the pipeline,” explains Loretta Sheehan, a Honolulu-based personal injury attorney not involved in the water dispute case.
The outcome could help determine future damages or settlements to be awarded, she said.