Sen. Brian Schatz secures $100M in federal funding to drain Red Hill fuel facility
U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz announced today that his office had secured $100 million in new federal funding to cover the cost of defueling the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility and direct the Department of Defense to comply with the state’s emergency public health order issued in December.
“This bill funds defueling, and it establishes Congress’s position on Red Hill: the DoD must defuel and follow the state’s order immediately,” Schatz said in a news release. “We still have more work to do, but we are making good progress to protect our water and get this right.”
Though the Navy has complied with several portions of the emergency order and is working to remediate the Red Hill well after a fuel spill contaminated its drinking water system that serves 93,000 people on Oahu, the service has continued to mount legal challenges to the defueling portion.
This month the Department of Justice announced it would take Hawaii to court to fight the order, though Pentagon officials said that they had not ruled out the possibility of permanent defueling.
The appropriation represents the first round of possible funding to defuel Red Hill. Schatz’s office said the senator is working with the Biden administration and the Senate Appropriations Committee to secure additional funding in the president’s annual budget request and a much-larger appropriations package expected to be taken up by Congress next month.
A companion bill in the House of Representatives contains provisions from U.S. Rep. Ed Case that include $100 million to implement the emergency order, $250 million to address drinking water contamination resulting from the Red Hill leak, and $53 million in existing general operational funding now directed specifically to Red Hill.
“It is highly unusual to include new funding in such a continuing resolution and is reserved for truly urgent matters that cannot await the normal appropriations process,” Case said in a news release. “This initiative to include desperately-needed Red Hill funding was led by Senator Schatz, who negotiated the funding request with the executive branch and his Senate colleagues. I contributed to securing agreement within the U.S. House and our Appropriations Committee, where all federal appropriations must originate.”
