Navy: Water Is Safe Following Chemical Leak
The health department says it’s still waiting for its own water testing results.
Following a spill of toxic firefighting chemicals at the Red Hill fuel storage complex in November, the Navy says water testing did not detect any “exceedances” of PFAS, a key component of firefighting foam.
of the PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance, testing did not exceed state and federal standards, the Navy said in a press release on Friday
“Collected data is being used to determine the extent of contamination related to the release event and if further remediation is required at the site,” the Navy said.
The Hawaii Department of Health said in its own press release that it is conducting independent testing of the water. The results are pending but will be shared with the public when available.
Separate soil contamination testing did detect PFAS levels that exceeded federal safety limits for soil, which was “expected,” according to DOH.
The Navy is to remediate the area and provide information about how the incident occurred. A military investigator was assigned to determine the cause, but a and a video of the incident have not yet been released to the public.
