HONOLULU (AP) — A clean up is underway after about 1,100 gallons of toxic fire suppressant was spilled on the Navy’s Red Hill fuel facility Tuesday, based on Hawaii Department of Health officials.
The Honolulu-Star Advertiser reported that the Aqueous Film Forming Foam is used to suppress fires brought on by flammable liquids comparable to fuel and contain PFAS, so-called “without end chemicals” which might be slow to degrade when released into the environment. Health investigators said excavators are currently digging up contaminated soil. No surface water was contaminated.
In line with the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, PFAS may result in a better risk of kidney and testicular cancer, increased risk of hypertension in pregnant women, amongst other health problems.
“That is egregious,” Kathleen Ho, DOH’s deputy director of environmental health said in a news release. “AFFF incorporates PFAS without end chemicals — groundwater contamination might be devastating to our aquifer. While details are limited right now, the Joint Task Force and Navy have to be transparent about how this happened.”
Ho said that regulators “will hold the Department of Defense accountable and can press the operator to take any and all appropriate corrective motion throughout the defueling and decommissioning process.”
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The discharge occurred above Adit 6, a passageway on the mauka end of the Red Hill facility, based on DOH, which said it was notified of the leak at about 3 p.m.
“A DOH on-scene coordinator responded and preliminarily reported that the spill was not contained and AFFF has spilled into soil outside of the Red Hill facility and into the ability near Adit 6,” DOH said in a news release.
No details were provided in regards to the reason for the discharge, health officials said.
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