While nearly 70% of the planet is covered by water, only 2.5% is freshwater and only 1% is accessible.

Water reuse, also known as water recycling, is the process of intentionally capturing wastewater, stormwater, saltwater or graywater and cleaning it for a designated beneficial freshwater purpose such as drinking, industrial processes, surface or groundwater replenishment, as well as watershed restoration.

There are two types of recycled water to be used for drinking:

• Indirect potable reuse (IPR) uses an environmental buffer, such as a lake, river or a groundwater aquifer, before the water is treated at a drinking water treatment plant.

• Direct potable reuse (DPR) involves the treatment and distribution of water without an environmental buffer.

In California, only IPR is permitted currently. According to reports,  DPR is expected to be permitted by the end of 2023 as well.

Within IPR, there are two primary applications for recycled water. One is for outdoor irrigation, agriculture, industrial and commercial use. The other is recycled water people can drink.

Wastewater travels through sewers and pipelines to community wastewater treatment plants. There, it is either cleaned to a level where it is safe to return it to the environment, such as releasing it in the San Francisco Bay, or cleaned further to be used for non-drinking applications.

If it’s to be used for drinking, it is sent to a water purification facility for additional cleaning. Saltwater and stormwater can also be recycled for drinking.

As a member of the Marin Coalition for Water Solutions group, I believe water recycling is an important option in providing Marin with a sustainable water supply. With water recycling, Marin residents don’t have to rely on outside, potentially undependable sources to meet our needs.

So, is anyone actually drinking recycled water? The answer is yes, they are, and here are some examples:

• Fairfax, Virginia: In service since 1978, this is the longest operating potable reuse project in the United States.

Recycled water is added to the Occoquan Reservoir where it blends with existing surface water. The reservoir supplies water to the Fairfax County Griffith Drinking Water Plant where it is treated to drinking water standards and distributed to approximately 321,000 people.

In drought years, up to 80% of the total reservoir water pumped to the drinking water treatment plant may be recycled water; in normal years, it is less than 20%.

• Wichita Falls, Texas: Because of severe drought in the 1990s, city officials agreed to construct an interim potable reuse facility that purified wastewater and piped it directly to the Cypress Water Treatment Plant, which cleaned the water again before it was distributed to customers.

Since then, Wichita Falls developed a potable reuse system that purifies water and stores it in nearby Lake Arrowhead.

• Monterey: The coastal California city takes wastewater from multiple sources and puts it through a state of the art purification plant that uses six separate stages of purification before it’s ready for customers to drink.

For every 10 gallons of water that are put into their systems, eight come out. Some of that goes to irrigation and non-potable uses. Right now 30% of the water going to the taps is from their plant. By 2024, they expect that number to be 50%.

There are capital expenses in building the infrastructure to do the recycling and transport of the water in Marin. But I think it is an investment in our future security. It must be considered by the Marin Municpal Water District Board of Directors.

The staff at MMWD have done estimates on the costs for additional water supply, including desalination, so these aren’t new ideas. We must keep up the pressure on the board to implement these solutions.

There are 11 recycling projects underway in California. They are managed by water districts who recognize the need to increase their supply, as well as continue prudent conservation.

If only the MMWD was as strategic.

Steve Isaacs, of Greenbrae, is a founder of the Marin Coalition for Water Solutions group.

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Originally Appeared Here

By AUDREY McAVOY

HONOLULU — A giant U.S. government fuel storage installation hidden inside a mountain ridge overlooking Pearl Harbor has provided fuel to military ships and planes crisscrossing the Pacific Ocean since World War II.

Its very existence was a secret for years. Even after it was declassified, few people paid attention — until late last year, when jet fuel leaked into a drinking water well, showed up in tap water and sickened thousands in military housing.

Now the Navy is scrambling to contain what one U.S. lawmaker calls a “crisis of astronomical proportions.” Native Hawaiians, veterans, liberals and conservatives across Hawaii are all pushing to shut down the tanks even though the Navy says they’re vital to national security.

Military medical teams have examined more than 5,900 people complaining of symptoms including nausea, headaches and rashes. The military has moved about 4,000 mostly military families into hotels and has flown in water treatment systems from the U.S. mainland.

In the first six weeks since the water crisis emerged, the Navy spent more than $250 million addressing the public health emergency.

“Frankly, it’s been a nightmare and a disaster. A total disaster,” said U.S. Rep. Kaiali‘i Kahele.

Kahele, a combat pilot who still serves as an officer in the Hawaii National Guard, is the lawmaker who characterized the crisis as astronomical at a hearing in December. An admiral said that the Navy takes the blame.

“The Navy caused this problem, we own it and we’re gonna fix it,” Navy Rear Adm. Blake Converse, the deputy Pacific Fleet commander, told lawmakers last month.

The military built the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility in the early 1940s by excavating caverns within the mountain ridge to protect 20 fuel tanks from aerial attacks. Each tank is about the height of a 25-story building and can hold 12.5 million gallons (47.32 million liters.)

The tanks are connected to underground pipelines that send fuel about 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) to Pearl Harbor and to ships and planes used by the Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marines and Navy.

The Navy hasn’t determined how petroleum got in the water. Officials are investigating a theory that jet fuel spilled from a ruptured pipe last May and somehow entered a fire suppression system drain pipe. They suspect fuel then leaked from the second pipe on Nov. 20, sending it into the drinking water well.

Within a week, military families started complaining about health problems.

Lauren Wright remembers her skin peeling, feeling nauseous and vomiting. Her symptoms disappeared only when she stopped drinking, showering and washing dishes with her home’s water.

“I’m a proud Navy spouse, but this is not right — to do this to your families,” she said.

Since early December, Wright, her sailor husband and their three children ages 7 to 17 have been among the thousands of military families living in Honolulu hotels paid for by the Navy so they can have clean water.

The Navy has been trying to clear petroleum from the contaminated well and pump it out of the aquifer. Officials are also flushing clean water through the Navy’s water system — which serves 93,000 people in military homes and offices in and around Pearl Harbor. Teams have separately visited homes and workplaces to flush individual water pipe systems.

But Wright said Marines sent to flush a neighbor’s home received two days of training, failed to follow a checklist for the work and had to be taught how to do the job by a neighbor with expertise.

“We’re all afraid that we are going to be forced into our toxic homes and go right back to it,” she said.

The first major complaints about the fuel complex came in 2014, when 27,000 gallons (123,000 liters) leaked from one tank but didn’t get into the drinking water.

The Navy blamed contractor error and ineffective oversight. The Sierra Club of Hawaii and Honolulu’s water utility warned leaks could seep into one of Honolulu’s most important drinking water aquifers, located just 100 feet (30 meters) below the tanks, but the Navy resisted calls to move the facility.

The aquifer normally supplies more than 20% of the water consumed in the city. After the latest spill, Honolulu’s water utility shut off three wells to prevent petroleum from migrating through the aquifer into the utility’s drinking water.

If the biggest of the three wells remains shut, about 400,000 people in neighborhoods including downtown and Waikiki could face rationing and outages during the summer when water demand increases.

The Navy last month said it would comply with an order by Hawaii Gov. David Ige, a Democrat, to drain the tanks and not use them until it’s safe to do so. But it reversed course this week and appealed to get more time to work on solutions.

The Navy has said draining the tanks wouldn’t affect short-term Pacific operations, but commanders said they would give congressional members a classified briefing on longer-term implications.

Many Hawaii residents, including Republican state Rep. Bob McDermott, say the dangers posed by the tanks justify getting rid of the fuel complex forever. The Marine veteran has two sons in the Navy, one son who is a Marine veteran and another currently at Marine Corps boot camp.

“I’m very close to the military, but these things are too old. It’s just that simple. And if they’re going to look at infrastructure for the next century, they need to fill these things in with dirt,” said McDermott.

Forty-eight of the 51 members of the state House of Representatives signed a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin calling for the tanks to be decommissioned. State senators are considering legislation to outlaw them.

Hawaii’s four-member congressional delegation has secured wording in recent legislation requiring the Navy to study fuel storage alternatives.

Esther Kiaʻāina, a Honolulu city council member, said public trust in the military in Hawaii could be scarred if the Navy doesn’t close the tanks for good.

“This is a watershed moment. This is a turning point for the military’s relationship with Hawaii,” said Kiaʻāina, who was an Interior Department assistant secretary during the Obama administration.

She warned that failure to shut them down could jeopardize the military’s ability to obtain lease extensions for state lands under sites like Pohakuloa Training Area, a Big Island site used by the Army and the Marines.

Converse, the deputy Pacific Fleet commander, said during the congressional hearing that the Navy is working to restore public trust.

“We recognize how much these events impacted the lives of so many, and we are firmly committed to restoring safe drinking water in a manner that builds trust and protects the land and the waters of Hawaii,” Converse said.

Hawaii has been a strategically important outpost for the U.S. military since the early 1900s, when it set up a coal refueling station for steam-powered warships at Pearl Harbor. Today defense spending accounts for 8.5% of Hawaii’s gross domestic product.

Activist protests got the Navy to stop bombing Kahoolawe Island for target practice in 1990. This time, opposition to the military is broader because it involves water, something that everyone connects to, said Colin Moore, a University of Hawaii political science professor.

“I don’t think they have any friends on the island at this point,” he said.

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Originally Appeared Here

Image Source : TWITTER/ REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE

Singh, at the same event, lashed out at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for a statement the latter made in the Parliament blaming the BJP-led government’s foreign policy to bring China and Pakistan together.

Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday assured the people of Uttar Pradesh, that if BJP comes to power in the state, it will provide employment, ration and medicines to poor people. Speaking at a rally in Hamirpur, he said, “If you choose development, there will be good governance, the homes of the poor will be illuminated. There will be employment for youth and their income will increase. There will be free ration and medicine for the poor.”

He also talked about BJP’s election campaign called “Har Ghar Nal and Jal”, wherein he promised people that their homes would have regular tap water supply. He also claimed that, unlike other political parties, BJP had stood on all the promises it had earlier made to the people. 

The Minister was on a day-long campaign in three constituencies in Uttar Pradesh’s Hamirpur, Raath, and Mahoba.

Singh, at the same event, lashed out at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for a statement the latter made in the Parliament blaming the BJP-led government’s foreign policy to bring China and Pakistan together.

The Defence Minister took a jibe at Gandhi while referring to the clash between Indian and Chinese soldiers at Ladakh’s Galwan Valley. He said,” It means you (Rahulji) will accept whatever Chinese mouthpiece Global Times says.”Singh referred to a report published in the Australian newspaper “The Klaxon”, which stated the possibility of 38-50 Chinese casualties.”

The minister elaborated on how the Citizenship Amendment Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was brought to persecute Indians residing in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. 

Uttar Pradesh will go to assembly polls in seven phases. Voting will commence in the state on February 10, and will go on till March 7. Results will be out on March 10.

(With ANI Inputs)

Also Read | Charanjit Singh Channi’s first reaction after being named as Congress’ CM face for Punjab

Also Read | EC opens up physical campaigning events; ban on roadshows, processions continues

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Originally Appeared Here

Rawalpindi : The Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) has started to lay down water pipelines here in different areas of Adiala Road including Kehkashan Colony, Munawar Colony, Dhama Syedan, Sanjoli Street, Bank Colony, Hill View Lane, Sadiq Town, Jarahi, and Janjua Town to provide pure drinking water round the clock at the cost of Rs400 million The concerned civic body has also introduced a new ‘Water Meter System’ to provide pure drinking water round the clock to public.

The thickly populated Adiala Road has been deprived of water supply schemes and the underground water is not available in the locality. On the other hand, the tanker mafia has been looting the public with both hands and selling a tanker at Rs1600-Rs2000.

The Wasa has already introduced the ‘Water Meter System’ in 24 villages in Rawalpindi Division which has proved to be very successful. The ‘Water Meter System’ is the best way to stop the wastage of water. Consumers would get pure drinking water through the ‘Water Meter System’. T

The Punjab government has released Rs300 million out of the total cost of Rs400 million to provide 24-hours pure drinking water in the areas of Adiala Road. The Adiala Road is the most neglected area where there was not a single drop of supply water. But, WASA engineers have done a miracle to provide pure drinking water to the residents of Adiala Road. Wasa has also purchased more than 40000 feet of pipelines to lay down in all areas. The concerned authority has completed installations of four tube wells out of a total of nine tube wells here at Gorakhpur to supply water to more than 30,000 residents of different areas of Adiala Road.

Wasa officials said that they would install nine tube wells at Gorakhpur. “Four tube wells are functioning while installation work of other tube wells is still going on. WASA is establishing two underground tanks and two OHR tanks here at Shahpur. Underground tanks will have the capacity of 500,000 gallons drinking water per day while the height of OHR tanks will be around 70-feet,” the official said.

The engineering staff of WASA also said that they will provide 500,000 gallons of water to 30,000 residents every day. “We will provide them pure drinking water round the clock but with installations of ‘Water Meters.’ We are going to install ‘Water Meters’ in every house only to avoid wastage of water,” the officials said. “Wasa will install ‘Water Meters’ on its own to monitor the water consumption and control its wastage,” the official claimed. They also said that consumers will pay nominal bills per house in a month. They said that we have purchased a 36,000-feet (9-kilometer) long pipe to lay it in all areas.

Wasa Managing Director Raja Shaukat Mehmood told ‘The News’ that they have purchased water pipelines for all areas in Adiala Road. The residents of Adiala Road would get pure drinking water very soon. “We have introduced ‘Water Meter System’ to stop wastage of water,” he claimed. Consumers would pay nominal bills and get pure drinking water, he assured. He also said that they have already introduced the ‘Water Meter System’ in 24 villages of the Rawalpindi division which was successfully continued. “We would complete this project before the set timeframe,” he hoped.

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Originally Appeared Here

Manila, Feb. 6 (CNA) A Taiwanese non-profit organization is working to provide clean drinking water to students on the Philippine island of Siargao, in the wake of a deadly typhoon that damaged the infrastructure in parts of the country last year.

The Taiwan Fund for Children and Families (TFCF), which has a branch in the Philippines, had inaugurated a solar-powered water pumping station in Siargao only days before Super Typhoon Rai ripped through the southern Philippines on Dec. 16, 2021, leaving a trail of death and damage.

Some 405 people were killed, 1,147 injured, and 82 remained missing, while 500,000 were displaced and a total of 4.45 million were adversely affected in some way by the storm, according to the Philippine disaster management agency’s data valid as of Dec. 31, 2021.

Siargao Island, a popular tourist destination known for its sandy beaches and surfing attractions, was reduced to a tangle of downed power lines and poles, smashed buildings, and toppled palm trees.

The solar-powered water pumping station, built by TFCF to supply clean drinking water to underprivileged families, was damaged, rendering it non-functional in the wake of the storm.

Immediately after the typhoon, TFCF moved quickly to assist with emergency relief supplies for the Siargao communities, and it is now working to repair the water pumping station, according to Kelly Chang (張凱莉), a representative at the TFCF Philippine Branch Office.

Students have had to buy drinking water at school, because despite the ample rainfall on the island, there were no adequate collection or storage systems before the TFCF facility was built, she said.

The repairs on the pumping station will be carried out in collaboration with another non-profit organization called Espoir School of Life, to ensure that Siargao students from underprivileged families will again have access to clean water, Chang said.

Espoir School of Life, which provides free education to underprivileged children in the Philippines, opened its first establishment in Siargao in 2016 in the town of Del Carmen, the school’s website says, noting that Espoir is a French word meaning “hope.”

Most of the residents in the area are construction workers, farmers, and fishermen, who earn barely enough to support themselves and their families, and they see no way out of poverty because they think there are no opportunities for people in remote areas of the country, according to the school’s administrator Jerlyn Rabaca.

Espoir School of Life, however, is aiming to end that cycle of poverty by providing “free high-quality education” to students in the area, Rabaca told CNA.

“Everything is free here, including school uniforms and supplies, even crayons and pencils, because we believe we must provide these children with free education and options in life so that they can acquire knowledge to make the right choices,” she said.

Currently, the school has 96 students, in classes from kindergarten to fourth-grade level, but expansion plans are in the pipeline, Rabaca said.

“We’re hoping to add a new class each year, until we reach 12th grade,” she said. “We hope that by then, we’ll be able to prepare the students to apply for university scholarships, because that’s the only way they’ll be able to attain higher education.”

The TFCF Philippine Branch Office is also part of the effort to wipe out urban poverty and create a better life for Siargao students, focusing not just on providing clean drinking water.

In 2020, TFCF introduced a program that allowed the shared use of tablet computers by students in Siargao, after schools there switched to remote learning amid the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Chang.

On the island, where internet connectivity is limited, students were able to collect the tablets every day and pass them on to others, sharing the use, to ensure that they could all participate in the remote classes, she said.

(By Angie Chen and Evelyn Kao)

Enditem/pc

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Originally Appeared Here

The City of Auburn is one of 11 municipalities across the state that have been tapped by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to receive grants aimed at improving drinking water quality.

This week, in announcing the awards totaling nearly $5 million that fall under the umbrella of the MI Clean Water Plan, Whitmer said the plan reflects the state’s commitment to ensuring residents have safe, clean tap water. This is accomplished by helping local water suppliers move toward reducing the risks associated with lead in drinking water and making other improvements.

Removing lead and other impurities from water lines may be the critical piece of this undertaking, but there are other benefits as well.

“Investing in water infrastructure creates tens of thousands of great-paying jobs, protects access to safe drinking water for communities, and drives down costs for families, “ said Whitmer. “The MI Clean Water plan helps us put Michiganders first, and we should continue building on it to replace lead service lines statewide, tackle toxic contaminants and cut utility costs for families.”

Auburn has been awarded $229,300, funds that it used toward the purchase of a Hydro Excavation Truck, commonly referred to as a Hydrovac. As the name implies, this piece of equipment uses vacuum excavation techniques and pressurized water rather than traditional excavation techniques such as a backhoe or manual digging. It’s a safer, more efficient and non-destructive method to excavate, city officials said.

“It’s the difference between a surgeon cutting you with a knife or using technology to make a microscopic incision,” said David Haag, Auburn City Administrator. “We have 191 water connections to inspect, and if we had to go in with a backhoe, even on the outlawn, we’d have 191 unhappy residents because their lawns would be ripped up. It would be a mess. The Hydrovac is going to be far less invasive to people’s property.”

The state’s Clean Water Plan is a $500 million investment to rebuild Michigan’s water infrastructure. Issued through the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE), the grants support work that includes replacing lead service lines, enhancing water affordability plans, and connecting homes that are plagued with contaminated drinking water wells to safe community water supplies.

“The reality is, EGLE determines who gets funding and what they will and won’t fund,” Haag said. “We’re ecstatic. We proposed the idea of a Hydro Truck to EGLE, and they agreed to pay about 25% of its cost and 25% of a pickup truck and a few other pieces of equipment. This is a game-changer for Auburn.”

Haag notes that the water line inspections are a state requirement, so Auburn was going to have to absorb the cost one way or another. Haag sold the city commission on the idea of purchasing the Hydrovac during a special workshop, emphasizing the cost savings involved and the versatility of the Hydrovac.

“We can use it for all kinds of things,” Haag said. “EGLE has specific functions that each community must conduct and comply with for ensuring safe drinking water. This award positions the city to conduct its own inspections and inventory water supply lines versus contracting these services out. If we farmed this out, we would be looking at a nearly $1 million bill. By purchasing our own equipment and doing it ourselves, we’re saving the city anywhere from $350,000 to $400,000. This is equipment that can be used throughout the city in our normal day-to-day maintenance of city infrastructure.”

Once the commission agreed to accept the state grant and approved the Hydrovac purchase, “That night, immediately after the meeting, Ashlie House (Auburn’s Department of Public Works Director) made a phone call to secure the Hydrovac. They only had two and weren’t going to hold one any longer,” Haag said.

Having served in Auburn’s top post for about four years now, Haag has made it a priority to aggressively seek grant funding for citywide improvements, which include a number of upgrades that continue at Auburn City Park.

“In my tenure, we have solicited grant commitments of over $1 million,” he said. “We’re always seeking ways to improve the city for our residents.”

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Originally Appeared Here

A giant U.S. government fuel storage installation hidden inside a mountain ridge overlooking Pearl Harbor has provided fuel to military ships and planes crisscrossing the Pacific Ocean since World War II.

Its very existence was a secret for years. Even after it was declassified, few people paid attention — until late last year, when jet fuel leaked into a drinking water well, showed up in tap water and sickened thousands in military housing.

Now the Navy is scrambling to contain what one U.S. lawmaker calls a “crisis of astronomical proportions.” Native Hawaiians, veterans, liberals and conservatives across Hawaii are all pushing to shut down the tanks even though the Navy says they’re vital to national security.

Military medical teams have examined more than 5,900 people complaining of symptoms including nausea, headaches and rashes. The military has moved about 4,000 mostly military families into hotels and has flown in water treatment systems from the U.S. mainland.

In the first six weeks since the water crisis emerged, the Navy spent more than $250 million addressing the public health emergency.

“Frankly, it’s been a nightmare and a disaster. A total disaster,” said U.S. Rep. Kaiali‘i Kahele.

Kahele, a combat pilot who still serves as an officer in the Hawaii National Guard, is the lawmaker who characterized the crisis as astronomical at a hearing in December. An admiral said that the Navy takes the blame.

“The Navy caused this problem, we own it and we’re gonna fix it,” Navy Rear Adm. Blake Converse, the deputy Pacific Fleet commander, told lawmakers last month.

The military built the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility in the early 1940s by excavating caverns within the mountain ridge to protect 20 fuel tanks from aerial attacks. Each tank is about the height of a 25-story building and can hold 12.5 million gallons (47.32 million liters.)

The tanks are connected to underground pipelines that send fuel about 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) to Pearl Harbor and to ships and planes used by the Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marines and Navy.

The Navy hasn’t determined how petroleum got in the water. Officials are investigating a theory that jet fuel spilled from a ruptured pipe last May and somehow entered a fire suppression system drain pipe. They suspect fuel then leaked from the second pipe on Nov. 20, sending it into the drinking water well.

Within a week, military families started complaining about health problems.

Lauren Wright remembers her skin peeling, feeling nauseous and vomiting. Her symptoms disappeared only when she stopped drinking, showering and washing dishes with her home’s water.

“I’m a proud Navy spouse, but this is not right — to do this to your families,” she said.

Since early December, Wright, her sailor husband and their three children ages 7 to 17 have been among the thousands of military families living in Honolulu hotels paid for by the Navy so they can have clean water.

The Navy has been trying to clear petroleum from the contaminated well and pump it out of the aquifer. Officials are also flushing clean water through the Navy’s water system — which serves 93,000 people in military homes and offices in and around Pearl Harbor. Teams have separately visited homes and workplaces to flush individual water pipe systems.

But Wright said Marines sent to flush a neighbor’s home received two days of training, failed to follow a checklist for the work and had to be taught how to do the job by a neighbor with expertise.

“We’re all afraid that we are going to be forced into our toxic homes and go right back to it,” she said.

The first major complaints about the fuel complex came in 2014, when 27,000 gallons (123,000 liters) leaked from one tank but didn’t get into the drinking water.

The Navy blamed contractor error and ineffective oversight. The Sierra Club of Hawaii and Honolulu’s water utility warned leaks could seep into one of Honolulu’s most important drinking water aquifers, located just 100 feet (30 meters) below the tanks, but the Navy resisted calls to move the facility.

The aquifer normally supplies more than 20% of the water consumed in the city. After the latest spill, Honolulu’s water utility shut off three wells to prevent petroleum from migrating through the aquifer into the utility’s drinking water.

If the biggest of the three wells remains shut, about 400,000 people in neighborhoods including downtown and Waikiki could face rationing and outages during the summer when water demand increases.

The Navy last month said it would comply with an order by Hawaii Gov. David Ige, a Democrat, to drain the tanks and not use them until it’s safe to do so. But it reversed course this week and appealed to get more time to work on solutions.

The Navy has said draining the tanks wouldn’t affect short-term Pacific operations, but commanders said they would give congressional members a classified briefing on longer-term implications.

Many Hawaii residents, including Republican state Rep. Bob McDermott, say the dangers posed by the tanks justify getting rid of the fuel complex forever. The Marine veteran has two sons in the Navy, one son who is a Marine veteran and another currently at Marine Corps boot camp.

“I’m very close to the military, but these things are too old. It’s just that simple. And if they’re going to look at infrastructure for the next century, they need to fill these things in with dirt,” said McDermott.

Forty-eight of the 51 members of the state House of Representatives signed a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin calling for the tanks to be decommissioned. State senators are considering legislation to outlaw them.

Hawaii’s four-member congressional delegation has secured wording in recent legislation requiring the Navy to study fuel storage alternatives.

Esther Kiaʻāina, a Honolulu city council member, said public trust in the military in Hawaii could be scarred if the Navy doesn’t close the tanks for good.

“This is a watershed moment. This is a turning point for the military’s relationship with Hawaii,” said Kiaʻāina, who was an Interior Department assistant secretary during the Obama administration.

She warned that failure to shut them down could jeopardize the military’s ability to obtain lease extensions for state lands under sites like Pohakuloa Training Area, a Big Island site used by the Army and the Marines.

Converse, the deputy Pacific Fleet commander, said during the congressional hearing that the Navy is working to restore public trust.

“We recognize how much these events impacted the lives of so many, and we are firmly committed to restoring safe drinking water in a manner that builds trust and protects the land and the waters of Hawaii,” Converse said.

Hawaii has been a strategically important outpost for the U.S. military since the early 1900s, when it set up a coal refueling station for steam-powered warships at Pearl Harbor. Today defense spending accounts for 8.5% of Hawaii’s gross domestic product.

Activist protests got the Navy to stop bombing Kahoolawe Island for target practice in 1990. This time, opposition to the military is broader because it involves water, something that everyone connects to, said Colin Moore, a University of Hawaii political science professor.

“I don’t think they have any friends on the island at this point,” he said.

A giant U.S. government fuel storage installation hidden inside a mountain ridge overlooking Pearl Harbor has provided fuel to military ships and planes crisscrossing the Pacific Ocean since World War II.

Its very existence was a secret for years. Even after it was declassified, few people paid attention — until late last year, when jet fuel leaked into a drinking water well, showed up in tap water and sickened thousands in military housing.

Now the Navy is scrambling to contain what one U.S. lawmaker calls a “crisis of astronomical proportions.” Native Hawaiians, veterans, liberals and conservatives across Hawaii are all pushing to shut down the tanks even though the Navy says they’re vital to national security.

Military medical teams have examined more than 5,900 people complaining of symptoms including nausea, headaches and rashes. The military has moved about 4,000 mostly military families into hotels and has flown in water treatment systems from the U.S. mainland.

In the first six weeks since the water crisis emerged, the Navy spent more than $250 million addressing the public health emergency.

“Frankly, it’s been a nightmare and a disaster. A total disaster,” said U.S. Rep. Kaiali‘i Kahele.

Kahele, a combat pilot who still serves as an officer in the Hawaii National Guard, is the lawmaker who characterized the crisis as astronomical at a hearing in December. An admiral said that the Navy takes the blame.

“The Navy caused this problem, we own it and we’re gonna fix it,” Navy Rear Adm. Blake Converse, the deputy Pacific Fleet commander, told lawmakers last month.

The military built the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility in the early 1940s by excavating caverns within the mountain ridge to protect 20 fuel tanks from aerial attacks. Each tank is about the height of a 25-story building and can hold 12.5 million gallons (47.32 million liters.)

The tanks are connected to underground pipelines that send fuel about 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) to Pearl Harbor and to ships and planes used by the Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marines and Navy.

The Navy hasn’t determined how petroleum got in the water. Officials are investigating a theory that jet fuel spilled from a ruptured pipe last May and somehow entered a fire suppression system drain pipe. They suspect fuel then leaked from the second pipe on Nov. 20, sending it into the drinking water well.

Within a week, military families started complaining about health problems.

Lauren Wright remembers her skin peeling, feeling nauseous and vomiting. Her symptoms disappeared only when she stopped drinking, showering and washing dishes with her home’s water.

“I’m a proud Navy spouse, but this is not right — to do this to your families,” she said.

Since early December, Wright, her sailor husband and their three children ages 7 to 17 have been among the thousands of military families living in Honolulu hotels paid for by the Navy so they can have clean water.

The Navy has been trying to clear petroleum from the contaminated well and pump it out of the aquifer. Officials are also flushing clean water through the Navy’s water system — which serves 93,000 people in military homes and offices in and around Pearl Harbor. Teams have separately visited homes and workplaces to flush individual water pipe systems.

But Wright said Marines sent to flush a neighbor’s home received two days of training, failed to follow a checklist for the work and had to be taught how to do the job by a neighbor with expertise.

“We’re all afraid that we are going to be forced into our toxic homes and go right back to it,” she said.

The first major complaints about the fuel complex came in 2014, when 27,000 gallons (123,000 liters) leaked from one tank but didn’t get into the drinking water.

The Navy blamed contractor error and ineffective oversight. The Sierra Club of Hawaii and Honolulu’s water utility warned leaks could seep into one of Honolulu’s most important drinking water aquifers, located just 100 feet (30 meters) below the tanks, but the Navy resisted calls to move the facility.

The aquifer normally supplies more than 20% of the water consumed in the city. After the latest spill, Honolulu’s water utility shut off three wells to prevent petroleum from migrating through the aquifer into the utility’s drinking water.

If the biggest of the three wells remains shut, about 400,000 people in neighborhoods including downtown and Waikiki could face rationing and outages during the summer when water demand increases.

The Navy last month said it would comply with an order by Hawaii Gov. David Ige, a Democrat, to drain the tanks and not use them until it’s safe to do so. But it reversed course this week and appealed to get more time to work on solutions.

The Navy has said draining the tanks wouldn’t affect short-term Pacific operations, but commanders said they would give congressional members a classified briefing on longer-term implications.

Many Hawaii residents, including Republican state Rep. Bob McDermott, say the dangers posed by the tanks justify getting rid of the fuel complex forever. The Marine veteran has two sons in the Navy, one son who is a Marine veteran and another currently at Marine Corps boot camp.

“I’m very close to the military, but these things are too old. It’s just that simple. And if they’re going to look at infrastructure for the next century, they need to fill these things in with dirt,” said McDermott.

Forty-eight of the 51 members of the state House of Representatives signed a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin calling for the tanks to be decommissioned. State senators are considering legislation to outlaw them.

Hawaii’s four-member congressional delegation has secured wording in recent legislation requiring the Navy to study fuel storage alternatives.

Esther Kiaʻāina, a Honolulu city council member, said public trust in the military in Hawaii could be scarred if the Navy doesn’t close the tanks for good.

“This is a watershed moment. This is a turning point for the military’s relationship with Hawaii,” said Kiaʻāina, who was an Interior Department assistant secretary during the Obama administration.

She warned that failure to shut them down could jeopardize the military’s ability to obtain lease extensions for state lands under sites like Pohakuloa Training Area, a Big Island site used by the Army and the Marines.

Converse, the deputy Pacific Fleet commander, said during the congressional hearing that the Navy is working to restore public trust.

“We recognize how much these events impacted the lives of so many, and we are firmly committed to restoring safe drinking water in a manner that builds trust and protects the land and the waters of Hawaii,” Converse said.

Hawaii has been a strategically important outpost for the U.S. military since the early 1900s, when it set up a coal refueling station for steam-powered warships at Pearl Harbor. Today defense spending accounts for 8.5% of Hawaii’s gross domestic product.

Activist protests got the Navy to stop bombing Kahoolawe Island for target practice in 1990. This time, opposition to the military is broader because it involves water, something that everyone connects to, said Colin Moore, a University of Hawaii political science professor.

“I don’t think they have any friends on the island at this point,” he said.

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It was a freezing afternoon in Newark, and a work crew was busy on South 17th Street replacing a lead service line that for the better part of a century had connected a three-family house to a city water main but in recent years was deemed — along with thousands of others like it — to be a potential health risk after testing revealed dangerous levels of lead in tap water around the city.

Using what’s known as a pull-through method that requires some excavation but avoids digging trenches across streets, sidewalks and front yards, the crew from city contractor Roman E&G Corp. disconnected the 1-inch service line from the water meter in the basement, and from the underground water main crews had dug down to access below the street.

Attaching the end of the service line to what was essentially a heavy steel mesh Chinese finger trap, the crew pulled the line out of its narrow underground cavity, and then used the same device to pull the new copper pipe through the space and connect it to the meter and the main. Eventually, the street was patched up, and the job was done.

“It feels good,” to make the new connection, said Tamir Lee, a Newark resident and Roman E&G crew member whose line was replaced last fall. “You feel like the water’s safer for your family, your kids.”

Less than three years into a city-wide lead service line replacement program originally thought to take close to a decade, city officials say the “Herculean” task of replacing about 23,000 lines is all but complete. And except for about 700 property owners who each contributed $1,000 to the cost of the work before the program was revised, officials say replacement of the service lines has been paid for entirely by the city.

“We’ve shown the way to get this done because we had the will to do it,” Kareem Adeem, director of Newark’s water and sewer department, told NJ Advance Media.

“Back when this all started, the mayor said to me, ‘what can we do to take care of this problem?’ ” said Adeem, the administration’s point man on the water line issue. “And I said there’s only one way, and that’s to pull all the lines. So that is done, and we’ve replaced more lead lines, faster, than any other city in America.”

A Six-Year Saga

Since 2016, Newark’s lead contamination saga has attracted attention and drawn comparisons to the drinking water crisis in Flint, Michigan. But following criticism of the city’s initial handling of the situation, Mayor Ras Baraka’s administration has been widely praised for its evolving response, and Newark has been viewed as a model for how municipalities can expedite large projects, which is especially critical now that federal infrastructure funding is on the way.

The replacement job on South 17th Street was part of an initiative Baraka’s administration launched in March 2019 to replace what was originally estimated to be 15,000 lead service lines, at a cost of $75 million.

Three years earlier, testing had revealed that lead levels exceeded the federal standard of 15 parts per billion in the drinking water at 30 city schools. The contamination was traced to flaking lead inside aging service lines, many of them a century old and had to be abated.

Lead, which can cause learning disabilities and behavioral problems, is unsafe for children, health officials said.

Initially, and then as interim and supplemental measures, the city distributed household water filters and bottled water to residents, though many failed to use the filters correctly. Some criticized the Baraka administration for what they viewed as its failure to recognize the severity of the problem. And in June 2018, the Washington D.C.-based Natural Resources Defense Council and a local teachers’ group, known as the Newark Education Workers Caucus, sued the city and state Department of Environmental Protection after lead levels repeatedly exceeded federal standards, according to the suit.

Ultimately, Baraka administration decided to replace the lead lines with copper to solve the problem once and for all.

Meanwhile, the number of service lines needing replacement increased as the city updated its lead inventory, going from an estimated 15,000 lines, to 18,000, and most recently about 23,000. As of Friday, 22,964 lines had been replaced, according to a real-time counter on a city web site created for the replacement program.

Aided by Legislation

Despite increases in the numbers of lines targeted for replacement, the time it’s taken to complete the work has been cut by about two thirds thanks to enabling state legislation adopted in January 2020 with Newark in mind. Among other provisions, the legislation allows municipalities to adopt an ordinance eliminating the need to secure a property owner’s permission to replace a lead service line. The Newark City Council quickly passed, and the mayor signed, a local version.

City officials also dropped an earlier requirement of the replacement program that property owners contribute $1,000 to the total cost of each line replacement, which is about $7,000.

Elimination of the property owner’s contribution, as well as expansion of the number of lines replaced, had been made possible by a $120 million loan from Essex County. That money was raised through a county bond issue, to be repaid with the proceeds from a $155 settlement of a lawsuit Newark filed against the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey seeking higher lease payments on city-owned property occupied by Newark Liberty International Airport, the Port Newark container terminal and other facilities.

Since then, Adeem said the pace of removals had accelerated to as many as 120 lead lines a day by up to 20 crews at a time.

Newark does not do sample testing for all drinking water locations, including those where copper lines are in place, and officials acknowledged it was impossible to know just what the average level of lead in the water is citywide.

Progress Prompts A Settlement

Even so, in January 2021, Newark’s progress in reducing the threat of lead contamination impressed the National Resources Defense Council and the NEW Caucus enough for them to settle their suit against the city. And rather than criticizing Newark, the NRDC is now praising the city, as is the Washington-based National League of Cities and others, calling Newark a model for how municipalities across the country can expedite large-scale projects as aging service lines and other infrastructure systems fail.

“Certainly, it’s something that we have pointed to as a model for other cities to look at because we’re going to see this play out all over the country,” Erik Olson, the NRDC’s senior strategic director for health & food, said of Newark’s replacement program. “It was a combination of, certainly the local ordinance, the state legislation, as well as the ability to raise the money… for the replacements that enabled Newark to do this faster than, honestly, any other city that I know of with this number of lines.”

Olson said Newark’s example is especially timely as federal funding becomes available for drinking water projects under the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act signed by President Biden in November.

“There’s a $15 billion nest egg in the infrastructure bill which is going to have to be spent out,” Olson said. “And we’re hoping that other cities are going to be able to go forward as aggressively as Newark has to replace their lead lines.”

Last month, Gov. Phil Murphy announced plans for allocating $1 billion in federal infrastructure funds for drinking water projects, though the money amounts to a drop in the bucket when compared to an estimated $30 billion in projects needed around the state.

Learning From Newark’s Experience

Cities from around the county and even abroad have reached out to Newark about its replacement program, said Adeem, the water department director, who said he’s gotten calls from Chicago, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Detroit, Denver and New York, among other places.

Baraka was a featured speaker at a May 2021 town hall for municipal officials sponsored by the National League of Cities focusing on a set of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency drinking water regulations known as the “Lead and Copper Rule.”

Terms of the settlement of the lawsuit by the NRDC and the NEW Caucus include requirements that Newark continue providing free water filters, replacement cartridges and testing kits, and a public awareness campaign to insure that residents know to change their filers regularly and to properly flush out their new copper pipes.

Yvette Jordan, a Newark resident and history teacher at Central High School who is a member of the NEW Caucus and a plaintiff in the suit, said she was hopeful that the city would honor the terms.

“In so many ways, it is a national model of which we are proud,” said Jordan, whose own lead service line was replaced following readings as high as 44 PPB. “But there are still things that need to be ameliorated, such as the educational aspect.”

Back on 17th Street, Malik Howard paused to watch the line replacement crew do their work. Using the arm of a backhoe to pull the lead and copper pipes, crew members crouched in earthen pits eight feet below street level, connecting pipes as water gushed over their bare hands in sub-freezing temperatures.

Howard, 53, a high-rise window washer who lives on 19th Street, said the quality of his tap water had improved since the lead line into his apartment was replaced in November, something city officials said was a logical byproduct of the new pipes.

“I noticed that the water tasted better,” Howard said.

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Steve Strunsky may be reached at [email protected]

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It’s been more than a month since Typhoon Rai wreaked havoc in the central Philippines. Many island communities still don’t have cellular signal or electricity. Residents also have been getting very sick due to very limited access to clean drinking water.

CBN News met up with Pastor Reysen Navarro whose family and community were hit hard by Typhoon Rai. He recently questioned his calling as a minister after facing major trials one after the other. It started when his wife suffered a stillbirth in May, and then, before the year ended, Typhoon Rai destroyed their church. 

“I was angry with God and blamed him for what happened,” Pastor Reysen said. “Losing our baby brought so much pain. And then, our church where we also lived was totally damaged by the storm.”

While seeking answers to why God allowed these tragedies, Pastor Reysen experienced another blow when he suddenly passed out because of severe diarrhea. He said he was so scared and thought he would die. 

“After the storm, there was no more clean water on the island so we were forced to drink dirty water. When I collapsed, I thought it was the end for me. I pleaded to God, ‘Please don’t take me yet because my family needs me, especially my wife.’ A child heard my cry for help and he called the villagers who then brought me to the hospital,” he recalled.

Pastor Reysen is among many residents of the Bohol province who got sick because of dirty water.

According to the pastor, pitchers of drinking water were sold at a high price, three times higher than the regular price. There were doubts about its purity; however, because there is still no electricity on the islands.

Ryan del Barrio, an Operation Blessing volunteer, responded by sacrificing Christmas with his family to set up water filtration stations in the Cebu and Bohol provinces. 

CBN’s Operation Blessing Brings Christmas Cheer, Relief to Typhoon Rai Survivors on Remote Philippine Islands

He said, “I missed being with my family on Christmas and New Year’s Day. But when I saw the suffering of the typhoon victims whose houses were totally damaged, I am glad I am able to help. Rich or poor, they lined up for clean drinking water.”
 
The water filtration station supplies an average of 1,700 liters of clean water per day to more than 90 families.

Pastor Reysen is grateful that his prayers have been answered. 

“I thank the living God who sent you to help us. Thank you, Operation Blessing. Now we have clean drinking water in the island,” he told CBN News

Operation Blessing also provided food bags to 6,000 families. And O.B. continues to distribute relief goods in other provinces affected by Typhoon Rai, helping the survivors rebuild their lives. 

HELP Operation Blessing meet the urgent needs to disaster victims.

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HONOLULU (KHON2) — The Board of Water Supply (BWS) is calling on the state to lower the threshold of how much fuel is allowed in drinking water. A higher level set just a few years back proved insufficient to flag the Red Hill contamination crisis. It’s an issue Always Investigating has been tracking.

The state raised acceptable contaminant levels years before fuel from the Navy’s Red Hill storage facility polluted drinking water for tens of thousands of people.

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Within days after residents saw, smelled and tasted fuel last November 2021, the Navy took water samples at the source. When the results came back a press release proclaimed they’d detected petroleum products in the Red Hill shaft below DOH action levels.

“Of course you’re below the environmental action level because you got them to increase it significantly so that you would never ever run afoul of it,” said Marti Townsend with Earthjustice.

In 2017 the state Department of Health (DOH) raised the bar three to five times higher for what’s called the Environmental Action Level (EAL) for TPH-d. That’s a category of diesel fuels that pop up regularly in ground and drinking water samples from Red Hill.

Water test data tables are dizzying, but people don’t need a PhD to see TPH-d spiking here and there over the years — even before November’s Red Hill contamination crisis.

The state used to draw the line at 100 parts per billion for taste and smell, and 160 for drinking, until 2017 when acceptable levels jumped to 500 and 400 respectively.

“It’s intuitively saying that it’s okay to drink the water even if it smells. And we all know that’s counterintuitive,” explained Erwin Kawata from BWS. “What they had previously was much, much, much, much more protective. It was actually the reverse.”

Navy, DOD ‘gives priority to storing fuel above a drinking water aquifer rather than the health and safety of the people of Oahu’: BWS

“Ultimately, the reason given, the logic given was that Red Hill is an active fuel facility,” Townsend recalled. “There are going to be minor leaks and so we want to make sure that we catch the most significant ones without setting off false alarms.”

Always Investigating reviewed Red Hill data taken before the November crisis and saw plenty of what would have been alarm-bell levels had the threshold not gone up.

Always Investigating asked the Health Department about the level change for months. BWS pushed again this week to revisit the limits.

Navy set to begin flushing out Red Hill Shaft

“Board of Water Supply, we are also guardians of public health by making sure that our drinking water fully complies with federal and state drinking water regulations,” said Ernie Lau of BWS. “But the ultimate decider on what is the appropriate level that is protected by public health rests fully with the Department of Health.”

The DOH finally answered KHON2’s pending questions after getting the board’s demand letter this week.

DOH explained the old lower level was from a 1980s Environmental Protection Agency study and that:

a review of the original source documents… determined that the value was based on a mistranslation of worked published in Polish and Russian by the Soviet Union in the 1940s. More recent reviews carried out by the State of California, one of the most environmentally progressive states in the country, were referred to select an updated and more supportable taste and odor threshold for petroleum fuels of 500 (ppb).

That’s not sitting well with BWS which opposed the change back then and even more so now.

Time is of the essence as Navy stalls Red Hill drain

“We checked with other states, Massachusetts and Minnesota both have their threshold for drinking water at 200 (ppm),” Kawata said. “California has a level to our understanding it’s about 150. So they’re not in that 400 range.”

“We did have some toxicologists independently come up with their own numbers,” Kawata said, “and those numbers actually were consistent with what the Department of Health (used to have) which was that 160.”

Navy complies with Department of Health order to empty fuel storage tanks at Red Hill, install safe drinking water system

The DOH told KHON2:

“DOH stands by its decision, but to be clear, EALs are under constant review based on updates to science and new information. DOH’s guidance states that “the adequacy of (the HEER Office TPH taste and odor threshold for use as a final drinking water quality standard) should be verified if impacts to actively used sources of drinking water are identified. The situation at Red Hill seems to be a case example of the need for such a review to be carried out.”

KHON2 asked DOH what prompted them to explore changing the numbers higher in the first place. No explanation has been given at this time yet.

Hawaii families impacted by Navy’s water contamination may have to switch hotels, pay out of pocket

“We never got a real clear answer on why what motivated them to take something that they had already set and raise it up higher. We couldn’t get our head around it either,” Lau said. “And I think they continued to see these very high numbers. They may have may have gotten questions from it from the Navy, and so they continue to do some research and they made their choice. We just didn’t understand it ourselves.”

“I think it’s important to note that this choice to raise the bar and allow for more contamination before sounding the alarm was a decision that was made by the previous directors of for the Environmental Health Division of the Department of Health,” Townsend said. “It was whatever the Navy wanted the Navy got. The Navy wanted higher action levels. It saves them from having to file extra reports. They got it.”

KHON2 is awaiting a response from the Navy about its position and role in changes made to the EALs in 2017, if requests for changes were made, and what was cited as reasons in any requests.

Military spouse wants to gather donations for baby items thrown out due to contaminated water

“Now that we have new people there [in DOH leadership] who clearly are taking their job seriously, I’m hopeful that they will revisit this decision and reverse it,” Townsend said.

The DOH recently started holding the Navy to a lower threshold of just 200 ppb for clearance after flushing of systems and homes. Always Investigating asked why and the DOH called that “an incident-specific parameter being used for this response.”

“I’m very hopeful that the new leadership will take a second look at this decision and restore the previous more protective environmental action levels,” Townsend said. “If they had been at what they were pre-2017, we may have prevented people from drinking contaminated water, bathing their children in contaminated water.”

Check out what’s going on around the nation on our National News page

We’ll continue to follow up on any changes, and the Navy’s response.

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