December 19, 2022 Letter from Hawaii congressional delegation to GAO misses the mark

By Pat Elder
December 20, 2022

U.S. Sens. Brian Schatz and Mazie Hirono
and U.S. Reps. Ed Case and Kaialiʻi Kahele

Yesterday’s letter from Hawaii’s congressional delegation (Sen. Brian Schatz, Sen. Mazie Hirono, Rep. Ed Case, and Rep.  Kaiali'i Kahele)  to the Comptroller General of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) calling for an investigation  into the Navy’s use of PFAS reveals a profound lack of understanding of the issue. The letter reflects how far Hawaii is behind the learning curve compared to many states that have been taking this threat seriously for years.

The delegation should consider sending drafts of letters like this to folks with the Environmental Working Group, the Sierra Club’s Toxics Team, Northeastern University, or the Harvard University School of Public Health. They’d be delighted to help.

The congressional letter urges an investigation into the Navy’s use of AFFF containing PFAS at Red Hill, while ignoring the use of the chemicals in a wide range of military activities throughout the islands.

The letter erroneously refers to a spill of “1,100 gallons of AFFF.”  The spill contained 1,300 gallons of AFFF concentrate, not a trivial matter of semantics as some claim.

The letter states, “This community and the people of Hawai‘i deserve answers regarding how the Navy undertook efforts to address these incidents and complete the clean-up and remediation of impacted sites.”  There has been no completion of “clean-up and remediation.” In fact, there is not one Naval facility in the country where these chemicals have been “cleaned up,” whatever that means.

This quote from the letter skirts the greatest threat to public health posed by these chemicals: “Moreover, because these chemicals degrade extremely slowly, they can build up in the environment and in animals and plants that ingest or are otherwise exposed to them.” Certainly, animals and plants are threatened, but the letter fails to mention the threat to humans from contaminated food.  Hawaiians are primarily exposed to these chemicals from the food they eat, especially the seafood. The state has failed to test seafood for PFAS and publish the results.

The red dot is the location of the pump house at Adit 1. The location, just 1,000 feet from Pearl Harbor, leaked PFOS containing 200,000 parts per trillion. The floor of the pump house is made of porous material.

PFOS is a particularly deadly type of PFAS. This compound bioaccumulates in seafood. Fish near military bases have been found with 10 million parts per trillion of PFOS in their filet while the EPA says drinking water above ,02 part per trillion is hazardous.

The letter says, “Without proper care, the legacy of damage of these spills will impact the health and well-being of people for generations and exact a devastating toll on the ecosystem and environment.”   Even with cutting edge remedial efforts people will still be threatened for many generations, especially considering that the Navy continues to use these chemicals – not just in the firefighting foam – but also in a host of industrial applications like chrome plating and degreasing. There is no way to safely dispose these chemicals.

This segment is particularly embarrassing for the people of Hawaii. “Both PFOA and PFOS have been detected in water quality reports for JBPHH released by the Department of the Navy in 2021 and 2022: PFAS 2021 Detection Level 2022 Detection Level PFOA 3.2 ppb 3.6 ppb PFOS 5.5 ppb 5.6 ppb.”  Actually, these chemicals were detected in parts per trillion.  “PPB” stands for parts per billion. There are 1,000 parts per trillion in one part per billion.  

Gustave Doré's illustration of La Fontaine's fable, Belling the Cat c.1868

The following segment expresses wishful thinking: “While the Department of Defense and the Department of Navy should continue to conduct their own reviews on their responses to ongoing and previous PFAS/PFOA and AFFF exposure events, a GAO investigation will provide a necessary third-party assessment of their practices.”

The Navy has failed to publish a single AFFF Preliminary Assessment or Site Inspection. (See the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act Process (CERCLA). Hawaii is behind almost every other state in this regard. The congressional delegation and the state of Hawaii have been on the sidelines for years and are paying the price for their negligence and lack of oversight - in effect, surrendering the sovereignty of the state to the Navy. It’s your fight, Hawaii. The GAO may call out the Navy for its reckless behavior, but it’s up to the Hawaiians to bell the cat.

The Hawaii delegation is asking the GAO for answers to these questions:

Were the methods employed by the Navy to clean up and remediate sites exposed to PFAS adequate to the standards of state and federal regulators in Hawai‘i?

Not a single Navy PFAS site has been “cleaned up” in Hawaii or anywhere else.

Did the Navy inappropriately withhold any pertinent information from appropriate state and federal regulators during the course of any PFAS exposure investigations? If so, how did this impact their investigation and remediation of sites?

Study the CERCLA process and examine the administrative records of the Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) and then come back and rephrase your question. Certainly, the public is out of the loop and this is a big part of the problem. There’s no trust because there’s no transparency, while you seem to be perpetuating the status quo with this line of questioning.

How should the Navy use the updated EPA health advisories for PFOS and PFOA to ensure the safety of drinking water at JBPHH, remediate the environment, and prevent further discharges of these and other PFAS at JBPHH and Red Hill?

The unenforced EPA guidelines suggest there should be no PFAS in drinking water. The Navy has been using and recklessly discarding these chemicals for 50 years on Oahu, knowing they were harmful. The Navy created a kind of ticking time bomb for the precious aquifer.  Much of the rest of the world has shifted to using fluorine-free foams while also moving away from the chemicals in industrial applications. The Navy and Congress are obstinate in this regard.  

Special thanks to the Downs Law Group for their continued financial support. We couldn’t continue to create these reports at this pace without their help. The firm is working to create a multi-base coalition to provide legal representation and blood testing to individuals like firefighters and others with a high likelihood of exposure to PFAS.

Military Poisons and the Women’s League for Peace and Freedom are continuing to raise funds to cover the costs of PFAS seafood testing in south Florida. You can make a tax-deductible contribution here.  What’s in your fish? What’s in your blood?