Honolulu - Today, the Department of Defense submitted Supplement 2 of the DoD Defueling Plan to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Hawaii Department of Health, and the public. Defueling Supplement 2 reflects the outcomes of the continuous coordination with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Hawaii Department of Health since the submission of Defueling Supplement 1A and 1B in September 2022.

Defueling Supplement 2 demonstrates the intent to start defueling the RHBFSF earlier than initially projected and on an accelerated timeline, if DoD, EPA, and DOH all concur on the achievement of a series of important safety conditions.

Joint Task Force-Red Hill projects that it will begin the process of gravity defueling approximately 104 million gallons of fuel in the underground storage tanks on October 16 and complete the Supplement 2 defueling efforts—removal of fuel from underground storage tank mains and flowable tank bottoms, unpacking lines, and removal of fuel from surge tanks—by January 19, 2024. Completion of this phase will result in the removal of approximately 99.85%, or 104 million gallons of fuel, from the RHBFSF.

To avoid any confusion or ambiguity and in the spirit of transparency, DoD acknowledges the probability that a substantial amount of fuel (between 100,000 and 400,000 gallons) will remain in RHBFSF at the conclusion of this stage of defueling. DoD will provide additional supplements to comprehensively address all additional actions necessary to ensure removal of all fuel from RHBFSF.

“This supplement to the defueling plan presents a detailed roadmap and timeline for work we must accomplish and identifies the conditions that need to be met to begin the safe and expeditious removal of fuel from the facility ahead of our original plan,” said Vice Adm. John Wade, commander, JTF-Red Hill. “It describes responsibilities, approvals, and safety requirements that need to be accomplished for each step. Defueling Supplement 2 is a result of finding efficiencies in our facility repair and defueling process. We are grateful for the collective partnership, collaboration and coordination of the EPA and DOH.”

JTF-Red Hill is working with regulators and government stakeholders to ensure Red Hill is defueled safely, expeditiously, and in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations. DoD’s work to defuel and close the RHBFSF will not be complete until we can ensure, in coordination with the EPA and DOH, that the facility no longer contains fuel and that we have done all necessary corrective action around the facility to mitigate any risk to human health, the aquifer or the environment.

A link to the complete Defueling Supplement 2 can be found here: Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility, Oahu, Hawai (pacom.mil)

For more information about JTF-Red Hill, please visit https://www.pacom.mil/JTF-Red-Hill/