HONOLULU — Residents of an Oahu housing complex are asking a judge to stop their landlord from charging them rent until their tap water is safe from contamination.
Kapilina Beach Homes in Ewa Beach used to be Navy housing. The Navy entered into a partnership with a private entity that also allows civilians to be tenants.
Attorney Jim Bickerton says residents continue to be charged rent and utilities except for water while their homes are “unfit for human habitation.”
A fuel storage tank facility owned by the Navy is blamed for petroleum-tainted water in and around Pearl Harbor.
“We are not charging any termination fees for lease breaks or asking residents to release any claims during this disruption. Any resident who wishes to terminate their lease or is dissatisfied with the terms of their lease termination during this disruption should speak with the management team,” Kapilina Beach Homes said in a statement Wednesday.
“Until the Navy remediates the water supply, treatment and distribution system, we are assisting our residents with delivery of large water bottles, credits for offsite laundry, access to shower facilities and continuing to waive all water charges,” the statement said.
Bickerton said a court hearing is scheduled for Friday on an emergency motion asking a judge to block the landlord from charging the residents an exit fee of two months’ rent or requiring them to release Kapilina from injury claims if residents want to end their leases.
Starting in late November, people on the Navy’s water system complained that their tap water smelled like fuel or reported physical ailments such as nausea and rashes after ingesting it.
After initially resisting, the U.S. Navy will comply with Hawaii’s order to remove fuel from a massive underground storage tank facility near Pearl Harbor blamed for contaminating drinking water, officials said Tuesday.
The Navy is making preparations to defuel the facility, Rear Adm. Blake Converse said during a U.S. House Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness hearing.
“The Navy caused this problem, we own it and we’re gonna fix it,” said Converse, deputy commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.
Gov. David Ige said he expected the Navy to immediately comply with the state’s order and address the threat the tank facility poses to the environment and the well-being of the state’s military families and residents.
“I’m pleased to hear the Navy is doing the right thing,” Ige said in a statement.
The Navy’s water system serves some 93,000 people in residential homes, offices, elementary schools and businesses in and around Pearl Harbor.
The Red Hill facility holds 20 giant underground tanks built into the side of a mountain during World War II. Each tank is roughly the height of a 25-story building. Collectively, they can hold up to 250 million gallons of fuel, though two of the tanks are now empty.
Converse said Tuesday that Adm. Samuel Paparo, commander of U.S. Pacific Fleet, directed compliance with the order when the Hawaii Department of Health finalized it last week.
The Navy believes its water system became contaminated by jet fuel that leaked from pipes connected to the Red Hill tanks. It detected jet fuel in a well that draws on an aquifer just 100 feet below the tank complex.
So far only the Navy’s drinking water has been tainted. Petroleum hasn’t shown up in the municipal water system operated by the Honolulu Board of Water Supply. But the utility draws water from the same aquifer as the Navy.
The Board of Water Supply has suspended use of its Halawa well, which supplies about one-quarter of the water consumed in urban Honolulu, to try to prevent petroleum from infecting its water system.