A Fuel Leak From a Navy Facility Could Shut Down All New Development on Hawaii’s Most Populous Island

A leak from a World War II-era military fueling facility could shut down all new construction on Hawaii’s most populous island.

For months now, water officials on the island of Oahu have been scrambling to contain the effects of a fuel leak from the U.S. Navy’s 80-year-old Red Hill underground fuel storage facility into the freshwater aquifer it sits atop.

Fear of pumping contaminated water from that aquifer into people’s homes has led the Honolulu Board of Water Supply (BWS) to close down several wells close to the Red Hill facility. That includes the Halawa well, which provides 20 percent of metro Honolulu’s water.

The closure of wells combined with an ongoing drought has created a water shortage on the island, which is now forcing BWS to consider escalating conservation methods.

Since March 10, BWS has asked Oahu residents to voluntarily restrict their water usage by 10 percent. At a briefing of Hawaii senators earlier this week, first reported by the Honolulu Civil Beat, BWS also outlined an escalating series of conservation measures, ranging from the closure of public pools to a development moratorium on the island.

The Civil Beat reports that BWS has already started sending letters to developers informing them that they can’t guarantee they’ll be able to approve applications for new or larger water meters in the near future.

At Monday’s senate briefing, BWS’s Barry Usagawa described other restrictions the board could impose on new construction. Those could include requiring developers to recycle greywater, capture