Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 39, Number 9, 1 September 2022 — Kapūkaki in the News [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Kapūkaki in the News

Navy Requests Additional Water On August 16, the Commission on Water Resource Management (CWRM) met to discuss a request by the U.S. Navy to access the 'Aiea-Hālawa Shaft. Currently, the Navy is exceeding their allotted 14.977 million gallons a day of drinking water from the Waiawa Shaft. Members of O'ahu Water Protectors (OWP) said in a press release that they "are alarmed and appalled" that such discussions are even taking plaee when the Navy has proven itself to be

untrustworthy as the entity responsible for the biggest water crisis O'ahu residents have ever faced. Ten months after a Red Hill spill poisoned the water system for nearly 100,000 O'ahu residents, the Navy has yet

to eome up with an acceptable plan to defuel the fuel storage tanks. OWP member Healani Sono-da-Pale said, "The Navy continues to waste millions of gallons of water per day on non-essential activities (e.g. golf course maintenance) and yet they have the audacity to ask for more water." OWP maintains that the Navy should not be provided access to additional wells while they waste what water they do have, and that the Navy's actions - and inaction - has created an existential crisis for Hawai'i for whieh they must be held accountable. Commented Sonoda-Pale, "If this proves too difficult, perhaps it is time for the Navy to look to other alternatives like downsizing or shifting operations outside of Hawai'i rather than jeopardizing the heahh of the entire island of O'ahu." Water Protectors Ask VPOTUS to Kōkua Kia'i wai from O'ahu and Kaua'i teamed up over the weekend of August 19 to ask U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris to have Washington, D.C., intervene in the Red Hill water crisis. V.P. Harris was on Kaua'i for a vacation. Water protectors waved and held signs on Friday the 19th and Sunday the 21st and issued a statement to V.P. Harris requesting her support and kōkua as "the Navy continues to fail to act with the ureencv this crisis demands."

The group specifically requested that top White House and Pentagon officials meet with the community and the Honolulu Board of Water Supply to hear their concerns about the ongoing crisis and the need to defuel the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility in months, not years; that the Department of Defense (DoD) provide alternative water, housing, and medical and mental heahh support for the thousands of families exposed to jet fuel in their tap water; and that no other communities are similarly threatened by the DoD (e.g., Okinawa, Guahan, Alaska, and Puerto Rico).

Protestors from keiki to kūpuno eome out to encouroge V.P. Horris to kōkuo woter protectors fighting for justice ot Kopūkokī. - Photo: Courtesy