Navy report says removing Red Hill tanks after defueling is dangerous, costly

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - The Navy is fighting back against removing tanks from its Red Hill fuel facility after a new report claimed the process will be too dangerous and expensive.

New analysis submitted to the Department of Health recommends not removing the underground tanks. Potential options for Red Hill were explored in a report contracted by the Navy.

Those included tank removal or leaving the tanks in place after they were defueled and either leaving them empty or filling them with non-hazardous material.

The report concluded attempting to remove the 200 feet tanks would be dangerous for workers and may destabilize the surrounding geology.

It concludes that leaving the empty tanks in place is the safest and most cost effective option.

According to a report by the Honolulu Civil Beat, the Board of Water Supply has already come out against this closure in place plan.

Meanwhile, years of work are still needed to fix areas of the facility to make defueling possible.

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