|
The Red Hill Underground Fuel Storage Facility is a United States Navy underground fuel storage facility, consisting of 20 large cylindrical concrete tanks embedded in the volcanic rock of Red Hill near Pearl Harbor, completed in 1942/43 and operated continuously since. Dozens of fuel leaks have occurred since the 1940s, but since the site remained secret until declassification in the 1990s, the problem did not become public. After a 2001 fuel leak, monitoring showed unsafe hydrocarbon levels in groundwater below the tanks. Another leak in January 2014 of 27,000 gallons prompted Navy to investigate; Tank 5 was emptied, vented and showed microscopic holes on inspection in April 2014. As a result of the fuel release from Tank 5 at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility in January 2014, EPA and the Hawaii Department of Health (DOH) brought an enforcement action against the Navy and Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) to address past fuel releases and minimize the likelihood of future releases. The Administrative Order on Consent also goes beyond the scope of merely complying with the current regulations. The Red Hill Administrative Order on Consent is structured to establish a process for collecting the necessary data and evaluating the optimal technical solutions to address past fuel releases and prevent future releases. The Navy uses an independent EPA-certified laboratory to test the water. Public records confirm that drinking water is safe both on base and off base.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www3.epa.gov/region9/waste/ust/redhill/index.html )〕 ==History== The Red Hill fuel storage facility was constructed from December 1940 through 1943.〔 It is located 30 m (100 feet) under a ridge within Honolulu, Hawaii, which is why construction could continue at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. It is unique in that 20 vertical cylindrical tanks, each measuring 77 m (250 feet) tall by 30 m (100 feet) in diameter, were hollowed out of volcanic rock, holding more than 250 million gallons of fuel.〔American Society of Civil Engineers http://www.ascehawaii.org/landmarks.html retrieved 27 August 2010 〕 Each reinforced-concrete tank is lined with quarter-inch steel plate, tested during construction for leaks and pre-stressed with high-pressure grouting between it and the surrounding rock wall. The facility is connected by pipes and tunnels to navy piers and a harbor-side pumping station more than 4 kilometres away.〔 Although constructed by a labor force of approximately 3,900 workers, its existence remained classified information in the United States until after the end of the Cold War in the 1990s. In 1991, fuel for Operation Desert Storm in the Persian Gulf was transferred through Red Hill.〔 Red Hill was designated a historic civil engineering landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1995. General information about the Red Hill Facility is provided online at CNIC.Navy.mil.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.cnic.navy.mil/regions/cnrh/om/environmental/red-hill-tank.html )〕 In 1998, state health officials first became aware about fuel leakage, and by 2002, tests showed some of the tanks had been leaking.〔 The Navy drilled groundwater monitoring wells and by 2005 regular groundwater monitoring began.〔 In January 2014, as the latest major fuel leak was announced, the history of leaks and their impact on the groundwater became public. U.S. Navy, Defense Logistics Agency, U.S. EPA and Hawaii Department of Health began negotiating an enforceable agreement, also known as an Administrative Order on Consent ("AOC") under Section 7003 of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, that establishes a timeframe for the U.S. Navy and Defense Logistics Agency to evaluate and remediate existing contamination to the extent practicable in the vicinity of the facility, as well as to evaluate and implement measures to prevent future releases. U.S. Navy and Defense Logistics Agency signed a proposed AOC in the matter of the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility on May 27, 2015. Following these signatures, U.S. EPA and the Hawaii Department of Health provided the public with an opportunity to comment on the proposed agreement and held a public meeting (see presentation from June 18 meeting (PDF) (30 pp, 1.4MB)). The public comment period ended on July 20, 2015, and U.S. EPA and Hawaii Department of Health reviewed all comments received. Based on significant public comment, U.S. EPA and Hawaii Department of Health renegotiated and revised the proposed AOC to address public concerns. On September 28, 2015 U.S. EPA and Hawaii Department of Health signed this revised agreement and the AOC became effective. Links to the AOC, work to be performed under the AOC, the documents considered by the agencies while negotiating the agreement, and an index of those documents are available on the EPA website.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Red Hill Underground Fuel Storage Facility」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|