A recent 60 Minutes segment featuring military families impacted by the poisoned water in Pearl Harbor reveals that those suffering the consequences of military oversight feel “betrayed” by the United States Navy.
The Pearl Harbor military base in Hawaii was the center of a fuel spill in 2021 that came dangerously close to the system from which residents obtained drinking water. The incident threatened to displace families for up to two months and left about 93,000 people without access to water for weeks.
Despite initial reassurances from Navy leaders that the water was not contaminated and could still be used, military families soon alerted officials to a problem as they became sick. Weeks later, in December 2021, the Navy announced that testing of the water system had come back positive for petroleum.
Military investigators said that those responding to the fuel spill were unable to contain it due to lack of resources and assumed that the water had not been contaminated. However, 5,000 gallons of jet fuel was found to have leaked into the tunnel housing the water system. The safety of the water was promoted by the Navy before testing and reversed when testing was completed, revealing it was poisoned.
Almost three years after the catastrophe, military families are still reeling from the side effects. Residents have shared that they have dealt with health problems ever since drinking the contaminated water, as have their children. When asked how they feel about the military’s response to the issue, a resounding theme of “betrayal” rang through impacted residents.
Richelle Dietz, who lives on the Pearl Harbor base with her husband and children—one of whom has long-term respiratory issues thanks to the jet fuel-induced water—described a “bit of anger” towards the military as well as a “feeling of betrayal.” She lamented how her family has offered up “so much” in service to the Navy, who in turn “ignored warnings” and “blatantly lied” about the problem at hand.
Another wife and mother on the base, Brittany Traeger, said that the Navy “lied,” failed to “protect,” and “did not intervene” when they should have. She also noted that accountability for the mistakes would be establishing “lifelong care plan[s]” for her family and everyone impacted, which would “restore [her] faith in [the] nation.”
