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Newsweek
4 days ago
- General
- Newsweek
Hawaii Red Hill Water Contamination Lawsuit Expands
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Federal court filings in Honolulu showed that attorneys representing people who said they were sickened by the November 2021 Red Hill jet fuel spill had added more than 6,000 additional plaintiffs to a consolidated lawsuit against the United States, the amended complaint stated. The expansion came after years of litigation and research into health effects tied to the U.S. Navy fuel release that contaminated drinking water systems serving homes on and near Joint Base Pearl Harbor–Hickam. The amended complaint cited recent studies and sought to press the government toward settlement for thousands of additional claimants. Why It Matters The Red Hill facility sits above an aquifer that supplies water to large parts of the Hawaiian island of Oahu. The November 20, 2021, release of jet fuel into the Navy water system affected residents in military housing and raised broader concerns about the island's drinking water security. Stock image of a scientist testing water for contamination. Stock image of a scientist testing water for contamination. Getty Images What To Know The amended complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Honolulu added more than 6,000 plaintiffs and said the two lead law firms now represent roughly 7,000 claimants who alleged injury from fuel-tainted tap water. Separately, previously filed consolidated litigation listed 17 "bellwether" plaintiffs who went to trial and were viewed as representatives for thousands of pending claims; the Associated Press reported in April 2024 that those plaintiffs represented "a cross-selection of relatives of military members representing more than 7,500 others, including service members." The U.S. government filed court documents that admitted the November 20, 2021, spill at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility "caused a nuisance," the AP reported, and breached a duty of care, though it disputed that exposure levels were high enough to cause the specific long-term health effects alleged by plaintiffs. The awards in Feindt v. United States list each bellwether plaintiff's damages. The court awarded general damages (pain/suffering), plus $1,000 hedonic damages to each plaintiff, and limited special damages (future medical expenses for four plaintiffs; a small economic loss for one): General damages (each): Aubart $37,500; Dietz $37,500; B.D. $37,500; V.D. $25,000; Feindt $37,500; P.G.F. $10,000; T.F. $5,000; Freeman $75,000; D.F. $10,000; K.F. $50,000; N.F. $50,000; Jessup $37,500; B.B.J. $75,000; B.J.J. $75,000; D.J. $5,000; N.J. $10,000; Witt $37,500. (Plus $1,000 hedonic damages to each plaintiff.) Special damages (future medical): Dietz $7,322.71; P.G.F. $4,953.36; Freeman $28,876.01; Jessup $6,962.41. Special damages (economic): Feindt $2,144. The amended complaint also cited recent health studies that plaintiffs said strengthened their claims, including a Defense Department study that reported a higher incidence of new migraines and esophageal inflammation among those exposed and a University of Hawaii survey that found roughly 80 percent of affected residents reported new or worsened symptoms after the spill. What People Are Saying Kristina Baehr, an attorney with Just Well Law, in a news release: "These families prevailed against all odds against the Government in court, and they helped prove to the world what truly happened when the Navy poisoned the water supply near Pearl Harbor and sickened so many." Richelle Dietz, a mother of two and wife of a Naval officer, told the Associated Press: "I hope that one day I can not think about water all the time. But right now it's a constant." What Happens Next The plaintiffs' legal teams said they were negotiating with government attorneys about a potential settlement for the larger pool of claimants using the bellwether awards as a baseline. If lawyers for the plaintiffs and the government did not reach a settlement, additional phases of litigation and further bellwether trials would likely determine the scope of recoverable damages for the remaining claimants, legal experts said in prior coverage of the consolidated cases. The Red Hill site remained in the process of defueling, and a long-term closure plan was underway; local officials and water authorities have continued efforts to protect Oahu's aquifer and municipal supplies from further contamination, HawaiiNewsNow reported.
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Yahoo
Damages are awarded in first Red Hill lawsuit
Hawaii's U.S. District Court has awarded damages to 17 people affected by the November 2021 Red Hill water crisis. In a long-awaited preliminary decision dated Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Leslie Koba yashi ordered the government to pay $682, 258 to the plaintiffs to compensate them for damages and, in the case of some clients, for future medical care related to exposure to jet fuel that tainted the Navy's Oahu water system, which serves 93, 000 people, including military families and civilians living in former military areas. The 17 'bellwether cases ' were selected from more than 7, 500 cases connected to the Red Hill fuel spill that are awaiting resolution. According to a statement released by the plaintiffs' attorneys, two other related cases—one for military service members and one for more military families and civilians—also are pending in Hawaii's federal court. In the statement, the attorneys said that 'in the ruling, Judge Kobayashi found for the families on important legal issues in the case, including that the contamination reached all neighborhoods on the Navy water line and that the families' health claims were not just psychosomatic, as the government had claimed.' The case, brought against the government under the Federal Tort Claims Act, is believed to be the first successful case of its kind against the U.S. government involving military contamination. Kristina Baehr, one of the plaintiffs' attorneys, said in a statement that 'our military family and civilian clients affected by the Red Hill contamination catastrophe have prevailed against all odds against the U.S. government which was finally forced to concede its liability.' Army Maj. Mandy Feindt, whose husband, Patrick Feindt, was among the plaintiffs and was herself exposed to contaminated water while they lived on Ford Island, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 'No amount of money will ever change the lasting impact of institutional betrayal felt by my family, my brothers and sisters in arms and thousands of innocent civilians who were all treated like collateral damage after the Navy knowingly poisoned them and contaminated Hawaii's most precious resource : its water.' The Feindt family was among those that federal lawyers argued was never exposed to the fuel, arguing the fuel never reached Ford Island—a claim hotly disputed by water system experts brought in by the plaintiffs' legal team. Feindt said that 'Judge Kobayashi's ruling holds the Navy accountable for the harm they caused—something the (Department of Defense ), the EPA and our Hawaii congressional delegation has refused to do since the start of the crisis.' 'These families can be proud that they helped prove to the world what truly happened when the Navy poisoned the water supply near Pearl Harbor and sickened so many, ' said Baehr. 'The Court rejected the Government's argument that thousands of our clients were just psychosomatic and that there was not enough fuel to make anyone sick. While the damages awarded by the court are disappointing, this is a step forward in our clients' pursuit of justice, and we continue to review options to resolve the remaining 7, 500-plus cases.' The Navy's Red Hill fuel storage facility contained the military's strategic fuel reserve for Pacific operations for eight decades, storing millions of gallons of fuel for ships and aircraft. The World War II-era facility was built underground to shield it from potential enemy attacks and sat just 100 feet above a critical aquifer most of Oahu relies on for clean water. The Navy's main well that supported its water system, the Red Hill Shaft, is also located in the facility. The Navy for years insisted the facility was safe and that it was critical for supporting operations in the Pacific. But since the November 2021 spill, subsequent investigations and documents released by the Navy revealed that the aging facility in reality had severe problems with maintenance, record keeping and safety and was costing millions of dollars to conduct constant repairs required to keep it running. After the 2021 spill the military had to conduct a series of renovations and upgrades in order to even safely extract the millions of gallons of fuel inside. It wasn't until March 2023 that the task force charged with removing the fuel actually stood down operation. The military ultimately took fuel from the facility and redistributed it to smaller facilities and tanker ships spread across the Pacific—a strategy the military now says is superior and allows greater flexibility. During the trial, which took place in April and May 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice was unyielding in its defense of the Navy's handling of the crisis. Though it acknowledged that the Navy held some fault for the fuel entering the system, it asserted that it was not enough fuel to make anyone sick and that several plaintiffs weren't affected at all. In the government's opening statement during the trial, attorney Rosemary Yogia veetil said that the 'United States followed the science and took responsibility starting that November … (and ) the Navy quickly responded to the emergency. It worked with regulators to keep the public informed. … They provided whatever answers they could, based on the information that they had and the scientific data available at the time.' The federal attorneys did not reference findings by a U.S. Pacific Fleet investigation into the spill that found that when Navy officials first became aware of the Nov. 21 spill, they chose not to inform their superiors or state officials. In the following days, as families reported smelling fuel in the water, the state Department of Health put out a health advisory. Navy officials at first denied it and asked the DOH to rescind the advisory before eventually acknowledging that the water was, in fact, contaminated. In her court decision, Kobayashi concluded that while there is no definitive way to know how much fuel actually entered the water system or how much each person was exposed to, the 'actual dose to which each individual plaintiff was exposed is not required to be proved where there is unambiguous and credible evidence that the United States breached its duty of care … in short, it is reasonably inferred that the dose was in an amount sufficient to cause the ill effects reported within days of the Fuel Release.' However, Kobayashi awarded special damages for future medical expenses to only four of the plaintiffs. Though Kobayashi agreed many of the ailments and medical issues the plaintiffs reported may have been the result of fuel exposure, in several cases there was not definitive proof. There has been relatively little research on the effects of ingesting jet fuel, as it's a very rare occurrence and there are few ethical ways to conduct such studies. 'The Court is sympathetic to Plaintiffs and their families but is nevertheless bound to hold Plaintiffs to their legal obligation to provide evidence proving by a preponderance that the Fuel Release is a legal cause of each injury, ' Kobayashi wrote. 'Where the Court has found that Plaintiffs have failed to demonstrate credible evidence, it is not concluding that the medical conditions or ailments do not exist. Rather, its findings reflect that correlation does not carry Plaintiffs' legal burden of proving causation.'
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Judge Rules in Favor of Military Families Sickened by Tainted Water on Hawaii Base
Military families whose drinking water became contaminated with jet fuel in 2021 on Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, have won their cases against the U.S. Navy, with a federal judge confirming Thursday that the residents were exposed to an environmental hazard and sickened by it. U.S. District Court Judge Leslie Kobayashi said that under the Federal Tort Claims Act, the Navy was liable for the spill at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility near Honolulu and should pay damages for pain and suffering -- and, in some cases, future medical expenses and economic loss -- to the families. "By a preponderance of the evidence, the court finds and concludes that [the] defendant is liable under the [Federal Tort Claims Act] and with the application of Hawaii law," Kobayashi wrote in her opinion issued Wednesday. Read Next: Tweaks to Army's Physical Fitness Test Are Relatively Modest As many as 93,000 people were exposed to jet fuel and other contaminants in their military residences over Thanksgiving in 2021 after a pipe ruptured at the Red Hill fuel tank farm, sending up to 5,000 gallons of fuel into a nearby well that supplied drinking water to the base and elsewhere. Following the spill, families were not immediately notified, and when they began complaining about the smell as well as symptoms such as rashes, nausea, vomiting, headaches and other problems, Navy officials told them the contamination was minimal. It was later revealed that the fuel was in the pipe as a result of a massive spill in May. The lawsuit alleged the Navy was negligent in preventing and handling the public health crisis that occurred as a result of the spill, saying it failed to announce the leak in a timely manner and efforts to flush out the contamination did more harm. It also said the government failed to provide appropriate medical care to families. The original case, Feindt v. United States, was filed in August 2022. Since then, two additional lawsuits have been filed, representing more than 7,500 service members, military dependents and civilian residents across the cases. During the Feindt trial, which took place in April 2024, Kobayashi heard testimony from 17 families, known as "bellwether plaintiffs" because they represented individuals across the suits. Under the judge's ruling, the 17 were awarded damages for pain and suffering, medical expenses and, in one case, economic damages. "These families can be proud that they helped prove to the world what truly happened when the Navy poisoned the water supply near Pearl Harbor and sickened so many," Kristina Baehr, an attorney with Just Well Law, said in a statement Thursday. "The court rejected the government's argument that thousands of our clients were just psychosomatic and that there was not enough fuel to make anyone sick." The spill and its aftermath led the Navy to shut the facility and remove the fuel from its storage tanks. In all, the service relocated 104 million gallons of jet fuel and diesel from Red Hill and is moving forward with reactivating the water supply system in the area. The cost of the facility's cleanup and closure has been more than $2 billion, according to government reports. Altogether, the families were awarded a total of $540,500 in various amounts for emotional distress, while several families received awards totaling $38,489.15 for future medical expenses and plaintiff Patrick Feindt received $2,144 for economic damages. Each family also received $1,000 each for "loss of enjoyment of life," according to court documents. In a release, attorneys for the plaintiffs called the awards "disappointing," but added that they were "a step forward in our clients' pursuit of justice." Army Major Mandy Feindt, whose husband Patrick Feindt was the lead plaintiff in the original case, said Thursday that the ruling held the Navy liable and "put the Defense Department on notice." "You can no longer poison our people and get away with it," Feindt said in a statement to "If this crisis tells us nothing else, it should be that our warfighters cannot be 'mission ready' if they are sick or if the military is making their family sick." The two other cases, Jessica Whaley et al. v. United States, which represents active-duty personnel who say they were harmed by the spill, and Hughes et al. v. United States, also are pending in Hawaii federal court. The ruling Wednesday is likely to weigh heavily on the outcomes of the other cases and for the 7,500 claims filed under the Federal Tort Claims Act. The Department of Justice, which represented the federal government in the Feindt case, declined to comment on the decision, citing ongoing litigation. Related: 1,000 More Pearl Harbor Area Residents Join Lawsuit over Red Hill Fuel Spill
