Pentagon to shut down leaking fuel tank facility in Hawaii

[Tony]

WASHINGTON — The Defense Department will permanently shut down the Navy's massive fuel tank facility in Hawaii that leaked petroleum into Pearl Harbor's tap water, and will remove all the fuel, The Associated Press has learned.

A senior defense official said the decision, which Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin made Monday, is based on a new Pentagon assessment, but also is in line with an order from Hawaii's Department of Health to drain fuel from the tanks at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility. The tanks, built into the side of a mountain during World War II to protect them from enemy attack, had leaked into a drinking water well and contaminated water at Pearl Harbor homes and offices.