Honolulu Harbor has been the gateway to Hawaii for more than a
hundred years. A century that's seen petroleum pollute its waters and
its shores.
"It's an area wide problem extending throughout much of the Iwilei area
where petroleum product, over many decades, created an underground lake
of petroleum which is moving around and making it very difficult to
redevelop that area," says State Health Director Bruce Anderson.
The major sources of the contamination are land based old fuel lines,
storage tanks and other facilities.
While booms handle the small spills, other more serious problems need
greater attention.
"We've had reports of explosions and other problems occurring from time
to time in the area," says Anderson. "It's more of an insidious problem
one that needs to be handled on a more comprehensive manner."
The Health Department will oversee the cleanup and will be joined by
the Department of Transportation and nearly a dozen private companies
that have come forward voluntarily to share in the responsibility and
cost for cleaning up the harbor.
It's an undertaking that could cost tens of millions of dollars and
take more than ten years.
"We need to look at the totality of the problem and figure out what's
leaking and which areas to cleanup first," says Life of the Land
Executive Director Henry Curtis.
Some like Curtis fear the state may be rushing to fix the problem.
"We should be glad they are doing something, but we want to make sure
its done right, because to spend 50-million dollars and do it wrong
would be a real travesty of justice," Curtis says.
The state says it will do survey work as it moves along.
That work will begin at piers 24 thru 29 within the next couple of
weeks.
