Hawaii congressional leaders deny supporting shutdown of Red Hill oversight panel

HONOLULU (AP) — Hawaii’s congressional leaders are disputing a statement made by an Environmental Protection Agency official who claimed the delegation supports eliminating a Red Hill community oversight group.

EPA regional enforcement chief Amy Miller made the comments in a Zoom meeting with the Red Hill Community Representation Initiative. The group, known as the CRI, was formed last year by a federal consent order between the EPA and the military after fuel from the Red Hill storage complex contaminated Pearl Harbor’s drinking water in 2021.

On Wednesday during a recorded virtual meeting, Miller told the group it would be disbanded because the military and CRI members were unable to agree on ground rules for how the meetings should be run. Asked whether Hawaii’s elected leaders in Congress supported the dissolution of the group, Miller said yes.

On Thursday, Sens. Mazie Hirono and Brian Schatz and Reps. Ed Case and Jill Tokuda released a joint statement saying that is not true.

“Any suggestion that the delegation supports disbanding the CRI is baseless and completely inaccurate,” the delegation said.

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“The Red Hill fuel leak was a breach of public trust. The federal government has a long way to go to regain it — and that can only happen with strong community engagement and oversight. The EPA and Department of Defense must work directly with the community to clean up Red Hill and keep people safe.”

The statement did not address the delegation’s overall feelings on how the CRI has been run nor what should should happen with the group moving forward. Asked for further clarification on the delegation’s stance on Thursday, spokespeople in each of their offices did not respond.

Civil Beat emailed Miller for comment but received an automated out of office message. On Thursday afternoon, the EPA issued a statement denying the assertion occurred in the first place.

“In response to questions from members of the CRI, EPA staff relayed that we had briefed staff from the Congressional offices in March about the CRI, but the EPA did not state that the Hawai‘i Congressional delegation was in favor of disbanding the CRI,” the agency said.

However, the video recording speaks for itself.

Miller told the group that the military and CRI members appear unable to come to a consensus on meeting logistics, including the location, the facilitator and who should control the agenda.

Since the CRI was formed last year, the CRI has controlled those elements, but after several meetings turned acrimonious, putting military leaders in a defensive position, the military sought to assert more control over the meetings.

However, the CRI refused to give up ground, so the EPA, Navy and Defense Logistics Agency agreed to write a new federal consent order without the CRI in it, according to Miller.

After Miller shared that news, Army Maj. Mandy Feindt, a CRI member, asked Miller where the congressional delegation stood on the matter.

“I did meet with the congressional leaders, and they actually asked me a lot of questions about the Community Representation Initiative,” Miller said.

“And they seem to be in support?” Feindt asked.

“No,” Miller said.

“Of you disbanding this?” Feindt asked.

“Yes,” Miller said.

“I’m sorry, no they’re not in support, or yes they are in support?” Feindt asked.

“The conversations I had, they were not in support of the Community Representation Initiative,” Miller said.

Later in the meeting, Feindt said she was surprised by Miller’s comments and asked for clarification.

“Can you please share, is it a collective — all four of the congressional delegation — does not support the CRI? I just want to make sure I’m clear with your words, that way when we go back and talk to our congressional delegation — because that’s not the feedback that we’ve gotten, so,” she said.

“Yes,” Miller said.

“All four of them, you’re saying — ” Feindt started.

“Yes,” Miller interjected.

” — are not in support of the CRI?”

“We had a meeting with all four delegations,” Miller said, adding that the meeting occurred in the springtime.

“And their guidance was to disband the CRI?”

“Um, they did not think that, um — they thought it was out of hand,” Miller said. “They thought it needed ground rules. They thought it was disruptive. It was a pretty negative meeting. And it was very, very difficult.”

After the meeting, Feindt emailed the offices of each congressional representative asking for a meeting and later received a copy of the delegation’s joint statement.

“Someone is lying,” Feindt said. “I’m not in a position to say who.”

Whatever the case, Feindt said the dustup has distracted from the key issues that need to be discussed, including Pearl Harbor’s drinking water quality and the Navy’s ongoing efforts to close Red Hill. That was the purpose of the CRI meetings.

In suggesting changes to the meeting’s ground rules, the military has indicated its view that some of the meetings took on a disrespectful tone. Feindt sees it differently.

“Respect is earned,” she said. “You’re looking at a community that has been poisoned, who has been betrayed, who has been lied to. Their kids have been poisoned. You cannot expect anyone to come in and stand at attention or take orders from these people. Their rank is no good to this community.”

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This story was originally published by Honolulu Civil Beat and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.