The U.S. Navy acknowledged that the water source of Pearl Harbor was contaminated due to human errors, and more than 6,000 people were poisoned

Jimu Journalist Li Lili

Intern Yang Shaopeng

According to the Associated Press reported on July 1, the US Navy announced the results of the survey of the Pearl Harbor's water source being contaminated on Thursday. The military acknowledged that due to human errors and poor management, the fuel leakage was leaked into the water source of Pearl Harbor, which caused thousands of people to poison and forced a large number of residents to evacuate their homes.

The tunnel of Hongshan Oil Vee (Picture Source: Associated Press)

According to previous media reports, the U.S. Navy has a fuel storage base in World War II in a ridge of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and is also known as the Hongshan Oil Vee.

There are about 20 oil tanks in this oil depot, which can store 250 million gallons (950 million liters). These oil tanks are connected to an underground pipe of about 4 kilometers long and transported the fuel to the US Pearl Harbor Base.

In 2014, the first report of Hongshan oil depot leaked, and was repeatedly exposed, but none of them attracted much attention.

The tunnel of Hongshan Oil Vee (Picture Source: Associated Press)

Until November 2021, the Hongshan oil depot seriously leaked again before Thanksgiving. A large amount of water contaminated with fuel enters the public water supply system of nearby residents, and about 6,000 people have nausea, headache, rash, and other symptoms.

The U.S. Navy has experienced several months of investigation and has not found the reason why fuel infiltration into tap water.

In March of this year, the U.S. Navy finally agreed to close the Hongshan Oil Library.

On Thursday, a survey report released by the US Navy showed that starting from May 6, 2021, the army has made a series of chain errors: due to the error of operators, the pipeline rupture, resulting in a leak of 21,000 gallons (80,000 liters) fuel fuel fuel Essence

Officials believe that in this leakage incident, only 1618 gallon (6125 liters) fuel leakage was recovered, and most of them were recycled, leaving only 38 gallon (144 liters) leakage. When they found that one of the fuel tank capacity was less than 20,000 gallons (75700 liters), they thought it was flowing out of the pipe, but did not realize that it had flowed into the fire extinguishing pipeline and did not report to the high -level.

Most of the fuels that really leaked into the fire extinguishing pipeline and accumulated in the fire extinguishing pipeline for 6 months. The weight of the fuel caused the pipeline to hang down.

On November 20th, a car rating accidentally broke the fire extinguishing pipeline, causing 20,000 gallons (75700 liters) fuel leakage.

The investigation report stated that the military failed to recognize the seriousness of the situation. A large number of facts show that the fuel leakage incidents occurred in May and November 2021 can be prevented.

At the same time, the survey also showed that the poor training and supervision, the poor leadership, and the lack of autonomy to the operation of operation were also the cause of the accident.

The report said: "Leaders lack critical thinking, rigorous knowledge, and self -assessment at the time of decisive moment, which reflects a complacent culture and lacks professionalism."

American Representative Kai Ali Kahler criticized that the Navy has repeatedly stated that the Hongshan oil depot is an important part of the US defense, but it has not been effectively supervised here for decades.

U.S. Pacific Fleet Commander Sam Paparo suggested that the Navy should review the operation of the United States in 48 defense fuel storage facilities around the world.

"We can't assume that the Hongshan oil depot is a special case, and there may be similar problems in other places."

It is reported that the Navy has made disciplinary sanctions on personnel involved.

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