Active-duty Military Members File Claims Against Federal Government Over Toxic Water in Hawaii
Date
3/30/2023 7:53:16 AM
(MENAFN) army Major Amanda Feindt, stationed at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, moved there with her family in 2021 believing it would be a "dream location to be stationed in paradise." However, Feindt soon discovered that the Navy was supplying her family's on-base home with "toxic water." In May of that year, 19,000 gallons of jet fuel leaked from the Navy's Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility in Honolulu, with some of it ending up in the base's water distribution system. This situation impacted Feindt, roughly 93,000 other military family members, and civilians.
According to Feindt, the situation left her with a feeling of "institutional betrayal," as she had no idea about the drinking water contamination and never expected the people she worked for and risked her life for to lie to her. As an active-duty service member for nearly two decades, Feindt has now joined two others, Army Colonel Jessica Whaley and Navy Ensign Koda Freeman, to file legal claims against the federal government over the spill that they say left them "poisoned by the Navy in their own homes."
Usually, active-duty military service members are not able to sue military branches in federal court. However, Feindt, Whaley, and Freeman believe that this situation should be an exception. On Monday, they filed pre-litigation administrative claim forms, stating their intent to file a lawsuit in Honolulu "as soon as possible."
The trio's attorney, Kristina Baehr, said in a press release that "our military service members have enough responsibility in their service to the nation. They cannot be mission-ready if the government's negligence has made them sick with toxic water." Baehr added that Monday's filing is more important than ever, and stated that "under federal law, the Feres doctrine traditionally bars line-of-duty injury claims, but we assert that it cannot be used against off-duty service members that showered in and drank water poisoned by the Navy in their own homes."
A Navy spokesperson declined to comment on the litigation. The filing of the claims comes amid growing pressure on the military to address the toxic water issue, with a recent report from the Government Accountability Office finding that the Navy has not done enough to prevent fuel leaks and that the Red Hill facility poses a "serious risk" to drinking water.
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