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Military families feel betrayed over Navy response to jet fuel-tainted water at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii base
The U.S. military takes pride in protecting its own. That’s why military families we met in Hawaii told us they feel so betrayed.
Two years ago, there was a fuel spill close to the drinking water system at the Pearl Harbor base in Hawaii. Navy leadership assured thousands of military families that the tap water was safe.
But nearly two weeks after the spill, parents learned the truth: the water they drank or used to bathe their kids contained jet fuel.
Tonight – you’ll hear from some of the families who say the jet fuel tainted water made them sick. But first – we’ll go to where the water crisis at Pearl Harbor began.
From the air, the historic naval base is easy to spot. Eight miles from Honolulu… sparkling blue waters host battle gray ships…and memorials to those killed by Japan’s surprise attack in 1941.
What you can’t see is the once secret storage site that provided fuel for the Pacific fleet and its planes for 80 years.
Sharyn Alfonsi: It doesn’t look like much from the outside.
Vice Admiral John Wade: Wait ’till you get inside.
Vice Admiral John Wade led us through the Red Hill bulk fuel storage facility…seven miles of tunnels cut through volcanic rock – built to hold 250 million gallons of fuel.
60 Minutes
Vice Admiral John Wade: So this is one of the tanks.
Sharyn Alfonsi: Oh my gosh.
That black hole is a steel lined fuel tank so deep it’s hard to see the bottom 20 stories below.
Vice Admiral John Wade: To just show you how enormous this is, this tank holds 12.5 million gallons. And to give you kind of a reference point, the Statue of Liberty, not the base, but the statue itself, can fit in here with enough room.
And this is just one of the 20 tanks hidden here.
When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, construction was already underway to protect the Navy’s fuel reserves from an aerial attack.
Vice Admiral John Wade: The decision was made to embark on a herculean task to build a bulk storage fuel facility inside a mountain in secrecy.
Sharyn Alfonsi: And how long did that take to do?
Vice Admiral John Wade: It was a little less than three years. At its peak, there were about 4,000 men working here.
But this testament to American resolve became a monumental liability after this…
That’s jet fuel spraying from a cracked pipe. The video was recorded by a worker inside Red Hill on November 20th of 2021.
The fuel…20,000 gallons of it – was trapped in a plastic pipe. The weight caused the pipe to sag…this trolley hit it…
And jet fuel spewed for 21 hours…. close to the well that supplied drinking water for 93,000 people on and around the base at Pearl Harbor.
Sharyn Alfonsi: According to Navy investigators, the workers who responded didn’t have the right tools to contain the spill. They also assumed there was no danger to the drinking water. They were wrong. At least 5,000 gallons of jet fuel drained into the tunnel floor and into the navy water system.
The next day the Navy issued a press release about the incident and told the 8,400 families living in military housing “…the water remains safe to drink.” Even though the Navy had not tested the water yet. A week later residents began to notice a problem.
Sharyn Alfonsi: When did you get this sense that there was something wrong with the water?
Brittany Traeger: My husband came into the kitchen and washed his hands and said, “Gosh, the water smells like I just did an oil change like, the water smells weird.”
60 Minutes
Brittany Traeger lived on base…about two and half miles from Red Hill …with her daughter and husband, who is a Navy chief petty officer. Traeger says she began to feel sick a week after the spill.
Brittany Traeger: I had a cough. My tonsils were very swollen. I remember a very distinct moment where I was walking to the car and I had vertigo so bad that I had to hold onto the car.
Sharyn Alfonsi: The smell was that overwhelming?
Brittany Traeger: Uh-huh.
In an email to residents nine days after the spill, the commanding officer of the base reassured residents “…there are no immediate indications that the water is not safe. My staff and I are drinking the water…”
Sharyn Alfonsi: Did you stop using water? Did you stop taking baths?
Brittany Traeger: So, I did, my daughter did…
Sharyn Alfonsi: Just because you had a bad feeling, not ’cause anybody told you to.
Brittany Traeger: Correct. They gave us an email address that we could send an email to if we wanted to have our water tested. So, I emailed those people who then emailed me a phone number that I should call. And I called that phone number for days and it was just busy. They were overwhelmed and inundated with reports.
Ten days after the spill, there were more than 200 reports from six neighborhoods across the base of strong fuel odor coming from kitchen and bathroom faucets. But the Navy said its initial tests did not detect fuel.
Brittany Traeger: It defied logic, you know? Even though there was a leak and even though our water smelled like jet fuel and even though there was sheen on it, they continued to say, ” The tests are coming back negative.”
After 12 days…and four statements assuring residents the water was not contaminated with fuel…the Navy reversed course…on Dec. 2, 2021 it announced more comprehensive tests conducted by the Navy had detected jet fuel in the water.
Three weeks after the spill, tests from Hawaii’s Department of Health revealed jet fuel levels 350-times higher than what the state considers safe.
Richelle Dietz lives on base with her husband, a Navy chief petty officer….and their two children.
Richelle Dietz: Jet fuel’s not something that you would even think could happen to be in your water.
Sharyn Alfonsi: How were people reacting to the news?
Richelle Dietz: I was so sick to my stomach from that news that I actually threw up when I heard.
Sharyn Alfonsi: Because why?
Richelle Dietz: Because my kids had just been poisoned.
60 Minutes
Within a month the Navy set up medical tents for residents. Some complained of stomach problems, severe fatigue and coughing. The military moved more than 4,000 families to hotels.
Small studies of military personnel suggest jet fuel exposure can lead to neurological and breathing problems.
But the long-term impact of ingesting jet fuel is unknown because it’s so unlikely to ever happen.
Richelle Dietz told us days after the spill her daughter’s tonsils became inflamed, and her son started suffering from chronic headaches.
Sharyn Alfonsi: I can hear people saying, “Tonsils, headaches. Kids get that stuff. How do you know it’s related?”
Richelle Dietz: Um, because they never had it before November of 2021. It wasn’t– an issue.
It’s unclear how many got sick. But of 2,000 people who responded to a survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – more than 850 sought medical care. The water system was flushed over three months…and bottled water brought in.
Brittany Traeger said her 4 year old now suffers respiratory problems which require hour-long treatments…at least two times a day that includes a nebulizer and this vibrating vest to clear her lungs.
Sharyn Alfonsi: Tell me about your daughter’s health.
Brittany Traeger: Thirteen days after the contamination, after our water smelled like jet fuel, my daughter woke up in a hotel with a cough…and it pretty much never went away.
Three months passed before Pearl Harbor’s drinking water was deemed safe again. The Navy’s own investigations into the spill…described quote “cascading failures” and revealed poor training, supervision, and ineffective leadership at red hill that fell “…unacceptably short of navy standards…”
For the last 10 years, Hawaiians have raised concerns about the threat from smaller leaks at Red Hill.
The primary water supply for the city of Honolulu is 100 feet below the Navy complex.
In March of 2022, the secretary of defense ordered Red Hill permanently closed.
Vice Admiral John Wade was brought in to get the 104 million gallons of fuel out of the tanks and move it safely to sites around the Pacific.
Vice Admiral John Wade: We’ve gotta defuel. That’s the imminent threat. There’s ongoing and will be continued long-term environmental remediation to restore the aquifer, the land and surrounding area. And then there’s also a medical component for those that have been impacted.
Sharyn Alfonsi: You view now this thing that was a lifeline for the fleet is a threat.
Vice Admiral John Wade: That’s right. That’s right.
In six months, Wade’s team in Hawaii successfully removed almost all of the fuel. But it took two years before the Navy issued disciplinary letters to 14 officers involved in the spill response…including, five admirals.
Sharyn Alfonsi: Was anyone fired because of this?
60 Minutes
Meredith Berger: At the time that the accountability came through, uh– we had officers that had already retired. And so uh — they had already separated from service.
Meredith Berger is an assistant secretary of the Navy. We met her at the Pentagon in November. She told us the Navy has been accountable.
Sharyn Alfonsi: We’re talking about 20,000 gallons of– fuel leak, 90,000 people had their water contaminated. It looks like people retired, or were reassigned, and no one was fired. How is that accountability?
Meredith Berger: It’s accountability within the system that we have established. And we have heard that this was too long, um and that maybe it didn’t go far enough.
Two thousand military families agree the Navy didn’t go far enough and are suing the government. The Traegers and Dietzs have joined the lawsuit alleging they were harmed by negligence at Red Hill.
Sharyn Alfonsi: Are you angry that it happened? Or are you angry at what happened after?
Richelle Dietz: It’s a little bit of anger, but it’s also this feeling of betrayal.
Sharyn Alfonsi: What do you mean, betrayal?
Richelle Dietz: So my husband has been in for almost 18 years. We have moved our family cross country, cross oceans. We gave so much of our life to the Navy for them to ignore warnings and then we were directly and blatantly lied to about it.
Navy leadership has apologized for the spill but has not said that the contaminated water is the cause of the ongoing illnesses.
The Navy did set up a clinic on base to collect data and treat anyone who believes they have health issues related to the tainted water.
Sharyn Alfonsi: What happens in five or 10 or 15 years? Will those services still be available to these families?
Meredith Berger: So that’s– that is part of why, um, we are making sure that we’re collecting that information to inform future actions and what the requirements are for those types of uh, needs and care.
Sharyn Alfonsi: That doesn’t sound like a guarantee of care in the future.
Meredith Berger: And I wanna be careful, ’cause I don’t do the health care part of things. And so I– I don’t wanna speak outside of, um, of– of where I have any authority or decision.
So we followed up with the Defense Department…which told us it’s reviewing the question of long term health care for military families…including more than 3,100 children.
Two years after the spill, some residents have reported water with a smell or sheen. The Navy is conducting daily tests at Pearl Harbor and says it is confident there is no fuel in the tap water.
Richelle Dietz is still using bottled water. The lawsuit she joined with Brittany Traeger and the other military families is scheduled to go to trial tomorrow.
Sharyn Alfonsi: What is the remedy that you want?
Brittany Traeger: In our family it’s restoring my faith in our nation.
Sharyn Alfonsi: That’s a big thing to say.
Brittany Traeger: There’s a body of government that failed. They contaminated our water, they lied to us, they did not protect us, and they did not intervene. And accountability looks like a lifelong care plan for me, my family, and the people affected. And that will restore my faith in my nation.
Produced by Guy Campanile. Associate producer, Lucy Hatcher. Broadcast associate, Erin DuCharme. Edited by Michael Mongulla.
Usher accepted the lifetime achievement award at the 2024 BET Awards – even if the superstar mused it might be a bit early.
The Grammy winner stayed on his feet as a parade of artists performed his hits – Childish Gambino kicked it off with “U Don’t Have to Call,” joined by Keke Palmer, who took the lead on “You Make Me Wanna…” Coco Jones appeared in the audience for a sultry rendition of “There Goes My Baby,” serenading Usher and his wife Jenn Goicoechea.
Aude Guerrucci / REUTERS
Summer Walker hit the stage for “Good Good,” Tinashe did “Nice & Slow,” Marsha Ambrosius tackled “Superstar” and Chlöe performed “Good Kisser.” Teyana Taylor and Victoria Monét teamed up for “Bad Girl,” mirroring Usher and Beyoncé’s choreography from their performance of the song. Latto brought the energy for “Yeah!” In some ways, the homage underscored the women that carried much of the night – dominating the performances.
After introductions by Terry Lewis and Jimmy Jam, Usher accepted the award from music executive L.A. Reid.
“Getting here has definitely not been easy, but it has been worth it,” Usher began his lengthy speech, reflecting on his career, which has spanned over three decades. He questioned the timing, saying, “I’m still running and gunning and I still love this (expletive) like I did when I was 8 years old,” he said.
Much of his speech couldn’t be heard to audiences at home because it was censored.
“I forgive each and every person who had anything to say negative about me because it only motivated me to be who I am,” he said at one point.
Earlier in the night, Will Smith stood in a circle of fire – joined by Fridayy and the gospel choir Sunday Service – to make the live debut of his latest single, “You Can Make It.”
“I don’t know who needs this right now,” Smith opened his set. “But I am here to tell you, you can make it.”
Mid-way through, Kirk Franklin joined, and then two rapped together. “Nobody gets an easy ride,” Smith, who is in the midst of his comeback from slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars two years ago, told the room. “There is wisdom in that fire. Dance in your darkest moments.”
Aude Guerrucci / REUTERS
The forthcoming presidential election was a huge topic of conversation throughout the show. After Childish Gambino presented Killer Mike with the album of the year award for “Michael,” the rapper used his acceptance speech to address his Grammys arrest and voting.
“Technically, I was not supposed to be here. I was put in handcuffs, and I was marched out of this building. But I want to tell you, look at God. ‘Cause I’m back, baby. I’m back and I’m winning,” he said in his speech. Killer Mike was arrested at the Grammys earlier this year over a physical altercation he said was caused by an “over-zealous” security guard; he was not charged over the incident.
“They going to tell you who we vote for is important,” he continued his speech, “And it is who we vote for on the big stage. It’s important, but it’s more important you know who your city council person is, who your prosecutor is.”
Megan Thee Stallion opened the show by emerging from an egg – a metaphor for her a new musical rebirth – before diving into with an energetic medley of her new singles “Hiss” and “Boa.”
“BET, Where my girls at?” she said, shouting out Monét and Jones in the crowd before launching into “Where Them Girls At” – a track that’s been an immediate fan favorite since Friday’s release of her third studio album, “Megan.”
Taraji P. Henson hosted the show at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. Her opening monologue was a performance, Henson rapping “It’s about us,” in a loose parody of Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” which he released in the midst of his reignited feud with Drake.
“No beef in here tonight,” she joked, “Can we say plant-based?”
Tyla, the Johannesburg , South African amapiano superstar, won two honors on the show, starting with best international act.
Later in the night, she’d take home the award for best new artist. “This is crazy,” she said. “I just want to dedicate this one to Africa.”
Monét, who earlier this year won the Grammy for best new artist, made her BET debut and set a high bar for performances, condensing a full set into a few mins with three costume changes and a pair of songs, “On My Mama” and “Alright.”
Then Sexyy Red took the stage, performing her smooth bedroom ballad “U My Everything” before moving to another stage and a costume change – tackling “Get It Sexyy” in front of an LED screen depicting the White House and dancers dressed like the Secret Service.
The show took a tonal shift when VanVan and Heiress Harris, two child rappers, their empowerment anthem “Be You” in a school room set. Harris is the daughter of rapper T.I. and singer Tiny Harris.
Best female R&B/pop artist went to SZA and best actress to Regina King, both of whom were not in attendance; the BET HER award went to Monét for “On My Mama.” She brought her mother up to accept it.
Country musician Tanner Adell brought her “Buckle Bunny” and her new song, “Cowboy Break My Heart.” GloRilla emerged from above, descending to join her dancers for “Yeah Glo!” and “Wanna Be” – the latter of which saw a surprise appearance from Megan Thee Stallion. Shaboozey kept the country coming with “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” and was joined by rapper J-Kwon, who appears on the track, creating an unexpected and rewarding collaboration across genres.
Lauryn Hill closed the night, beginning with “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” going into “Lost Ones,” before introducing her son YG Marley for his reggae tracks “Survival” and “Praise Jah In The Moonlight.” Best of all: Wyclef Jean appeared, and the trio – in front of a full-band – performed Fugees’ “Fu-Gee-La.” Pras, the third member of Fugees, was not present. The rapper, who was accused in multimillion-dollar political conspiracies spanning two presidencies, was convicted in April.
Boeing announced plans to acquire Spirit AeroSystems for $4.7 billion in an all-stock transaction. Spirit is part of the aerospace giant’s supply chain.
Boeing, located in Arlington, Virginia, announced the purchase in a statement early Monday. Spirit is headquartered in Wichita, Kansas.
At about the same time, European aerospace giant Airbus said it had entered into an agreement to buy “major activities related to Airbus” from Spirit.
Under intentions laid out in the announcements, Boeing would take over most of Spirit’s operations.
Spirit builds fuselages and other significant parts for both Boeing and Airbus.
The Airbus agreement is set to commence when Boeing’s acquisition of Spirit is completed, the two U.S. companies said.
The Boeing acquisition’s equity value of $4.7 billion is $37.25 per share, while the total value of the deal is around $8.3 billion, which includes Spirit’s last reported net debt, Boeing said.
Airbus said it would “be compensated by payment of $559 million” from Spirit “for a nominal consideration of $1.00, subject to adjustments including based on the final transaction perimeter.”
Boeing on why it’s making the move
Boeing President and CEO Dave Calhoun said in the company’s statement that, “We believe this deal is in the best interest of the flying public, our airline customers, the employees of Spirit and Boeing, our shareholders and the country more broadly.”
Boeing previously owned Spirit, and Boeing said bringing the supplier back into the Boeing fold would improve plane quality and safety, which have come under increasing scrutiny by regulators, Congress and airlines.
“By reintegrating Spirit, we can fully align our commercial production systems, including our Safety and Quality Management Systems, and our workforce to the same priorities, incentives and outcomes – centered on safety and quality,” Calhoun said.
The purchase of Spirit would reverse a longtime Boeing strategy of outsourcing key work on its passenger planes. That approach has been criticized as problems at Spirit disrupted production and delivery of popular Boeing jetliners, including 737s and 787s.
Concerns about safety came to a head after the Jan. 5 blowout of a panel on an Alaska 737 Max 9 at 16,000 feet over Oregon. The Federal Aviation Administration soon after announced increased oversight of Boeing and Spirit.
Plea deal for Boeing?
Separately, the Justice Department on Sunday presented Boeing with a plea deal after it accused Boeing of violating the terms of a 2021 deferred prosecution agreement that was put in place following two 737 Max crashes in 2018 and 2019.
The department told Boeing it could plead guilty or go to trial, people familiar with the talks confirmed to CBS News. The agreement would have the company plead guilty to the conspiracy charge it originally faced in 2021. In exchange, Boeing would pay a fine and enter a three-year probationary period, the people said.
The DOJ outlined the deal in a presentation to family members of the 737 Max crash victims earlier Sunday before presenting it to Boeing.
News of the plea deal was first reported by Reuters.
If Boeing agrees, a judge would have to sign off on the accord.
But Paul Cassell, an attorney who represents 15 of the victims’ families, told CBS News the proposal was “another sweetheart plea deal” and said the families will “strenuously object” to the deal.
Titanium parts a concern
On another safety front, the FAA said in June it is investigating how titanium parts that were sold with falsified quality documentation were used in the construction of Boeing and Airbus passenger jets in recent years.
Boeing and Airbus said the planes with the falsely documented parts are safe to fly, but Boeing said it would remove affected parts from planes that had not yet shipped to airline customers.
Americans have a specific dollar figure in mind for what it would take to financially secure, according to a new survey from Bankrate. That magic number? $186,000 in annual income.
Currently, only 6% of U.S. adults make that amount or more, Bankrate said. The median family income falls between $51,500 and $86,000, according to the latest federal data.
Attaining a sense of financial security means paying all of one’s bills as well as purchasing some wants, while having enough left over to save for the future, the personal finance site said. However, many inflation-weary consumers are experiencing increased financial stress, with a new Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia survey finding that 35% of Americans are worried about making ends meet, up from 29% a year earlier.
That gap between what the typical American makes now and what they aspire to earn means “Americans have their eyes set on this high income, and they think they need to make more money even if they know it’s unrealistic they’ll never make that amount,” Sarah Foster, an analyst at Bankrate, told CBS MoneyWatch.
Earning more remains at the top of many Americans’ priorities as the price of shelter, food and medical care remain stubbornly high after two years of rising inflation. To cope, consumers are cutting spending on dining out, entertainment and travel, a TransUnion study found.
Bankrate’s survey of 2,400 Americans in mid-May found that younger generations are more optimistic about eventually earning enough to live comfortably.
What does it take to be rich?
Americans have an even higher yardstick for feeling rich. The survey found they believe they would need to earn $520,000 a year to qualify as wealthy — up from their $483,000 response during the same survey last year.
The rising cost of consumer goods is a chief reason for the increase, Foster said. “Inflation is the centerpiece to this narrative,” Foster said. “Americans know where the bar is for living comfortably, but every time they get there, the cost of living goes up and the bar grows further and further away.”
Another recent report found that adults in major U.S. cities need to earn $96,500 annually before taxes to afford basic necessities and savings, while a two-parent household with two children needs a combined $235,000 for a comfortable life.
Interestingly, 2023 research from the late Nobel Prize-winning economist Daniel Kahneman and colleagues suggests that happiness does increase with income, up to about $500,000 – roughly the income Americans told Bankrate would make them feel rich.
