Distrust remains after Navy report on tainted Hawaii water

HONOLULU — Lauren Wright continues to be leery of the water coming out of the taps in her family’s U.S. Navy home in Hawaii, saying she doesn’t trust that it’s safe. Some Hawaii residents, including Native Hawaiians, officials and military families said the report doesn’t help restore trust in the Navy. And I’m not so proud.” It’s difficult to trust the Navy partly because Hawaii residents and officials for years have questioned the safety of the giant fuel storage tanks that have sat above an important aquifer since World War II, said Kamanamaikalani Beamer, a former trustee of the Commission on Water Resource Management. “De-fueling and getting the tanks out permanently, setting aside funds to remediate the water systems all across Oahu and replant our forests — when I see steps like that happening — that’s a tangible step toward rebuilding trust.” Some Native Hawaiians said the report only deepened a distrust in the military that dates to at least 1893, when a group of American businessmen, with support from U.S. Marines, overthrew the Hawaiian kingdom. “They’ve done nothing but lie for generations.” The Department of Defense recognizes the water problems “have damaged trust between the Department and the people of Hawaii, including Native Hawaiians — and it is committed to rebuilding that trust,” Gordon Trowbridge, acting assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, said in a statement.