Over $680,000 was awarded by a federal judge last Wednesday to 17 families who claimed they became sick due to a jet fuel leak at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam’s Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage in 2021.
According to NBC News, the judge’s decision to award over $680,000 to the 17 families in the cases stemming from the jet fuel leak that led to the contamination of the Navy’s drinking water system in Hawaii is expected to set a precedent as bellwether cases for roughly 7,500 other military members, military family members, and civilians who filed lawsuits after the incident in 2021.
NBC News reported that U.S. District Judge Leslie Kobayashi’s ruling awarded each of the plaintiffs various payments from $5,000 to over $104,000. The federal judge noted that while the evidence presented in court suggested that the contaminated water could have led to the various medical problems displayed by the military families who were affected by the jet fuel leak, the evidence did not prove a direct link between the medical problems and the contaminated water.
According to NBC News, Kristina Baehr, an attorney for one of the families, had requested that each of the plaintiffs receive payments of between $225,000 and $1.25 million. The outlet noted that while Baehr said the financial awards the judge approved for the military families were disappointing, the attorney said the families “prevailed against all odds against the U.S. Government.”
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“These families can be proud that they helped prove to the world what truly happened when the Navy poisoned the water supply near Pearl Harbor and sickened so many,” Baehr stated in a press release obtained by NBC News. “The Court rejected the Government’s argument that thousands of our clients were just psychosomatic and that there was not enough fuel to make anyone sick.”
According to CBS News, the jet fuel leak in Hawaii occurred in May of 2021, when a ruptured pipe caused over 20,000 gallons of fuel to spill into a fire suppression line. The outlet noted that the issue went unnoticed for roughly six months before the fire suppression line was rammed by a cart and caused a significant amount of fuel to leak into a drinking water well at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.
CBS News reported that a Navy investigation report released after the incident determined that U.S. military officials did not immediately notify the Hawaii Department of Health, that the Navy claimed the drinking water was safe despite failing to conduct an analysis on the water, and failed to implement emergency response plans on four occasions.
