Photo By Petty Officer 1st Class Chelsea Meiller | AIEA, Hawaii (March 7, 2022) Lt. Travis Christensen, assigned to Naval Facilities...... read more read more
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AIEA, Hawaii (March 9, 2022) — The U.S. Navy began using a device designed to remove fuel contaminants in Red Hill Well as part of ongoing efforts to recover the well under an interagency-approved plan.
The drum oil skimmer sits on the surface of the water and uses a rotating, oleophilic (oil-attracting), hydrophobic (water-repelling) drum to pull in oil or fuel.
“The oil will stick to the drum, but the water will not,” said Lt. Travis Christensen, temporarily assigned to Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC) Hawaii as the recovery lead for the Red Hill Remediation Team. “As the drum rotates, it has a wiper blade on the back side that scrapes the oil off the drum and into a sump, which is then recovered using a pump and barrel.”
Deploying the skimmer is one way the Navy — part of the Interagency Drinking Water System Team — is adhering to the Hawaii Department of Health’s emergency order regarding the recovery of the Red Hill Well.
“We started with the development and installation of a granular activated carbon filtration system,” Christensen said. “With that system online and functioning, the next step is to recover any contaminants that may be on the surface of the well. And that's where the skimmer fits in.”
According to Christensen, the skimmer’s effectiveness will be measured in two ways.
“The first way is by how much contamination we actually recover,” said Christensen. “The second method is going to be through continuous water testing at the surface.”
Christensen said his hope is that the skimmers come back with little oil to show.
“This specific skimmer can collect up to 10 gallons per minute of fuel or oil, but actually, the best-case scenario is that we don't recover any,” Christensen said. “Because that would indicate that all of our efforts up until now have recovered all the fuel that was in the well.”
Skimming operations will continue until the interagency team determines that they are no longer necessary. The Red Hill Well has been isolated from the Navy’s water system since Nov. 28, and water is currently being provided from the Waiawa Well.
The IDWST is a joint initiative where the U.S. Navy is working closely with the Hawaii Department of Health, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army to restore safe drinking water to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam housing communities through sampling and flushing, and the recovery of the Red Hill Well. For detailed information, go to: www.navy.mil/jointbasewater.
| Date Taken: | 03.17.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 03.17.2022 14:54 |
| Story ID: | 416658 |
| Location: | AIEA, HAWAII, US |
| Web Views: | 379 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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