On Thursday, the Navy confirmed what residents had feared about the Red Hill drinking water well that serves the Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam area: Petroleum has been found in the water. “We have pretty conclusive indications that there are volatile petroleum products in the well and we determined that it is the likely source of the contamination of our water distribution system across the Navy system,” U.S. Pacific Fleet Deputy Commander Blake Converse said during a virtual town hall. The news comes five days after residents began complaining that they had fallen ill from the water, which smelled suspiciously like fuel. The water system itself has been shut down, impacting around 100,000 amidst fears that the contamination could spread to other water systems. Speaking earlier on Thursday at a House Armed Services Committee hearing, Rep. Kai Kahele grilled the Navy about the contamination, calling the situation “a crisis that we have not seen in Hawaii.” Lawmakers including State Sen. Donna Mercado Kim and State Rep. Aaron Ling Johanson have also been critical of the Navy’s slow response. The Navy has yet to reveal the cause of the contamination, though many suspect last month’s spill of 14,000 gallons of fuel and water may be to blame. An investigation has been opened by the U.S. Pacific Fleet, which is also probing a pipeline leak that spilled more than 1,600 gallons of fuel in May. The Navy previously found that the leak was due to human error and that it likely impacted the environment. The U.S. Pacific Fleet is looking to see if fuel from the May 6 leak may have been found in the Nov. 20 spill. Read more