More military families sue over fuel-contaminated drinking water: 'We're just collateral damage'

More than a hundred people have joined a lawsuit against the U.S. government one year after jet fuel leaked into the drinking water supply used by military families near Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, causing what many plaintiffs describe as severe, long-lasting medical issues.

"I struggle with a lot of feelings that we've been abandoned just to deal with it on our own. That we're just collateral damage," said Katherine McClanahan, who estimates she's had more than 50 doctor appointments since drinking contaminated water while living on Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.

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The updated lawsuit, announced Thursday, claims that leaks at the WWII-era Red Hill storage facility near Pearl Harbor sickened hundreds of military members, their families and civilians as the Navy maintained for weeks that the water was safe to drink. It also accuses the government of destroying water samples.

Hosoda Law Group, of Honolulu, and Just Well Law, of Austin, Texas, filed the initial lawsuit on behalf of four families in August. It accused the federal government of negligence related to the leaks and failure to immediately inform the public and claims the U.S. should be held liable under the Federal Tort Claims Act.

Since then, Just Well Law founder Kristina Baehr said families have only gotten sicker, but that the Navy denies their illnesses were caused by exposure.

"It's medical gaslighting at the highest levels," Baehr told Fox News. "And it's forcing our clients to go on a wild goose chase to get the medical care they need."

While only about 100 people are currently listed on the complaint, Baehr said she represents more than 800 people overall who were affected by the spill and expects the suit to grow.

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Nearly 21,000 gallons of jet fuel spilled at Red Hill in May 2021. A command report from the Navy stated that the amount of fuel that made it to the water "cannot be calculated, but is assessed to be small." The report further stated the fuel could have made it into the environment through evaporation or several "imperfections" in the concrete tunnel where it spilled.

Most of the fuel settled in Red Hill's fire suppression system, according to the Navy.

On Nov. 20, 2021, a cart hit a valve on the fire suppression pipeline, cracking the PVC and triggering what Baehr described as an "enormous blast" of fuel. Video obtained by Honolulu Civil Beat shows what appears to be fuel flooding a tunnel in the facility.

The command report does not specify how much fuel spilled, but does note that the Navy recovered about 12,000 gallons of fuel "immediately" after the spill.

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The next day, the Navy told the public there had been a "water and fuel mixture release" at Red Hill, but that there was no indication it had made it into the environment. It said the water remained safe to drink.

On Nov. 27, a resident called the JBPHH public works department to report a chemical smell in the water. A day later, the department received 37 calls complaining of a fuel smell in their water.

On Dec. 2, Navy staff documented "observations of a fuel smell and a sheen" in the Red Hill drinking water well. The same day, the Navy sent a press release acknowledging it had detected fuel in the water. 

McClanahan said her earliest symptoms of joint pain and shortness of breath appeared in the fall 2021, before the second leak, and have worsened since then. The mother of three and wife of an Air Force reservist now calls the past year the "nightmare that won't end." 

"We spent months being told … the symptoms will be short term, they'll be fleeting," she said. The Navy "admitted the contamination happened, but they won't even admit that we have illness," she added.

The U.S. Pacific Fleet's senior medical adviser said last March that medical providers had seen several thousand people in the days immediately following the spill. They saw symptoms like nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, headaches and skin irritation, all of which were consistent with exposure to petroleum.

"We are not seeing ongoing active symptoms," Capt. Michael McGinnis said during a March 10 Facebook live update. "However, we are very sensitive to that. … We’re looking at that closely to be sure that we’re not missing anything."

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McClanahan said she still suffers from headaches, dizziness, neurology issues and muscle tremors, but doctors have struggled to offer a concrete diagnosis. The symptoms are devastating for the former college swimmer, who enjoyed an active lifestyle on Oahu. However, she told Fox News she is worried most about the many young children whose families say they have developed respiratory issues, skin irritation, muscle pain and other symptoms.

"It's heartbreaking because we don't understand the future for the kids," she said.

The updated lawsuit also alleges that water samples taken from more than 1,000 homes were never tested for fuel and were thrown out after a month in storage.

"The government destroyed evidence," Baehr said.

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As she spoke with Fox News, McClanahan was packing up her belongings. She and her youngest son are moving back to the mainland this month to try getting into a specialty care clinic.

She hopes the lawsuit brings answers and accountability.

"We want the truth because doctors right now are telling us they're just throwing darts trying to help because they're having to guess at what they think was in the water," McClanahan said. "And I want it to never happen again to another family."

The Navy has not commented on the August lawsuit and did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the updated complaint.