A judge on Wednesday awarded more than $680,000 in damages to 17 people who reported falling ill after a 2021 jet fuel spill contaminated the drinking water system of a U.S. naval base in Hawaii.
The plaintiffs, from six families, were selected as representative cases to help shape the legal trajectory for more than 7,500 pending cases — including military families, service members and civilians — whose lawsuits still await resolution.
After a two-week nonjury trial in a federal court in Honolulu, each plaintiff was awarded between $3,000 and $104,000. Their lawyers had sought awards ranging from $225,000 to $1.25 million.
The families said in the lawsuit that they had suffered a range of medical issues from water contaminated by jet fuel that came from a Navy fuel storage facility near Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Oahu.
In November 2021, residents of the base started complaining to the Navy that the water tasted and smelled like gas and reported symptoms like sore throats, stomach pain, headaches, diarrhea and vomiting, as well as sickened pets.
State officials soon found high concentrations of gasoline- and diesel-range hydrocarbons in at least one well at levels up to 350 times what the state considers safe for drinking water.
The well was one of three of the military’s groundwater sources that provided drinking water to tens of thousands of people and several day care centers and schools. Underground aquifers provide virtually all of Oahu’s drinking water.
In December 2021, the Navy claimed responsibility for the jet fuel spill, shut down two of its three wells, relocated more than 3,000 families, and distributed bottled water. The state said that about 93,000 people were affected.
Three months later, the military closed the fuel storage facility permanently.
The suit said that the Navy knew weeks that the fuel spill had contaminated the water supply and failed to warn the public.
The military has argued that there wasn’t enough fuel in the water to cause illness and said that the symptoms were psychosomatic, according to the lead lawyer for the plaintiffs, Kristina Baehr, who said the defendants had hired an expert to engage in “voodoo science.”
The Department of Justice, which represented the Navy in the case, declined to comment on Friday.
Ms. Baehr said the suit for her was personal.
After she had mold contamination at her Texas home, she wanted to sue the construction company but had trouble finding a lawyer to represent her. Ms. Baehr, who was previously a trial lawyer at a large law firm, decided to found her own firm to take on cases like hers.
Her new firm was three weeks old when she heard about the contamination in Oahu and traveled to Hawaii to hold a town-hall meeting, thinking she would take on five families as clients at most.
She ended up taking on more than 7,000. “Other lawyers kind of thought I was crazy,” she said.
Ms. Baehr said she considered this week’s ruling a well-fought victory.
“This ruling is historic,” she said. “It’s validation. It’s acknowledgment. It’s accountability. The government is meant to protect us, not harm us. And we made it clear. We will not stand for it. We were right, we were brave and we were finally heard.”
She said the amount of the damages was “disappointing” but said she would keep fighting for the rest of her clients.
Maj. Mandy Feindt, an active-duty Army officer and the lead plaintiff in the case, said that her family had been to more than 750 medical appointments since they consumed the contaminated water.
Her husband has had gastrointestinal issues, internal bleeding, three surgeries and his gallbladder removed. Her 7-year old daughter has had neurological and behavioral issues, emotional trauma and a phobia of water. Her 5-year-old son had lung damage and chemical burns.
“I recognize that human error happens,” she said. But “when they failed to warn us, they took away my right as a mom to protect my children.”
Major Feindt said that after 19 years of active duty and multiple overseas tours, including one in Afghanistan, she felt disheartened and betrayed that the institution she had risked her life for had caused her so much harm.
She said that, as a “huge patriot,” the emotional toll had been the hardest.
She said she had filed for whistle-blower protection because she faced retaliation for speaking out.
“That has been the absolute hardest part for me is that this is an institution that I have loved,” she said. “We cannot be this lethal mission-ready force if we are harming our people and not taking care of them afterward.”
Genevieve Glatsky is a reporter for The Times, based in Bogotá, Colombia.
The post Judge Awards $680,000 to Military Families Sickened by Jet Fuel Spill in Hawaii appeared first on New York Times.
