Please sign and support this petition if you believe military service members, their children and families should have access to safe housing at their assigned duty stations.  

THE PROBLEM       

Failures to disclose, properly remove, manage, dispose or ensure effective remediation of highly contaminated topsoil covering hundreds of acres of Marine Corps Base Hawaii (MCBH) and Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam (JBPHH) military family housing neighborhoods continue exposing thousands of unsuspecting military service members, their children and families to much higher rates of cancer and other diseases without warning or notification.  

More than 10,000 military service members are stationed to MCBH and Pearl Harbor and the incredibly expensive rental housing market in Hawaii forces more than half to live in privatized military family housing neighborhoods on or near these installations.  Without warning or disclosure of the hazardous soil contamination, 50+ hazardous waste sites in these neighborhoods and the serious health and exposure risks it poses to them, their children and pets, thousands of unsuspecting military families lease homes and live in contaminated neighborhoods where they, their children and pets are unknowingly exposed to much higher lifetime rates of cancer and many other diseases.

Failures or inabilities of state and federal regulatory agencies to oversee and enforce public health and environmental laws in these residential neighborhoods on federal lands combined with failures of Military Housing Privatization Initiative (MHPI) contractors to disclose, properly remove, manage, dispose or ensure effective remediation of highly contaminated soils and hazardous wastes in these densely populated and contaminated residential neighborhoods has caused:  

• Thousands of military children and families to be exposed to unacceptable and undisclosed health risks.
• Hundreds of MCBH and Pearl Harbor families to develop and report serious health effects, diseases and/or untimely deaths attributed to harmful environmental exposures after moving into these contaminated neighborhoods.
• MCBH and Pearl Harbor families are denied access to relevant healthcare because neither they nor their healthcare providers are informed about the unsafe levels of extremely hazardous chemicals and carcinogens they are exposed to in and around their assigned homes, denying their healthcare providers the critical information needed to effectively triage, diagnose and treat the related health effects they and/or their children develop.
• Chronic inhalation, ingestion and/or skin absorption exposures can cause cancer and many other diseases affecting the neurological​, respiratory​, autoimmune​, endocrine, hepatic, reproductive​, neurobehavioral and other systems years or even decades after exposure occurred. MCBH and JBPHH who learn about the undisclosed, hazardous contamination and failures to implement required safety precautions, engineering and institutional controls to protect their families from harmful exposures worry they, their loved ones and/or beloved pets will develop one or more of these diseases in the future.
• Children and family members enrolled in the Exceptional Family Member Program (EFMP) have preexisting health conditions that require special medical care.  Many EFMP children and family members living in these contaminated neighborhoods have compromised immune systems and/or preexisting medical conditions that can be adversely affected by chronic exposure to these undisclosed contaminants.  Yet, neither they, their families nor their healthcare providers are informed about the hazardous contamination or significantly increased health and exposure risks they face living in these contaminated communities. 
• Significant confusion about the health and safety of these military family housing communities. Many resident families are told no hazardous contamination is present and their homes are safe while Hunt, Forest City, MCBH, Navy and HDOH leadership know that at best, current contamination levels in these neighborhoods are still approximately 20 times higher than EPA safety recommendations. At the same time, they know required precautions and controls to protect human health and the environment in these densely populated and contaminated residential neighborhoods were NOT effectively implemented, if at all throughout 8+ years of extensive housing redevelopment and soil disturbing activities.  MHPI contractors and military leadership refuse to do normally required post-construction confirmation sampling/testing to determine IF remediation was effective and IF the homes and neighborhoods are safe.  Yet, the same sub-contractor simultaneously attempted to manage and remediate contaminated soils in MCBH, Pearl Harbor and Hickam's equally contaminated neighborhoods.  Results of post-construction confirmation sampling/testing in Hickam housing after all planned remediation and construction was complete revealed contamination levels were actually HIGHER than before!  Exponentially more contaminants were released into these neighborhoods than were removed during years of housing redevelopment and soil disturbing activities. This may explain why Hunt, Forest City, MCBH and the Navy have not done this testing in MCBH or Pearl Harbor neighborhoods, as they realize it could yield similar results and potentially confirm contamination levels are still hundreds of times higher than EPA safety recommendations.  Maybe this is another reason they asked HDOH to permit EVEN HIGHER contamination levels or Tier 2 EALs in MCBH and Pearl Harbor neighborhoods AFTER they completed all planned construction and remediation in February 2014.   
• Although Hawaii law requires physicians to report all confirmed and suspected cases of harmful pesticide exposures, we are not aware of any MCBH or JBPHH physicians who are willing or able to report, much less consider or investigate harmful pesticide exposures as a potential cause or contributing factor to related health effects and/or diseases residents and their children develop.  Residents and their children who present with symptoms and/or health effects that can be caused by chronic exposure to the extremely hazardous pesticides in and around their homes often ask their MCBH or JBPHH physicians to administer relevant medical tests and to investigate chronic exposure as a potential cause or contributing factor, but their physicians refuse.  As a result, we expect no cases of suspected or confirmed harmful pesticide exposures to MCBH or JBPHH resident families have been officially reported to the state or HDOH.  If this is the case, we ask that you recognize such data does NOT accurately reflect health effects and/or risks to MCBH and JBPHH children and families. The data simply represents the unwillingness or inability of MCBH and JBPHH physicians to consider, investigate or report suspected or confirmed cases of harmful pesticide exposures to MCBH and JBPHH patients.  
• EPA deferred oversight of MHPI projects to the individual states or state health departments, but states and state health departments do not have jurisdiction in residential neighborhoods on federal lands.  MCBH and Pearl Harbor families ask Hawaii Department of Health (HDOH) and EPA to protect their health and safety, but both agencies point fingers at each other leaving MCBH and Pearl Harbor families without any meaningful protection from the confirmed hazardous contamination in and around their homes. HDOH has advised they do not have the authority to oversee or enforce public health and safety laws in these neighborhoods and further advised they do not have the resources needed to do so, if they had the authority. Military families are concerned politics and corporate profits have been prioritized over protecting the health and safety of their children and families.  Failures to enforce and comply with public health and environmental laws in their contaminated, residential neighborhoods give MCBH and JBPHH families ample reason to feel as if their health and safety is not considered or protected.    
• The profit-driven real estate developers and managers awarded these incredibly lucrative, 50-year MHPI contracts to design, build and manage SAFE MCBH and Pearl Harbor family housing operate with impunity and avoid implementation of costly remediation, safety precautions, institutional and engineering controls planned and required to protect the health and safety of resident families, saving themselves tens of millions of dollars in the process.  Yet, these contractors are able to avoid such costs and requirements without awareness of regulatory agencies or consequence.  
• Throughout (10) years of ongoing military family housing redevelopment and persistent soil disturbing activities within these densely populated and contaminated neighborhoods, excessive fugitive dust has and continues to escape the contractors' contaminated project sites, despite their Pesticide Soils Management Plans require that “NO FUGITIVE DUST” be allowed to escape. This is necessary to prevent harmful exposures to resident children and families, but such plans are NOT implemented. The absence of state and federal oversight along with failures to disclose the hazardous contamination and serious health and exposure risks posed by fugitive or contaminated dust to residents enabled excessive fugitive dust to be emitted from their contaminated project sites for more than eight (8) long years. This contaminated or fugitive dust has and continues to be blown by strong, coastal trade winds into and around residents' homes and neighborhoods, significantly increasing risks of harmful exposures and potentially causing higher levels of contamination throughout these military family housing communities.
• Pesticide Soil Closure Reports, which the contractor failed to produce to HDOH until years after these projects were complete, include maps of more than 50 hazardous waste sites they created in these densely populated and contaminated military family housing neighborhoods. Comparing the contractor's maps of the hazardous waste sites they created to updated maps of the redeveloped neighborhoods show numerous homes and community playgrounds were built directly on top of or near hazardous waste sites. But to this day (June 2016), MCBH and Pearl Harbor resident families are not informed about the hazardous soil or dust contamination, multiple hazardous waste sites or the serious health and exposure risks they, their children and pets face in these contaminated, residential neighborhoods.  In fact, residents who learn about the undisclosed, hazardous contamination from others and ask Forest City, Hunt Companies, the Navy or Marine Corps officials about it are terribly misinformed. These officials often tell families who inquire they are not aware of any hazardous contamination or simply deny that any exists. Yet, abundant evidence proves undisclosed, hazardous soil contamination and multiple hazardous waste sites throughout these residential neighborhoods exist, not to mention the failures to disclose, properly remove, manage, dispose or ensure effective remediation of the same.    

Ohana Military Communities (OMC), the private partnership between the MHPI contractor and the Navy/Marine Corps formed to facilitate the privatization and redevelopment of MCBH and Pearl Harbor family housing, continues to earn MILLIONS OF DOLLARS in rental income or Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) EVERY MONTH from thousands of service member tenants and their families. BAH is funded by US tax payers and, as a result, military families and US tax payers will unwittingly pay OMC and Hunt Companies more than $2 BILLION DOLLARS over the next 40 years despite the following:  

• OMC and Hunt are in breach of their 50-year MHPI contracts to design, build and manage SAFE and affordable MCBH and Pearl Harbor family housing,
• OMC and Hunt are exposing thousands of unsuspecting military children and families to completely unacceptable and undisclosed health risks,
• OMC and Hunt fail to comply with state and federal public health and environmental laws.

REQUESTS

Signatories ask United States and Hawaii lawmakers as well as state and federal public health officials to consider and/or facilitate the following:

• Full and proper disclosure to all residents and base healthcare providers regarding the well-documented hazardous contamination and hazardous waste sites in MCBH and Pearl Harbor privatized family housing to all past, present and future residents and healthcare providers at the base medical facilities.  Disclosures should include access to all relevant documentation and data pertaining to the discovery, analysis, management and determinations about the hazardous contamination and waste sites including but not limited to justifications for permitting unusually high contamination levels or Tier 2 environmental action levels (EALs) in MCBH and Pearl Harbor family housing neighborhoods.
• Recognize MCBH and Pearl Harbor families and their healthcare providers have been denied critical information about the hazardous contamination and significantly increased health and exposure risks it poses, preventing physicians from investigating or considering chronic exposures as potential causes or contributing factors to the related health effects resident children and family members develop after moving into these contaminated neighborhoods. In turn, harmful pesticide exposures to residents and their children have NOT been considered, investigated or reported, despite the high likelihood that chronic exposures to these undisclosed contaminants could have caused or contributed to many of the serious health effects residents and their children have developed since moving into these contaminated neighborhoods. Accordingly, HDOH and public health officials should not rely on current data of reported harmful pesticide exposures to gauge risks or health effects to MCBH or Pearl Harbor families.
• Publicly request and/or pressure the Navy, Marine Corps and MCBH and Pearl Harbor physicians to start considering and investigating chronic exposures to these confirmed, but undisclosed contaminants as a potential cause or contributing factor to the related health effects and/or diseases residents and their children develop. These physicians should be encouraged to administer relevant medical screenings to assess patients' exposures when necessary.  
• Full and adequate oversight and enforcement of public health and environmental laws in these contaminated, residential neighborhoods on federal lands to ensure the health and safety of military children and families are protected from harmful exposures to these hazardous chemicals and hazardous waste sites. Levy appropriate fines and consequences upon those who failed and those who do fail to comply with state and federal laws to protect human health and the environment in these contaminated, residential neighborhoods on federal lands. 
• Objective and extensive post-construction environmental testing (i.e. soil, tap water, indoor air and house dust) throughout MCBH and Pearl Harbor homes and neighborhoods to ensure hazardous contamination and health risks to resident children, infants, adults and sensitive targets are all accurately characterized relative to all potential routes of exposure (i.e. inhalation, ingestion and absorption) to current contamination levels, giving significant consideration to excessive fugitive dust emitted during years of past and ongoing soil disturbing activities, the more than 50 hazardous waste sites created in these neighborhoods during prior redevelopment (2006-2014) and all other hazardous waste sites planned in these neighborhoods relative to ongoing and planned housing development in these contaminated residential communities on the windy coasts of Oahu. 
• Follow through with prior requests for extensive post-construction testing and a federal investigation (ATSDR) initially requested in September 2015. 
• Public hearings and complete transparency relative to all active and planned housing development, redevelopment and other soil disturbing project activities within these contaminated neighborhoods.

FINAL THOUGHTS

These significant health and safety hazards must be disclosed and/or resolved immediately in accordance with state and federal laws.  All parties responsible for failing to comply with or failing to oversee and enforce relevant state and federal laws must either do what is right or be held accountable.  

Military families who live(d) in these contaminated neighborhoods feel as if they are discriminated against, as if the state protects the health and safety of other off-base residents, but fails or is unable to protect the health and safety of military children and families living in contaminated neighborhoods in the same state.  Is this a form of environmental injustice or discrimination?

Ultimately, the health and safety of thousands of military families has been jeopardized without warning or notification.  Neither they nor their physicians are informed, further denying their families access to relevant and effective healthcare for health issues caused by chronic exposure to these undisclosed contaminants.    

Do military families deserve the same protections and disclosures their civilian counterparts benefit from in civilian, residential neighborhoods?  If so, we ask you to please take the immediate and necessary actions requested to protect the health and safety of MCBH and JBPHH families.  Please protect thousands more military children and families from being exposed to hazardous chemicals and carcinogens in and around their MCBH and JBPHH homes without warning or notification.  This should NOT be allowed to continue on your watch.  

If you agree that United States and Hawaii lawmakers as well as state and federal public health officials need to demand accountability and protect the health and safety of military service members and their families stationed to MCBH and Pearl Harbor, please sign this petition and ask everyone you know to sign and support this petition as well.

WANT TO LEARN MORE? 

Visit our website, My MCBH Housing and MCBH and Pearl Harbor Housing Issues Facebook page or read this expert report on the undisclosed, hazardous contamination in MCBH family housing.