Water supplied by the Army shows dangerous levels of PFAS at Kunia Village, Hawai’i
Hawai’i, Army won’t share recent test results.
By Pat Elder
September 22, 2025
Kunia Village provides subsidized rental housing for farm workers and their families.
Although it took more than two and a half years, the Army has finally answered a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from the Environmental Caucus of the Democratic Party of Hawai‘i concerning the dangerous levels of PFAS contamination in the drinking water at Kunia Village, a rural community of about 650 residents roughly 22 miles northwest of Pearl Harbor. Kunia Village’s drinking-water system is owned and operated by the U.S. Army as part of its Schofield Barracks–Kunia Water System in central Oʻahu.
The FOIA request sought detailed information on PFAS contamination: it asked for data on the presence of PFAS in Kunia Village’s drinking water, documentation of PFAS in the groundwater at Wheeler Army Airfield and Schofield Barracks, and records of PFAS in the wastewater generated by the Schofield Barracks Wastewater Treatment Plant. It also requested any records on the use of aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF)—a firefighting foam known to contain high concentrations of PFAS—at both Wheeler and Schofield.
The Army’s response left out the most critical information sought by the environmental advocates: it did not provide the current PFAS concentrations in the drinking water drawn from Kunia Village’s Wells #3 and #4, nor did it release data on PFAS in the groundwater beneath Wheeler Army Airfield and Schofield Barracks. It also denied that aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) had ever been used at either Wheeler or Schofield, despite published reports documenting such use.
Although the Hawaii Department of Health reported a frightening level of 264.8 ppt of total PFAS, they downplayed the risk and initially planned no meaningful action. It was clear the Army was calling the shots, like the Navy also does in Hawaii. The people of Kunia Village may still be drinking poisonous water. See the Hawai’i Department of Health press release from January 20, 2023, here:
“Those concerned may use a home filtration option to reduce PFAS.”
State of Hawaii, Dept. of Health
A chronology of contaminated drinking water at Kunia Village:
HIDOH initially took water samples in September, 2022.
PFAS chemicals were detected on Oct. 6, 2022.
HIDOH finally notifies the public - January 20, 2023 - reporting 264.8 parts per trillion (ppt) of total PFAS in Well #3 and shuts down the well.
Residents were then supplied with “potable” water from Well 4, according to an email from the Kunia Village Water Associate dated March 22, 2023.
The Kunia Water Association started delivering 5-gallon jugs of bottled water to residents in March, 2023.
On April 27, 2023, Kunia Village Well 4 showed total PFAS containing 70.7 ppt.
The system was switched to an an emergency line supplied by the Schofield Barracks water system.
The Hawaii Department of Health says the water system remains under close monitoring and testing, although no additional results have been made public.
The last word on PFAS at Kunia Village from the Hawaii Department of Health is found in a farcical document, Statewide PFAS Study published on March 8, 2024.
Many states publish PFAS data with hundreds of sets of tables showing specific results of up to 40 different PFAS compounds. Hawaii’s “Statewide PFAS Study” failed to provide analytical results from a single water test. The report said, “At Kunia Village Public Water System, there (sic) exceedances of the Maximum Contaminant Levels of 2 of the analytes, PFOA and PFOS. Kunia Village was advised to provide an alternative source of drinking water to their residents.”
Hawai’i’s response to the contamination of Kunia Village’s water illustrates a public-policy failure on multiple fronts:
First, the U.S. Army both operates the water system and is the source of the contamination, creating an inherent conflict of interest.
Second, there were delays in public notification, with weeks between detection of high PFAS levels and any warning to residents.
Third, Hawaiʻi relies on voluntary Environmental Action Levels rather than enforceable Maximum Contaminant Levels, leaving the state off the hook for having to do.. anything.
Fourth, the response has been slow and limited to temporary steps such as bottled water, while a permanent solution has not been addressed.
Fifth, officials continue to downplay long-term health risks, insisting there is “no immediate health threat” even as compounds like PFOS and PFOA are recognized human carcinogens.
PFAS accumulates in the human body and the environment. Long-term exposure—even at parts-per-trillion levels—has been linked to kidney and testicular cancers, thyroid disease, immune-system suppression, high cholesterol, and developmental effects in infants and children. Because these compounds do not readily break down, the health risks increase over time as PFAS build up - in drinking water, food, and in people’s blood.
PFAS levels at Kunia Village reported by
the State of Hawaii, Department of Health, (HIDOH)
HIDOH Well 3 – January 20, 2023
We must put these numbers into perspective. For starters, PFOA levels under 1 part per trillion in drinking water have been associated with increased risk of pancreatic cancer. PFHxS is believed to have immune, liver, thyroid, and developmental effects at the tiniest levels of consumption. PFHxS was developed as a substitute for PFOS and PFOA.
The chart below shows the maximum contaminant levels (MCLs) of various PFAS compounds in ten states. Exceeding these levels forces municipal water providers to shut down drinking water wells or filter the water to acceptable standards.
All ten states shown here would have immediately shut down wells with PFAS concentrations found in either Kunia Well #3 or #4.
“PFAS 6” means that the combined level of the 6 compounds cannot exceed 20 parts per trillion. The concentration of PFHxS (23 ppt) in Well #4 exceeds the enforceable limits of many states.
The FOIA request netted no PFAS results
Members of the Environmental Caucus of the Democratic Party were initially pleased to receive a response from the Army, although it arrived in an unwieldy 515 MB file. PFAS was first mentioned on page 5,155 of the 5,191-page document. Like their “partners” with the Hawaii Department of Health, the Army has failed to provide analytical results for PFAS compounds at Kunia Village since the initial disclosures in 2023.
The Army denies the use of AFFF at Schofield Barracks
and Wheeler Army Airfield.
The Army claimed in its FOIA response that they had no records pertaining to the use of aqueous film-forming foam, (AFFF) at Wheeler or Schofield.
The historic use of AFFF during routine fire training exercises poisoned the well water at Kunia Village, just 1.5 mile away. There is no other possible source. Groundwater and surface water generally flows southward toward Kunia Village from the historic fire training areas.
In 2023 an Army spokesman told Hawaii News Now, “It’s premature to say where the detectable levels of PFAS found in Kunia Village Well no. 3 originated from. If the Army determines that it is the source of PFAS in any off-installation drinking water wells, the Army will take appropriate action.” They are telling lies like this to communities around the world.
The Army likes using the term “detectable levels” to conjure the thought in people’s minds that the levels may be barely detectable and perhaps not a concern. Their public relations campaign is all about sowing doubt to avoid liability.
The Army has not responded appropriately to community concerns regarding the use of PFAS anywhere in Hawai’i! Instead, it has resorted to closing the books on eight bases and hiding the truth about the dangers at 8 other bases:
(1) Fort Shafter/Tripler Army Medical Center
(2) Wheeler Army Airfield
(3) Helemano RAD REC Station
(4) Kilauea Military Reservation
(5) Pohakuloa Training Center
(6) Schofield Barracks
(7) Kalaoloa Facility (Former Barbers Point NAS)
(8) Waiawa Unit Training Equipment Site
The official story of PFAS on Army bases in Hawai’i
is like a carefully choreographed dog and pony show.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced this month it will no longer defend rules that protect people from unsafe levels of PFAS in drinking water, reversing legal protections put into place last year. They have, however, retained a 4 ppt limit for both PFOS and PFOA, but extended enforcement across the country until 2031. Both compounds have been out of U.S. production since 2015.
As of today, no federal drinking-water standard exists for any PFAS compound. This regulatory gap leaves Hawaiʻi residents in a precarious position: their wai (freshwater) and kai (ocean) have been polluted by decades of U.S. military activities, yet the state government has largely remained on the sidelines, offering only limited monitoring and guidance. Without enforceable federal or state limits, communities are left to shoulder the burden of testing, filtering, and advocating for their own protection.
AFFF at Schofield Barracks
According to the Final Preliminary Assessment and Site Inspection of PFAS, Schofield Barracks, August 2023, “The use and storage of AFFF at Schofield Barracks has been primarily associated with Building 494: Former Fire Station #15, Building 140: Fire Station #15, a Former Pumper Location, and a Former Training Area. Furthermore, the Former Training Area, which is currently occupied by residential housing, was formerly an empty grass field that may have been used for AFFF training exercises from approximately 1991 through 1996.”
__________________
If the former training area has been converted to
residential housing, it is critical to monitor air
quality—both indoors and outdoors—test soil
and household dust, and give residents the
opportunity to receive free PFAS blood testing.
_____________________
Although the Army admits to using AFFF at these locations at Schofield Barracks, it only provided one test result in the site inspection and that was from the former landfill, rather than a fire training area, where PFAS levels are likely to be many orders of magnitude higher. The sample was taken from waters collected that were 546 to 696 feet below the ground surface. Apparently, there is no shallow layer of groundwater above that 600-foot depth at these sites. The same is true at Wheeler Airfield, where a single sample was taken at the civil air patrol hangar at 543 - 693 underground.
Compare the Army’s PFAS groundwater results at Schofield Barracks and Wheeler Army Airfield to the Navy’s results at Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam. The Navy samples were taken from the fire training area.
Figures are in parts per trillion. U.S. Army – Schofield PFAS, U.S. Army – Wheeler PFAS, NAVFAC
Wheeler Army Airfield
Although the Army denied the use of AFFF at Wheeler Army Airfield in the FOIA response, the Final Preliminary Assessment and Site Inspection of PFAS, Wheeler Army Airfield, June, 2023, mentions the use of AFFF 132 times in the 84-page document. AFFF was used in multiple areas across the base.
The U.S. Army addresses the public with virtually no sense of accountability. What was once a robust system of checks and balances, eroded over the past two decades, has effectively collapsed, while the Fourth Estate is vanquished.
A few hundred farm workers may be drinking highly carcinogenic water while the air and dust in their homes may be dangerously contaminated. Because the water is supplied by the Army and the state of Hawaii is a casual onlooker, it is allowed to happen.
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