Service members file legal claims over toxic Red Hill water

Three active-duty service members filed legal claims against the U.S government this week seeking compensation for health impacts and other damages they say they suffered when jet fuel from the Navy’s Red Hill facility contaminated their drinking water in 2021.

The claims are the first step before filing a lawsuit. Members of the armed forces who are injured while on active duty are barred from suing the federal government under the Federal Tort Claims Act, but attorneys representing the claimants argue that their clients suffered damages while they were off duty. The “injury occurred at the homes of the service members while living their daily lives with their families,” they write in claim documents.

In November 2021, military families in neighborhoods in and around Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam began getting sick with vomiting, diarrhea, skin rashes and chemical burns. The Navy soon confirmed their fears that jet fuel from its Red Hill underground fuel facility had made its way into a nearby drinking water well and into tap water.

More than a hundred military family members and civilians are suing the federal government, but up until now the claimants have primarily been spouses and children of members of the military.

The service members bringing claims against the military include Navy Ensign Koda Freeman, Army Col. Jessica Whaley and Army Maj. Amanda Feindt.

Freeman’s wife and children joined a lawsuit against the federal government months ago. His wife, Nastasia Freeman, says that a previously under-control seizure disorder flared up as a result of the water contamination and that she and her children have continued to suffer a range of devastat­ing and persistent health impacts.

Koda Freeman says that he has also had health problems, including gastrointestinal issues, a persistent cough, headaches and dizziness.

The family lived in the Aliamanu Military Reservation, a neighborhood that was among the most affected by the jet fuel. Freeman was able to obtain a humanitarian reassignment to care for his family. They relocated to California to obtain specialty health care.

“This is going to change the trajectory of all of our lives,” said Freeman. “So we want accountability and hopefully to put this on a big enough stage so that it doesn’t happen again.”

Nastasia Freeman began having several seizures a day toward the end of 2021, which continued through February. She said that she was recently diagnosed with lung damage.

“When I was there it just felt like everything was on fire, everything was painful, everything was intense,” she said. “Now we are no longer dealing with acute symptoms, but these long-term diagnoses — chronic issues.”

Feindt, who has become an outspoken advocate for military families, also filed a claim. While living at Ford Island, she said, she and her family became violently ill after being exposed to toxic water and have continued to suffer myriad health effects. She said in a social media post that the military’s response to the water contamination has “felt like institutional betrayal.”

“It has been deny, downplay, cover up, put a pretty bow on it, spin words. … I love the military enough to want to see them get this right,” she said.

Whaley has also filed a claim. A medical professional herself, she says that she landed in the emergency room with severe toxic exposure symptoms as a result of the water contamination.

The service members are being represented by Texas-­based Just Well Law and Hosoda Law Group in Honolulu.

Attorney Kristina Baehr of Just Well Law said in a news release that the service members were “courageously standing up not only for themselves and their families, but also for all at-risk military personnel.”

“Our military service members have enough responsibility in their service to the nation. They cannot be mission-ready if the government’s negligence has made them sick with toxic water,” she said.

Baehr said that the claims are also important legally in that that they challenge the applicability of the so-called Feres Doctrine, which has traditionally barred claims for injuries obtained in the line of duty.

We “assert that it cannot be used against off-duty service members that showered in and drank water poisoned by the Navy in their own homes,” she said.

A Navy spokesperson said the Navy does not comment on ongoing litigation.