Hawaii families receive payments for 2021 fuel leaks, the thousands sick | Hawaii

A federal judge has given more than $ 680,000 of 17 families, the information to get sick in 2021 through a leak from a tanker of the Second World War War II in a drinking water system from the US Navy in Hawaii.

The Bellwether cases gave the legal tone for a further 7,500 members, civilians and service members of military families, whose complaints are still waiting for the solution.

The US district judge Leslie Kobayashi presented the verdict on Wednesday and awarded each plaintiff from $ 5,000 to more than $ 104,000. In her arrangement, Kobayashi wrote that it was clear that there was not enough evidence to prove a direct connection, although the contaminated water could have caused many of the types of medical problems that the military families experienced.

In the early 1940s, the military built the Red Hill fuel tanks into the side of a mountain to protect them from air strikes. The terrain was in the hills over Pearl Harbor and over a well -equipped groundwater conductor, which provided the marine drinking water and the municipal water system from Honolulu.

In 2021, Jet raved fuel from a broken pipe in the military armored farm and stepped into a fountain that had supplied water and offices in and around the extensive basis. About 6,000 people suffered against nausea, headache, rashes and other symptoms.

The amount awarded to each plaintiff was significantly smaller than that during the two -week court proceedings before the Federal Supreme Court in Honolulu.

The 17 were selected as Bellwether plaintiffs because they were regarded as representative of the thousands of other people whose cases are still pending.

Baehr described the damage prices disappointing, but said that the families “prevailed against all chances of winning against the US government”.

“These families can be proud to prove what really happened to the world when the navy poisoned the water supply near Pearl Harbor and has so many sick,” said Baehr in a press release. “The court rejected the government's argument that thousands of our customers were only psychosomatic and that there was not enough fuel to make someone sick.”

Baehr said the legal team checked options for solving thousands of remaining cases.

The government admitted liability for the bureau before the start of the process, but contested their lawyers whether the plaintiffs were exposed to sufficient jetbrennial to cause vomiting, rashes and other alleged negative health effects.