Judge grants $ 680,000 to military families who are sick by spilling aircraft fuel

A judge on Wednesday granted more than $ 680,000 compensation to 17 people who reported to become ill after a spill of the aircraft fuel in 2021 polluted the drinking water system of an American naval base in Hawaii.

The claimants, from six families, were selected as representative matters to help shape the legal process for more than 7,500 pending matters – including military families, service members and citizens – whose lawsuits are still waiting for the solution.

After a two -week trial in a federal court in Honolulu, every claimant received between $ 3,000 and $ 104,000. Their lawyers had wanted prizes from $ 225,000 to $ 1.25 million.

The families said in the lawsuit that they had had a range of medical problems, from water contaminated by aircraft fuel that came from a storage facility of the navy near Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Oahu.

In November 2021, the inhabitants of the base began to complain about the navy that the water tasted and smoke for gas and reported symptoms such as sore throat, stomach pain, headache, diarrhea and vomiting, as well as sickly pets.

State officials found soon High concentrations of hydrocarbons of gasoline and diesel in at least one well on levels up to 350 times which the state regards as safe for drinking water.

The well was one of the three groundwater sources of the army that offered drinking water to tens of thousands of people and various daycare centers and schools. Underground aquifers offer almost all drinking water from Oahu.

In December 2021, the Navy claimed responsibility for the spilling of the aircraft fuel, stopped two of his three wells, moved more than 3,000 families and divided bottled water. The state said that around 93,000 people were hit.

Three months later, the army closed the fuel storage facility permanently.

The suit said the navy knew for weeks that the fuel leak had contaminated the water supply and the public had not warned.

The army argued that there was not enough fuel in the water to cause disease and said that the symptoms were psychosomatic, according to the main lawyer for the claimants, Kristina Baehr, who said that the defendants had hired an expert to participate in “Voodoo Science”.

The Ministry of Justice, which represented the Navy in the case, refused to comment on Friday.

Mrs. Baehr said the suit was for her personally.

After she had fungal infection in her house in Texas, she wanted to sue the construction company, but she had trouble finding a lawyer to represent her. Mrs. Baehr, who was previously a process lawyer at a large law firm, decided to find her own company to assume things like her.

Her new company was three weeks old when she heard about the contamination in Oahu and to Hawaii traveled to hold a city hall meeting, thinking that she would hire a maximum of five families as customers.

She eventually took over more than 7,000. “Other lawyers thought a bit that I was crazy,” she said.

Mrs Baehr said that this week she considered a well -fought victory.

Mrs. Baehr quoted a client, Sloane Kiuilani and said: “This statement is historic. It’s validation. It is recognition.

She said that the amount of the damage was ‘disappointing’, but said she would continue to fight for the rest of her customers.

Maj. Mandy Feind, an active officer of the army and the protagonist in the case, said that her family had been to more than 750 medical agreements since they consumed the polluted water.

Her husband has gastrointestinal problems, internal bleeding, three operations 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 the human mistake is happening,” she said. But “when they did not warn us, they took my right as a mother to protect my children.”

Major Feind said that after 19 years of active service and several overseas tours, including an in Afghanistan, she felt discouraged and betray that the institution for which she had risked her life had caused her so much harm.

She said that, like a ‘huge patriot’, the emotional toll had been the most difficult.

She said she had requested a protection from whistleblower because she was confronted with retribution to speak out.

“That is the absolutestest part for me that this is an institution that I loved,” she said. “We cannot be this deadly mission-ready force if we harm our people and then do not take care of them.”