People Affected by Toxic Fuel Leak in Hawaii Now Face Taxes on Emergency Aid

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It’s been nearly 16 months since 14,000 gallons of fuel and water leaked from the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility in Honolulu, Hawaii. Located merely 100 feet above the Southern O’ahu Basal Aquifer, the military fuel storage facility’s leaking drain line poisoned the main fresh water source for 100,000 people, causing oral chemical burns, stomach pain, sore throats, rashes, headaches and vomiting, among other illnesses for residents relying on that water. More than 93,000 residents were affected, and 3,500 families were forcibly displaced, with many staying in Waikiki hotels for months on end as the Navy began cleanup early last year.

Although the Department of Defense provided temporary housing and emergency assistance to those impacted by its negligence, it didn’t come without a price. In fact, for some, the funding they received for temporary housing is considered taxable income by the Internal Revenue Service, with recipients quite literally paying the U.S. government back for the funds they received.

Civilians and locals living on the Navy’s water system are being disproportionately impacted by these taxes, according to Jamie Williams, a former resident of the Red Hill Mauka Army housing. Williams told Truthout that in places like Kapilina (a civilian housing site located near Pearl Harbor), communities needed to mobilize just for the Navy to consider giving them the emergency assistance they now need to pay for. “Compared to active military families like mine, the Navy initially had no intention of giving [locals] temporary housing or clean water. It took weeks and a lot of agitation to get the military to treat non-military residents affected by their mess. And now to add insult to injury, [locals] are receiving tax bills where they weren’t being helped in the first place,” Williams told Truthout.
https://truthout.org/articles/people-af ... gency-aid/

This follows the great lie, We're from the government ad are here to help you. Then tax the help we are going to give you.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,

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