Barracks air conditioning restored for about 4,000 Hawaii soldiers

Air conditioning has been restored to barracks for about 4,000 soldiers assigned to bases in Hawaii after some of the mechanical issues at a local water treatment plant were fixed, an Army official told Task & Purpose on Thursday.

“We are tracking a couple of isolated cases where condensation leaks have been found but the systems are holding and the team is knocking out any remaining issues,” said Nathan Wilkes, a spokesman for U.S. Army Garrison Hawaii.

Garrison officials turned off water-cooled chiller systems in the affected barracks on July 10 after underground water pumps at the treatment plant failed, drastically reducing water available to Schofield Barracks, Wheeler Army Airfield, Helemano Military Reservation, and other bases, a garrison official told Task & Purpose on Tuesday.

The move was necessary because only one water pump was left working, and the chiller systems in those barracks consume 40% of the garrison’s normal daily water demand, Wilkes said at the time.

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Since then, crews have managed to activate a second deep well pump at the treatment plant and are working to get a third pump back in service early next week, Wilkes said Thursday. If they are successful, the garrison will be able to begin rolling back water restrictions that have been in effect since last week, he said.

All barracks and residential areas continue to have access to drinking water, Wilkes said, and toilets, sinks, and sanitation systems continue to function. The 25th Infantry Division is also operating four High Incentive Portable Potable Water Systems to provide potable water for household use.

The bases have instituted some water restrictions beyond those household uses while repairs continue, including closing car washes and limiting landscape watering

Soldiers and their families in affected installations are asked to tell the Directorate of Public Works, or DPW, if they spot any sprinklers or hoses running while repairs are underway, said Wilkes, who added, “Military Police and DPW are actively working these reports.”

The recent problems arose following motor failures at the water treatment plant on July 9 that were caused by age, heat, and a fire that broke out in the plant’s electrical system, Col. Rachel Sullivan, the garrison commander, said during a town hall on Tuesday.

Those failures left only one working deep well pump to provide water for installations in north and central Oahu, Sullivan said.

“This is what led us to turning off the chiller systems that feed 22 of 27 of our permanent party barracks in AO North,” Sullivan said.

The long-term solutions to the garrison’s water issues involve moving the deep well pumps, which are currently 585 underground, to the surface and modernizing the treatment plant, Sullvian said.

That project is currently working its way through the contracting process, but is not expected to be completed until fiscal year 2029 or 2030, she said.

“We are working right now with the [Army] Corps of Engineers Rapid Critical Infrastructure Team to completely replace the deep well pumps and motors for our current wells,” Sullivan said. “Timeline for this project is closer to eight months.”

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