Judge approves settlements for Hawaii children sickened by Navy jet fuel spill

A federal judge signed off on payouts for 119 minors whose families say they were poisoned when the Navy's mismanagement of a massive underground fuel depot sent jet fuel flowing from their taps.

By Jeremy Yurow, Court House News, April 21, 2026

HONOLULU (CN) — A federal judge has approved settlements for 119 children whose families say they became sick after jet fuel from the Navy’s Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility contaminated the drinking water supply at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in November 2021.

U.S. District Judge Leslie Kobayashi signed the order Monday, adopting without modification the findings of Magistrate Judge Kenneth Mansfield, who issued his recommendation April 2 after a videoconference hearing on the matter.

The settlements resolve claims by minors in two consolidated Federal Tort Claims Act lawsuits — Feindt v. United States and Hughes v. United States — brought against the federal government over the contamination event that affected roughly 93,000 people, including thousands of military families who reported symptoms ranging from headaches and rashes to vomiting and gastrointestinal illness after petroleum-laced water flowed from their taps.

The contamination traced back to a cascade of failures beginning in May 2021, when operator error caused a pipeline rupture at the facility, releasing more than 19,000 gallons of JP-5 jet fuel into a fire suppression line. The fuel sat there undetected for six months until a cart struck the drain line on Nov. 20, 2021, releasing the fuel into the groundwater and eventually into the Navy’s drinking water system.

The settlements cover three minor plaintiffs in the Feindt case and 116 in the Hughes case. Gross settlement amounts range from $5,000 to $27,000, depending on the severity of each minor’s claims, with net recovery amounts, after attorneys’ fees, expenses and Hawaii general excise tax, falling between roughly $3,311 and $19,623.

Under federal law, courts must independently review settlements involving minors to ensure the outcomes protect their interests, regardless of whether parents or guardians have already signed off. Mansfield cited Ninth Circuit precedent directing that courts evaluate each minor’s payout on its own terms:

“Most importantly, the District Court should evaluate the fairness of each minor plaintiff’s net recovery without regard to the proportion of the total settlement value designated for adult co-plaintiffs or plaintiffs’ counsel — whose interests the District Court has no special duty to safeguard,” Mansfield wrote, citing the standard from Robidoux v. Rosengren.

Comparing the settlements to outcomes from the earlier Feindt bellwether trial, where the District Court awarded minor plaintiffs between $3,000 and $5,000 each, Mansfield said the proposed amounts held up.

“In light of the facts of this case, the minors’ specific claims and recovery in similar cases, the court finds that the settlements for the 119 settling minor plaintiffs are fair and reasonable,” he wrote.

Because no party filed objections to Mansfield’s recommendation within the required period, Kobayashi’s order adopted it as the opinion of the court.

The bellwether trial, which involved 17 adult and minor plaintiffs and ran for about two weeks beginning in April 2024, resulted in a total award of roughly $680,000.

In that proceeding, the Barack Obama appointee found that while the contaminated water could have caused many of the health problems the families described, the evidence fell short of establishing a direct causal link for each condition claimed. General damages for bellwether plaintiffs ranged from $3,000 to $75,000.

Thousands of additional claims from military family members, civilians and service members remain pending in federal court.

Attorneys Lyle Hosoda, Kristina Baehr, Frederick Baker and Cynthia Solomon represented the plaintiffs. Eric Rey and Alanna Horan appeared on behalf of the United States.

Representatives for the Department of Justice and attorneys for the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to requests for comment.