“Where’s the End of Hawai’i’s Water Crisis?”

Sending the pitch over email to be more formal: As I mentioned in our call yesterday, the main thing is that the water crisis is not getting better and the Navy is being too slow with their promise to defuel the Red Hill tanks, whilst wrecking more havoc since our last article was published, like using drinking water to irrigate their golf courses. Right now, Hawaii‘s environmental groups are continuing to organize to make the Navy not only use water responsibly and defuel Red Hill, but also that they provide mental health, medical, and alternative housing for those who are being retraumatized living in their still-contaminated homes. This was all information provided to me by Wayne Tanaka, director of Hawaii‘s Sierra Club.

So I think for this article, I can open up with the most recent organizing event/military water offense, and maybe break the journalism 4th wall by running down some significant events that have happened since we last covered their water crisis, and then again, spotlight orgs doing the hard work, why their wants are so important, how more people (outside Hawaii) can organize to put pressure on the military.

I know in the last story we focused on tourism, but I think it would be more compelling to focus on the military for this story — with the angle of dismantling the popular narrative of the military as this defender of national security — and also Atmos just ran a graphic about water and tourism in Hawaii.

Let me know what you think!

Amber