18 CES restores water tank in O'Donnell Gardens

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman James Johnson
  • 18th Wing Public Affairs
KADENA AIR BASE, Japan --  Members of the 18th Civil Engineer Squadron’s Water and Fuels System Maintenance Operations team recently completed a critical repair operation that restored reserve potable water to more than 1,500 residents in the O'Donnell Gardens Military Family Housing area.

During a routine check of the base’s water infrastructure, the team discovered that water was no longer reaching the elevated tank serving the O'Donnell Gardens Military Family Housing area. A closer inspection revealed the cause to be a malfunctioning foot valve in a 195,000-gallon ground storage tank.

The effort involved replacing two foot valves in a 195,000-gallon storage tank through a confined space entry operation, ensuring continued access to clean water and emergency firefighting capabilities for the housing community.

“We caught the problem during a daily check,” said Edwin Salazar, 18 WFSM foreman. “We’ve seen this kind of failure before, so we knew to inspect the foot valves right away. Once confirmed, we put the area into bypass mode to keep water flowing.”

To maintain service in the interim, the team initiated a bypass system, rerouting water directly from the city supply to affected homes. While this provided a temporary solution, it also left the housing area vulnerable in the event of an external supply disruption.

“If the city shuts off the water during bypass mode, then housing loses access to all water,” said Munetaka Omine, 18 WFSM site supervisor.

The loss of water service not only disrupts essential daily functions such as hygiene and sanitation, but also removes the critical infrastructure needed for fire suppression.

Given the high stakes of the operation, the mission also became a valuable learning experience, particularly for newer Airmen who recently arrived at Kadena and had limited exposure to confined space procedures.

“This was a great hands-on learning experience for the newer guys,” said Senior Airman Noah Gleason, 18 WFMS technician. “Some of them had never seen a confined space operation before, so being there, helping with tools, observing the process, and understanding how each role fits into the bigger system was huge. You don’t get that kind of experience from just reading a manual.”

Conducting operations in a confined space requires extensive coordination with several base agencies to ensure safety and compliance.

“Since it’s a confined space, we have to follow the master entry plan, which we create in advance with agencies like safety, fire, and bio-environmental,” said Salazar. “It ensures everyone’s on the same page before we start the operation.”

With the tank fully operational and water service restored, the mission marked more than just a technical success—it reflected successful collaboration between Airmen and their local counterparts and demonstrated the importance the 18th Wing places on caring for Airmen and their families.

“I’m very proud of the work we did, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to help the families who live there,” said Omine.