A federal judge awarded 17 families more than $680,000 in total, saying they got sick from a 2021 jet fuel leak to enter Hawaii's Navy drinking water system. The waist case sets the legal tone for another 7,500 military family members, civilians and service members, and their lawsuits are still awaiting a resolution.

U.S. District Judge Leslie Kobayashi ruled the ruling Wednesday, awarding more than $104,000 to each plaintiff from $5,000. Kobayashi wrote under her order that even though contaminated water may cause many medical problems encountered by military families, there is not enough evidence to prove direct contact.

The amount awarded to each plaintiff is significantly less than the approximately $225,000 to $1.25 million requested by one of his attorneys Kristina Baehr in a two-week trial in the federal court in Honolulu.

As waist plaintiffs, 17 were chosen because they were seen as representatives of thousands of others who were still hearing the case.

Baehr called the damage award disappointing, but the families “violated all difficulties targeting the U.S. government.”

"These families can be proud of their helping the world prove what happened when the Navy poisoned water supplies near Pearl Harbor and bored many people," Bell said in a press release. "The court dismissed the government's argument that our thousands of customers were just psychological and didn't have enough fuel to make anyone sick."

Bell said the legal team is reviewing options to resolve remaining cases.

The government acknowledged responsibility for the leak before the trial began, but its attorneys made the plaintiff’s exposure to enough jet fuel to cause vomiting, rashes and other so-called negative health effects.

The leak occurred at the Hongshan Bulk Fuel Storage Facilities, a huge installation built in the early 1940s for aircraft and ships to cross the Pacific Ocean. The installation consists of a series of giant tanks, each about the height of a 25-story building capable of housing 12.5 million gallons - hidden inside the cave, the military excavated from a ridge above Pearl Harbor.

Below it is an aquifer equipped with a well that provides drinking water for the Navy and the city of Honolulu.

In May 2021, a broken pipe spilled over 20,000 gallons of fuel into the fire suppression line. It wasn't overlooked on the sag line for six months until the cart hit the line, releasing the trapped fuel. During Thanksgiving, most of the fuel flowed into drains and drinking water wells, providing 90,000 people at the Pearl Harbor-Hekham United Base.

A report released the following year found that military officials failed to immediately notify the state Department of Health, the Navy missed four separate opportunities to activate emergency response plans to deal with water pollution, and the Navy told residents that residents were safe to determine that drinking water was safe without any laboratory analysis.

Within the week of the leak, military families began complaining about health problems, including skin peeling, stomach pain, vomiting and diarrhea.

The plaintiffs said they had ongoing health problems, including seizures, asthma, eczema and vestibular dysfunction.

The leak sparked outcry from lawmakers, environmental groups and residents, while the military finally agreed to empty the tanks and shut down the facilities. The tank was drained last year.