The state Department of Health is asking a state judge to dismiss a lawsuit by the Sierra Club, seeking quick upgrades to underground tanks at Red Hill that have leaked jet fuel near an Oahu aquifer.

The Department of Health said it is in the process of amending current administrative rules regarding the regulation of underground storage tanks. The department included in its request a schedule for enacting new rules, which calls for a public hearing next June, approval by the governor next September and effective date next October.

Circuit Judge Jeffrey Crabtree said he will decide on the state’s request by late next month.

The Sierra Club sued the DOH and department Director Virginia Pressler last month for failing to enact rules to require owners of underground storage tanks to perform upgrades to prevent releases of hazardous substances. The focus of the lawsuit is the U.S. Navy’s Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility, which leaked about 27,000 gallons of jet fuel into the ground in January 2014 and had periodic spills before then.

Current administrative rules do not apply to the Red Hill storage tanks because the rules exempt “tank systems located on military installations owned and operated by the United States Department of Defense.”

Sierra Club of Hawaii Director Marti Townsend said according to reports to the Legislature following the discovery of the 2014 Red Hill spill, there are at least 33 underground storage tanks in the state that are exempt from state administrative rules.

“The Red Hill tanks pose the greatest risk because they’re 100 feet above the primary aquifer for Oahu serving 400,000 residents,” she said.

Deputy Attorney General Wade H. Hargrove III said the new rules will not exempt the Red Hill tanks.

Townsend said a year is too long a wait for new rules.

The Sierra Club is also suing the DOH for failing its public trust responsibility to protect the island’s waters.

Hargrove told Crabtree at a Tuesday court hearing that the state is performing its public trust responsibility. Hargrove said the Sierra Club just disagrees with the outcome of the state’s efforts.