Coming clean

State Department of Transportation workers saw molasses leaking from a faulty pipe under Pier 51 on two occasions prior to the spill that sent 233,000 gallons of the sticky liquid into Hono­lulu Harbor and Keehi Lagoon last week, causing an alarming kill-off of fish and coral.

Leaks were spotted in July 2012 and May of this year — and while Matson Navigation Co. was notified about the 2012 leak, there was no such notification to the shipping company in May, DOT Deputy Director Randy Grune said Friday in a news conference.

"There was no correspondence to Matson informing them of the situation" in May, Grune said. "We had a breakdown in our procedures and practices; that’s what we need to work on and improve on."

Before Friday neither the state nor Matson had disclosed to the public there had been prior leaks, despite requests for information from the Star-Advertiser and other media.

In a letter released by DOT dated July 31, 2012, the state notified Matson that on July 17, 2012, "a steady drip of molasses was observed from a hole at the elbow of the pipeline" under Pier 51-B between the 900- and 950-foot markers — the same pipe that leaked the 233,000 gallons last week.

"Matson did receive that letter and we responded," said Vic Angoco, Matson’s senior vice president for Pacific operations.

"We sent a crew out there to (inspect) on two different occasions, high tide, low tide … to observe if there was any molasses leaking, as well as whether there was anything in the water," Angoco said.

The shipping company contacted the state to make sure it was looking in the right spot, he said. "(On) both occasions we did not observe any molasses dripping from the pipe nor any molasses in the surrounding area."

State workers happened upon the leaky pipe while inspecting the harbor for stormwater runoff, Grune said.

The letter stated: "Please be aware that what was observed may be violations of the Hawaii Revised Statutes … which states that ‘no person, including any public body, shall discharge any water pollutant into state waters, or cause or allow any water pollutant to enter state water.’ … Please keep our Harbors Division Oahu District informed when you undertake repairs to the molasses pipeline."

The Star-Advertiser first asked a DOT spokes­woman on Sept. 12 to confirm whether inspectors in May had seen molasses leaking from a pipe, but the agency did not respond.

Grune said the DOT did not disclose there was a 2012 letter sent to Matson because he at first thought it might be protected by attorney-client privilege.

"Since then we’ve understood that it is not, and that’s why we’re revealing it today," he said. "We were reviewing all of our information and communication in that early process, early part of the response, and at that point in time I thought any kind of correspondence may be attorney-client privilege information. … A day or two later we became sure about it, and that’s why we’re revealing it today."

Grune said he could not provide a date as to when he became aware that the letter was clear for release. "I think it was a couple days ago," he said.

Matson reiterated Friday that it did not have a spill plan in place for molasses because molasses is not a regulated substance. The company maintains it will take care of all costs related to the cleanup and not resume shipping molasses until it can be sure a spill won’t happen again.

Discharging a pollutant into state waters may be a violation of the Clean Water Act with possible fines of up to $25,000 a day.

On Sept. 9, harbor workers reported an unusual substance in the water that was later identified as 1,400 tons of molasses that had seeped from the faulty pipe.

Angoco did not answer queries Sept. 12 regarding when the pipe had last been inspected, saying the investigation into what exactly caused the leak had to take its course before many questions could be answered.

Also on Sept. 12, Matson spokes­man Jeff Hull said the he did not have information on when the pipe had last been inspected, and he did not know when those details would be available.

Meanwhile, after more than a week of testing, state officials confirmed Friday that the water no longer has a brownish tint and that oxygen levels have returned to normal in all of the state’s 15 test sites in the harbor, lagoon and two contributing streams.

The Department of Land and Natural Resources plans to reopen Keehi Lagoon to commercial activity today, and the Coast Guard announced that it will shut down the incident command center set up on Sand Island Access Road earlier this week.

Gary Gill, deputy director of the state Department of Health, who recently returned from a conference of state environmental leaders in Washington, D.C., said the disaster will likely spur state and national conversations regarding how to regulate currently unregulated substances.

"I think with the worldwide press that’s come from this event, certainly we can anticipate a nationwide review of this kind of food handling infrastructure and whether any kind of state or federal regulation on top of what we currently have is required," he said.