UPDATE: 1:20 p.m.

Water samples taken from the Navy’s Red Hill shaft on Dec. 5 contained total petroleum hydrocarbons associated with diesel fuel that were 350 times above levels that the state considers safe, according to a news release from the Hawaii Department of Health today.

DOH says that the Red Hill shaft samples also tested positive for gasoline range organics at levels that were more than 66 times the state’s “environmental action level.”

DOH says the samples were analyzed by Eurofins Laboratory in California. The lab found 140,000 parts per billion of total petroleum hydrocarbons that are associated with diesel (TPH-d). The DOH’s environmental action level for for TPH-d is 400 ppb.

The lab found total petroleum hydrocarbons gasoline range organics (TPH-g) at 20,000 ppb, according to DOH. The EAL for TPH-g is 300 ppb.

>> RELATED: Hawaii State Legislature holds briefing on Red Hill water crisis

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Halawa shaft could be shut down for years, even permanently, amid water contamination crisis, BWS’ Lau says

It could be years before the Honolulu Board of Water Supply is able to resume use of its Halawa shaft, which has typically provided about 20% of the water for neighborhoods stretching from Moanalua to Hawaii Kai, said Ernie Lau, manager and chief engineer for the Honolulu Board of Water Supply. And that’s if use of the shaft can be resumed at all.

“Right now, just being very honest with you on this thing, the contamination levels – and we will hopefully get more data about how badly Red Hill shaft is contaminated – but if the contamination levels are extremely high, we will probably not be able to turn Halawa shaft on maybe for years, maybe not ever,” Lau told the Star-Advertiser’s Spotlight Hawaii today.

Lau said that the Board of Water Supply, which provides water to the majority of residents and businesses on Oahu, can’t risk drawing fuel contamination into its Halawa shaft.

The Board of Water Supply shut down its Halawa shaft last week amid reports of potential petroleum contamination within the Navy’s water system. The Navy subsequently confirmed that its Red Hill shaft was indeed contaminated with petroleum, likely from jet fuel.

The Red Hill shaft and Halawa shaft draw water from the same aquifer system. The Board of Water Supply is worried that the contamination around the Red Hill shaft will migrate to its Halawa shaft, which is about a mile away. The risk of that happening increased once the Navy shut down its Red Hill shaft, said Lau.

“Picture a glass of water, but also put a very clean sponge in it. And that clean sponge, with all the voids and holes in the sponge, represents the lava rock,” said Lau. “And truly our underground aquifer is actually fresh water in the cracks and crevices of the lava rock.”

The Navy’s Red Hill shaft and the Board of Water Supply’s Halawa shaft are like two straws pulling from that same glass.

“There is fuel leaking into the glass of water, into that sponge, and if we continue to suck out of that sponge, eventually we are going to pull it through the sponge, across the glass and pump it into our system,” said Lau.

Lau said that the contamination around the Navy’s Red Hill shaft could migrate into the Board of Water Supply’s Halawa shaft in about six months to a year if the Navy isn’t pumping and the Board of Water Supply is.

Those concerns increased this week when the Navy said that it had detected high levels of diesel fuel in a water sample collected at its Aiea-Halawa well. But Navy officials later said that the contamination came from an unused segment of the distribution system and that the well does not have detectable levels of petroleum, prompting confusion.

Lau said that tests of its Halawa shaft have so far come up clean and that the Board of Water Supply’s drinking water system, which is separate from the Navy’s, remains safe to drink and use.

The Board of Water Supply has been urging residents to conserve water in light of the shutdown of its Halawa shaft. Lau said that water demand could increase in the summer months, requiring mandatory conservation efforts to ensure that water demand and supply remain balanced.

Lau said that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which along with the Hawaii Department of Health has regulatory authority over the Navy’s Red Hill tanks and safe drinking water, should be more visible in the unfolding water crisis.

“I think the EPA needs to be a lot more active and visible in the discussions,” said Lau.

The EPA, DOH and Navy have been working together since 2015 when they entered into an administrative order of consent after the Navy disclosed that 27,000 gallons of fuel had leaked from its Red Hill fuel farm in 2014. The consent order was supposed to address and prevent the current situation the Navy and Oahu are in now, noted Lau.

Hundreds of military families around Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam have been evacuated from their homes into hotels as they’ve reported fuel-like odors coming from their faucets and health effects, including skin rashes, nausea and diarrhea.

The DOH ordered the Navy this week to clean up the petroleum contamination at Red Hill, address deficiencies within its fueling system and drain all of its 20 massive underground fuel tanks, before seeking state permission to resume Red Hill fuel operations. But the Navy indicated this week that it intends to contest the order. In particular, the Navy has not committed to draining its tanks.

Lau, who has been raising the alarm for eight years about the risk that the Red Hill fuel facility poses to Oahu’s drinking water, took issue with the Navy’s response.

“How dare they challenge the Director of Health’s emergency order, which has been issued to protect the health and safety and the environment for our community,” said Lau.

Lau said he was “deeply saddened” by the current water contamination crisis.

“This is a tragedy, what we are experiencing right now,” said Lau. “It’s a disaster and it was completely avoidable if action had been taken earlier.”

Lau said the Navy’s own reports and data over the years made clear the risks its Red Hill fuel facility posed to the groundwater, making the current water contamination crisis all the more frustrating.

“I can’t just go in my bed and pull up the covers,” said Lau. “We have to do something.”