Editorial: Navy’s water woes continue at Red Hill

It has been two long months since residents connected to the Navy’s water distribution system detected the smell of petroleum in their tap water. Two months since residents have been sickened, families displaced, millions of gallons of fresh water flushed away, millions of dollars spent.

But the fallout from this catastrophe extends well beyond Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam and the military’s jurisdiction.

The Navy’s inability to safely operate its Red Hill fuel storage facility — and to provide timely, accurate and complete information about its efforts to contain multiple dangerous leaks — have forced local and state officials to act on their own.

As a precaution, the Honolulu Board of Water Supply shut down three wells.

Public schools on the Navy’s system, already struggling with the disruption to their students’ education, diverted scarce funds to pay for bottled water and sanitizing supplies.

And the state Department of Health (DOH), confronted with an existential threat to the water supply of 400,000 Oahu residents, has devoted large amounts of time and public money toward trying to understand and address the problem.

Unfortunately, the Navy has made things harder than necessary by keeping Hawaii’s civilian authorities at arm’s length, with what resembles barely concealed disdain.

Until two months ago, the Navy had blithely assured public officials that it could operate Red Hill safely. Failing that, it provided conflicting information as to the extent of the problem. An earlier investigation into a May 6 spill concluded that all but 38 gallons of fuel has been recovered, a finding that now appears to be grossly inaccurate.

The Navy also tried to forestall a DOH emergency order requiring it to defuel the Red Hill tanks until proper repairs and procedures could be instituted. Failing that, the Navy hired a consultant to conduct an assessment of the tank system, apparently without the approval of DOH, which the order requires.

The Navy did complete a full report on the contamination crisis on Jan. 14 — but it did not provide DOH with a copy, and initially said that only a summary of the findings would be released to the public. It was only after a public outcry that the Navy said it would release the full report. But when? That was not disclosed.

When it does get the report, DOH “will get together with our partners to determine whether it is a document that fits with all of the information that we know of the facility at this time and we will make an evaluation from there,” said DOH Deputy Director Kathleen Ho.

In other words, when it comes to our own U.S. Navy, trust but verify. That’s a sad and disturbing turn of events. Our congressional delegation needs to ramp up pressure to get the Navy to work with the state as an equal partner — not a recalcitrant one.