Navy removes officer over handling of latest Red Hill spill

The Navy officer who oversaw operations at the Red Hill fuel storage facility was relieved of duty Monday after another fuel leak.

The action to remove Capt. Albert Hornyak as head of the Naval Supply Systems Command Fleet Logistics Center Pearl Harbor was due to “a loss of confidence in his ability to perform his duties following a series of leadership and oversight failures at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility,” according to a Navy news release.

The service is moving toward shutting down the facility, which was determined to be the source of jet fuel contamination of the Navy’s water system, which serves 93,000 people on Oahu. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced in March that he had ordered the Navy to permanently shut down the underground fuel facility, whose large subterranean tanks lie above a critical aquifer that provides the majority of Honolulu’s fresh water.

On Friday the Navy announced it was “investigating a release of no more than 30 gallons of a water and fuel mixture in the vicinity of tanks 13 and 14 in the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility” during routine maintenance to flush water out of holding tanks.

But in a separate email to Hawaii lawmakers, a Pacific Fleet official said 50 gallons of a fuel oil mixture was spilled “and subsequently collected in absorbent material on site.” When asked for an explanation of the differing numbers, Navy officials did not respond.

Rear Adm. Kristin Acquavella, another Naval Supply Systems Command officer, has been temporarily assigned as commanding officer while a formal replacement is identified.

When asked for additional details on the decision to relieve Hornyak, Naval Supply Systems Command spokesperson Richard Spiegel told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Tuesday that “Capt. Hornyak’s relief was specifically due to lack of procedural compliance during a recent dewatering event inside of Red Hill and not due to any previous incidents.”

“There are so many unanswered questions,” said Wayne Tanaka, director of the Sierra Club’s Hawaii chapter. “Was the supposed 30-gallon leak leading up to this announcement worse than they’ve let on, and will they let the public see the video footage and reports from that incident — assuming that their cameras are back online?”

“Who else will they hold accountable, if anyone, given the months and years of lies, false assurances, broken promises, and fuel leaks — including several releases in 2020 and 2021 — before Hornyak was even in his most recent leadership position?” Tanaka added.

Hornyak took command in August, after a pipe leaked in May. Within months he began raising concerns about the condition of the Red Hill facility’s pipelines.

In an Oct. 3 email Hornyak sent to other top Navy officials, a copy of which was obtained by the Star-Advertiser in November, he said that a visual inspection of three pipelines leading into an underground pumphouse found a “sagging pressure condition” similar to the conditions that led to the May 6 leak.

Hornyak told Navy leaders that operations would be paused “until the root cause creating the sagging conditions is determined,” and wrote that his team was going “line by line” through data to check whether the operation order for transfers was adhered to and whether “additional out of balance situations have occurred.”

“Additionally, based on the May 6th event as well as this most recent event, I believe there are multiple valves in the Red Hill pipeline system (that) are potentially leaking,” the email said.

Publicly, Hornyak said the May spill was the result of operator error, telling the Star-Advertiser in October that “had the control room operator followed the procedures outlined in the operations order, this situation would not have occurred.” The concerns he shared with Navy leaders about the pipelines do not appear to have been passed on to state officials.

In November a pipe in the Red Hill facility’s fire suppression system burst, releasing a mixture of jet fuel and water that Navy officials think entered the Red Hill water well and then made its way into the drinking water system. Service members and their families at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam and surrounding areas, as well as civilians living in former military housing such as Kapilina Beach Homes, have reported illnesses from exposure to contaminated tap water.

“It seems that Capt. Hor­nyak is the fall guy for command failures and negligence that go much higher up the chain of command,” said Kyle Kajihiro of Hawaii Peace and Justice, one of several activist groups that have fought for Red Hill’s permanent closure.

“The (Department of Defense) must release the investigation reports in full and hold accountable all parties who ignored the warnings and pleas to shut down Red Hill and allowed this disaster to happen, as well as those who failed to respond to the public health crisis with sufficient care and urgency.”

In December the Pacific Fleet launched an investigation that sought to determine, among other things, whether there was any link between the spills in May and November. That report was submitted Jan. 14 to Pacific Fleet Commander Adm. Samuel Paparo and forwarded to the Pentagon.

Though officials have pledged to release the report, Navy brass in March appointed another officer to conduct a “supplementary investigation” after determining that “the initial command investigation, while sound in many respects, did not include a sufficient review of actions the Navy took in response to the May and November releases.”

While the report has not been released, in testimony to state and federal lawmakers, Navy officials have said they now think the fuel from the May spill made its way into a lower tunnel where it was pumped into a pipeline that is part of the facility’s fire suppression system. From there it made its way into a pipe that burst in November and spilled into a drain used to release rainfall back into the environment.