A top Navy official said it is expected to take months to repair the pipeline system at Red Hill before millions of gallons of fuel stored in the underground tanks can be safely drained and the facility shut down.

Navy Rear Adm. Dean VanderLey, commander of Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Pacific, declined to be more specific about a timeline during an interview with the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s “Spotlight Hawaii” livestream. He said the focus is on preventing another accident once the defueling begins.

“We’re not trying to drag this out and it’s in nobody’s best interest, frankly, to drag this out,” said VanderLey. “We absolutely do want to do it quickly, but to do it safely and to really strike that right balance.”

VanderLey said there’s no indication that there are problems with the tanks, but that the distribution system, including the pipelines and valves, is in need of repairs.

“I hate to speculate too much,” VanderLey said of the infrastructure repairs. “It will be months and potentially … I wouldn’t want to speculate to how many months it will be.”

He noted that contracts need to be executed for the repairs.

The World War II-era facility includes 20 steel-lined tanks that were encased in concrete and carved into basalt rock. Each tank is roughly the height of an 18-story building and can hold up to 12.5 million gallons of fuel. The tanks are connected to three pipelines that run through an underground tunnel and lead to fueling piers at Pearl Harbor and Hickam Airfield.

Earlier this year, the Pentagon ordered that Red Hill be permanently closed after fuel from the facility polluted the Navy’s drinking water system in November.

A third-party assessment report, released by the Navy last month, found that there were more than 200 repairs that would be needed to safely operate the facility, including about three dozen that were critical to safely defuel the tanks.

The Navy stopped operations at Red Hill in late November amid the water contamination crisis.