Editorial: Navy’s ineptness put Oahu at risk

After all the jarring disclosures that have come to light over the course of the Navy’s water contamination crisis, there was still more startling news for Oahu’s angry and worried public, unveiled right before a long holiday weekend.

And these facts were truly shocking: The finally-disclosed contents of the Navy’s investigation of the Red Hill fuel storage facility uncovered the incompetent handling of two separate 2021 incidents in May and November that fouled Oahu’s underground water aquifer.

Just skimming from the report shows how stunningly inept the work had been. The investigation found that about 5,542 gallons of fuel ultimately flowed from the tanks into the environment. The November release, much larger than what was initially disclosed, was not contained for 30 hours, eventually manifesting in illness and burns among the residents who consumed or handled the foul water.

The errors, and the lack of due diligence underlying them, must now be corrected in a defueling process that respects the public- health interest, which is removing the fuel as promptly as the Navy can safely manage it. That means: It could and should be done well before the end-of-2024 due date that’s been penciled in.

The reaction from officials at local and federal levels make it clear that the Navy’s defueling plan, also released on Thursday, is not all it should be.

There was justifiable annoyance from environmental advocates that these documents initially had been embargoed — distributed Thursday but barred from full public release until 1 a.m. Friday. Targeting the announcement for a less noticeable time slot is not the hallmark of a newly promised policy of transparency.

In the end, it was released appropriately, Thursday afternoon, and Navy officials did promise a top-tier task force would be formed to work with the state on defueling the tanks, perched just above Oahu’s principal aquifer.

But that wasn’t the end of the criticism, delivered pointedly on Friday by Ernest Lau, chief engineer and manager of the Honolulu Board of Water Supply. Lau called the Navy’s plan “alarmingly devoid of detail,” lacking information on the scope, budget and schedule for the defueling.

That is indeed a concern, as is the worry that the Navy simply wants too much time to accomplish the work.

Also on Friday morning, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s “Spotlight Hawaii” webcast gave a platform to two more outspoken, long-term observers of the controversy dating back to 2014. One was David Henkin, senior attorney for Earthjustice, who said flatly that the Navy had laid out “a very leisurely timeline.”

The public, he rightly asserted, needs to insist on a “better information flow” — which, in contrast to the fuel leaks themselves, has been a mere trickle.

Henkin and fellow “Spotlight” guest, Wayne Tanaka, director of Sierra Club of Hawaii, have been tracking the case since the problems of the 20-tank storage facility first came to light. Tanaka pointed out that a Navy promise years ago to provide a model on how contaminants would flow in the aquifer never has been delivered. That is why this spill has created a deep sense of unease.

“We’re kind of shooting in the dark, in terms of understanding where this contamination is,” he said.

Eight years ago, a 27,000-gallon leak from the tanks caused an enormous public uproar, which quieted over the following years. Protracted negotiations on adequately managing the risk of an aging facility followed, with permits ultimately being issued and a supervisory agreement forged among local and federal authorities.

One of those authorities, the state Department of Health, was given oversight in the defueling, once the Navy’s management failure became evident from the disastrous water contamination.

Here are a few bullet points from the Navy’s investigation into the 2021 spills:

>> On May 6, 2021, an explosion during a fuel transfer caused fuel to flow into a tunnel. An inquiry released to the public in October estimated that about 1,600 gallons had been released, and all but 38 gallons had been recovered. That was nowhere near the truth, which the Navy surely realized, given that no one had accounted for a recorded 20,000-gallon drop in volume from the incident.

>> The fuel had been drawn into a fire suppression pipeline that ruptured Nov. 20, when it was hit by a cart for passengers and equipment. That’s how the fuel ended up in the Red Hill shaft supplying the Navy’s drinking-water system.

>> Top Navy officials did not act quickly enough to relay the seriousness of the situation. When the fuel odor in the water was reported, the well was shut down but the public was not informed.

That is among the most galling aspects of the entire calamity: the lack of care for the potential effect on the public at large.

Adm. Samuel J. Paparo, commander of U.S. Pacific Fleet, said Thursday that the Navy would “act with a sense of urgency to safely and efficiently defuel.”

Welcome words must be matched with actions. The public and its unwavering leaders must not let that promise slide.