Navy secretary in Hawaii to observe RIMPAC

U.S. Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro is in Hawaii this week to observe Rim of the Pacific exercises as the first step of a multinational tour of the Pacific.

The visit comes after the state Department of Health announced last week that it has rejected the Navy’s plan to defuel its underground Red Hill fuel storage facility, which was the source of a November fuel leak that contaminated the Navy’s water system, which serves 93,000 people.

Del Toro said Red Hill is not on the agenda for this trip and that there are no plans to meet any state officials.

“Right now I don’t have plans because I’m completely consumed with RIMPAC, but my staff and myself are working on these issues,” Del Toro said at an early evening news conference Sunday after returning from observing training maneuvers.

“I look forward to working with the Department of Health and all other agencies as well to try to ensure that we resolve any questions that they may have, so that eventually we can get to a fuelling plan that makes sense for everyone and safely allows us to defuel Red Hill, which is our most important objective,” said Del Toro.

After leaving Hawaii, Del Toro will make stops in Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines to meet officials. Last week was the sixth anniversary of an international court ruling in favor of the Philippines against China over maritime territorial disputes.

China considers nearly the entire South China Sea to fall within the “nine-dash line,” a maritime border that Beijing says gives it sovereignty over the entire sea. The international ruling found China’s claims to have “no legal basis.” But Beijing has doubled down, building military bases on disputed land formations and building artificial islands to assert its claims.

The South China Sea is one of the world’s busiest waterways, with more than a third of all international trade traveling through.

“There are nations in the world that would have one believe that their sovereign territories extend well beyond the established rules and norms,” said Del Toro. “They aim to misrepresent our lawful U.S. maritime operations, such as USS Benfold’s recent freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea.”

Del Toro said that it’s in America’s interest to maintain open seas for the benefit of all seafaring countries and ensure that it’s done so peacefully. However, he said that exercises like RIMPAC are critical in case conflict does break out.

“Our responsibility as part of the Navy is to obviously be ready to deter any adversary — China or otherwise,” said Del Toro. “That’s our responsibility. So therefore, we have to train, we have to have ships that are properly maintained (and) we have to have exercises like RIMPAC that bring our allies and partners together so that we can exercise every possibility so that if conflict were to come, we are fully prepared to meet that threat.”

However, the shipyards that maintain U.S. ships have fallen into disrepair, and there is a maintenance backlog for the Navy’s ships and subs, which have been conducting constant operations worldwide.

The U.S. Pacific Fleet’s recently released internal investigation of the Red Hill fuel spill laid out a long pattern of neglect of the facility that stored the Navy’s strategic fuel reserve in the Pacific. In March, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered the permanent closure of Red Hill and the redistribution of fuel to other storage locations and to tanker ships.

Regional operations demand millions of gallons of fuel. As China and the United States compete for influence in the Pacific, many island nations consider climate change and rising sea levels to be their greatest threat. But Del Toro pointed to a trip he made last to Fiji as an example of how the U.S. Navy is committing itself to tackling climate change.

“We’re actually bringing technology to bear, and the Department of Navy from the Office of Naval Research to try to work with the Fiji navy is just one small example,” said Del Toro. “These are things that we have to do with countries across the world. … Climate change is a real threat, it is an existential threat, and we need to completely devote ourselves to trying to do everything we can to help that cause.”

Del Toro insisted that environmental stewardship is a top priority.

“We serve on these wonderful bases we serve here in Hawaii, for example. And we want to be good stewards of the environment in every possible way,” he said. “I promise that we will strive moving forward to protect the environment, to protect the land, to protect the air, protect the water here in Hawaii and anywhere else across the United States where we have an installation.”

The Pacific Fleet report found numerous leadership failings at Red Hill that led to the spill, but no Navy official has been formally reprimanded over any aspect of the water crisis.

Capt. Erik Spitzer, the former commander of Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam who told residents the water was safe to drink, only later to apologize, was awarded the Legion of Merit when he retired in June. His award citation praised his conduct during the Red Hill leak and asserted his role led to the “expeditious restoration of clean water.”

The Navy also announced Capt. James “Gordie” Meyer, the officer who oversaw Navy Facilities Engineering Command Hawaii until June and was heavily criticized in the report, will stay in Hawaii and play a key role in defueling operations.

“I feel very confident that the Navy is doing exactly what the Navy needs to do, and these are the lessons that we learned from every unfortunate incident … so that we can actually make the Navy and Marine Corps that much stronger, learn from our lessons and make the world a better and safer place to live,” said Del Toro.