Editorial: Strict oversight for Red Hill work

The landscape of Hawaii’s Red Hill contamination crisis certainly has changed for the better, but the clear view at this stage is of the road ahead, still very long and worrisome.

Some positive news came last week from the U.S. Department of Defense, which has accelerated the timetable for permanently shutting the Navy’s controversial underground fuel-storage facility, perched just 100 feet above Oahu’s water aquifer. The initial defueling plan, released June 30, projected that completion would take until the end of 2024.

But Oahu water customers found living with this ongoing risk for another 18 months completely unacceptable, after witnessing the effects of disastrous leakages from the system’s pipelines in May and November 2021, which fouled the water of thousands of largely military residents.

It’s clear that Defense officials heard the outcry and felt that pressure. Now, in a Sept. 7 supplemental plan, the new schedule has moved up the end date to July 2024, lopping five to six months off the time frame.

There are still a lot of hurdles to overcome, however, which means that citizens and the officials representing them on the front lines must keep up that pressure, seeing to it that they have a seat at the table as the plans progress.

To begin with: That table is the one at which a new Joint Task Force Red Hill will oversee the defueling process and “lead DoD’s engagement with the community on the defueling,” according to the supplemental plan.

As described in the June plan document, the task force will comprise “experts from the Department of the Navy, DLA (Defense Logistics Agency), and other components across DoD. These experts, drawn from the fields of construction, safety and spill response, engineering, and logistics, will work full-time on the defueling efforts and will report directly to the Commander, JTF Red Hill.

“The JTF Red Hill will also lead DoD’s interface with DOH and with the local community in Oahu.”

Right there is a critical problem. Representatives of the local community, such as the state Department of Health and the local representative of the Environmental Protection Agency — both of which have played central roles in this matter for the better part of a decade — shouldn’t have to wait for the “interfacing.”

It would be far more efficient if these representatives were embedded in the JTF core and process, and could be held accountable by the public to handle communications as openly as possible. Transparency is one crucial element that has been missing in discussions on the future of Red Hill dating back to the earlier spills in 2014, and it certainly must be provided now.

Further, both Hawaii U.S. Sens. Mazie Hirono and Brian Schatz have issued statements urging the assembly of the task force as soon as possible. Hirono, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, rightly advocates particular care be taken in the appointment of JTF’s commander.

“This commander should be a leader who is committed to transparency, collaboration and garnering community trust to get the job done,” Hirono said in prepared remarks.

Indeed, to secure that trust, the oversight of the process demands someone whose objectivity is not compromised by earlier association with some of the blunders that have come to light in recent weeks.

Most recently, Navy spokesmen told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser more than a week ago that most of the samples taken from the Navy homes affected by last year’s fuel contamination were not even tested to identify the chemical contaminants. The samples have all since been disposed.

It is hard to trust any agent of the government that sets the bar for an acceptable safety review as low as that.

The Navy also initially contested the state Health Department’s emergency order but eventually bowed to forces pushing back on all sides. It came from the top brass of the DoD and congressional leadership, pressure that was powered by failed handling of the water emergency and the deteriorating public relations surrounding it.

The command position above all requires someone able to overcome the inertia that has plagued the management of this crisis from the start. Don’t forget: Ever since the start, when a 2014 spill led to an agreement by the Navy, state Health Department and EPA to assess the need for fuel-storage improvements, the Navy insisted that the Red Hill system could operate safely for many years without major upgrades. Tragically, that turned out not to be the case.

The Navy needs to deliver a promised third installment in the defueling plan, with further details about the process of safely emptying the fuel lines of some 1 million gallons.

Without a doubt, draining the full storage-tank complex of its 104 million gallons of fuel will be complex, with changes in the timetable possible for safety precautions.

But defense officials also have said they are looking for additional ways to move more briskly, which is also of crucial public interest. The way forward must be cleared of unnecessary delays. Jet fuel and water — especially drinking water — don’t mix.