The historic, permanent draining of the military’s World War II-era fuel tanks at Red Hill is set to begin this morning — a perilous but vital operation that must succeed for the good, health and safety of Oahu’s people and environment.

About 104 million gallons of jet fuel will be emptied, over the next three months, from the 20-tank underground facility that sits just 100 feet above Oahu’s major aquifer. After months of painstaking planning and operational drills, Joint Task Force-Red Hill (JTF-RH) today embarks on a mission that affords little margin for error. The milestone operation also rests on the shoulders of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Hawaii Department of Health, the two agencies that signed off on JTF-RH’s complex defueling strategy, and they must be hypervigilant in overseeing every step of the process.

In meeting with the Star-Advertiser’s editorial board last week, JTF-RH leader Vice Adm. John Wade sought to reassure by outlining the exhaustive planning and mission rehearsals undertaken — and underscored the imperative to remain focused and for “no complacency” among task members. But it is the “unknowable unknowns,” he acknowledged, that keep him up at night.

The community, too, must adopt that heightened sense of alert throughout the defueling process. Wade continues to pledge transparency and ongoing community relations, as he should, and it will be critical that any mishaps be promptly shared with the public.

Over the next several months of defueling, the fervent hope is that no fuel is spilled that will contaminate the precious aquifer, and that preparations have eliminated any chance of fire or other disaster that would endanger lives. To that end, JTF-RH’s defueling plan includes:

>> Roving security and fire watch teams to provide 24/7 monitoring in the facility, in conjunction with the existing sprinkler system, portable firefighting equipment and a Federal Fire Department crew positioned at Red Hill 24/7, to respond within five minutes of any reported emergency.

>> Procedures for emergency evacuation of tunnels in the facility.

>> Video cameras, which were not working in the Red Hill facility during the disastrous 2021 fuel spills, are now operational.

Also important for the protection of health and environment will be stringent monitoring of soil vapor content and air quality, as the 104 million gallons of fuel course through the 80-year-old system. The fuel will go to sites at Campbell Industrial Park, San Diego, Subic Bay and Singapore — and will enhance flexibility and adaptability for the military’s Indo-Pacific operations.

All that exhibits a high level of care, meticulousness and seriousness over Red Hill that had been woefully absent for decades. Over many years, dismissive Navy and other military leaders treated residents’ valid concerns about fuel leaks as a public relations problem and nuisance, rather than as the environmental danger it really was. They allowed the facility to hobble along despite major needed repairs — at least 253 were made for safety, in fact, before today’s defueling could even begin. Worse of all, the military repeatedly lied to Hawaii’s people with assurances that the Red Hill operation was safe, even good to go through 2045, when it clearly was not.

Today, defueling will be the first of three major phases marking the beginning of the end for the deteriorating facility — which in 2021 catastrophically spewed fuel that contaminated the water system of 93,000 people living and working in the Pearl Harbor-Hickam area, sickening hundreds. After JTF-RH’s defueling will come Navy responsibility to permanently shut the facility, then for environmental remediation.

A successful defueling, followed by Red Hill’s permanent closure, will go a long way toward relieving the threat of fuel-leaked water contamination. But the depth of mistrust sown by the military, culminated by the 2021 water crisis? Remedying that will take much, much longer — and only if a lessons-learned military can show good faith and true transparency long after defueling is done.