Underestimate but overdeliver — that’s a good thing, especially if it pertains to the defueling of the massive tanks at the problematic Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility.

On Friday, a major milestone was reached: completion of gravity draining of the tank mains, marking the safe removal of 103,458,180 gallons of fuel — 99.5% of what was stored at Red Hill. The tanks — each with a capacity of 12.5 million gallons — have now been emptied to the seven-foot level, which leaves last-stage draining in the “flowable tank bottoms,” reports Joint Task Force-Red Hill (JTF-RH), which has overseen the successful operation.

It’s good news that the fraught mission that began Oct. 16 was done with no incidents that harmed workers or the environment. A total of three gallons spilled in two separate leaks that were quickly remedied, with no threat to the aquifer that is a mere 100 feet below the tanks. And with defueling thus far ahead of schedule, JTF-RH is consulting with regulatory overseers, the Environmental Protection Agency and Hawaii Department of Health, to possibly accelerate the overall timeline — so draining of the flowable tank bottoms can begin Dec. 4. The myriad equipment repairs, meticulous planning and operational drills by JTF-RH have paid off — and there’s relief at nearing the end of this turbulent environmental chapter for Oahu.

But this sets up the next big stage: transitioning the facility to the Navy Closure Task Force-Red Hill (NCTF-RH), for the tanks’ actual shutdown and future disposition. And this is where things could get perilous, again. A change in authority will bring a shift in Navy stewardship and care.

JTF-RH, under the command of Vice Adm. John Wade, has worked with Oahu on a needed level of parity, openness and respect. It’s a rarefied level of community engagement that had been missing for decades in Hawaii-military relations — but must now be adopted as the ongoing norm, if the U.S. military has any hope of regaining trust and credibility after the Red Hill contamination that jeopardized a major Oahu water source. In 2021, at least two fuel leaks culminated with a November disaster that polluted the water system of 93,000 Hickam-Pearl Harbor users, sickening hundreds and temporarily displacing thousands.

Multiple lawsuits have been filed — including one on Nov. 9 by military-service plaintiffs over the military’s negligence. Good. That case challenges a longstanding legal rule, called the Feres Doctrine, that has historically protected the federal government from liability when it comes to injury claims by service members.

In an earlier lawsuit brought by families sickened by the tainted water, text messages entered into the federal court record last Thursday showed top Navy leaders apparently downplaying the scope of the two 2021 fuel leaks and hiding internal alarms over groundwater quality in June 2021.

Starting early next year, the transition from JTF-RH to NCTF-RH will have the two task forces taking a “left-seat, right-seat” approach: JTF-RH in the lead and NCTF-RH in support, until JTF-RH completes removal of some 60,000 gallons of residual fuel through nondestructive means, estimated for March 2024 completion.

Then NCTF-RH assumes full responsibility: to remove residual fuel via destructive means (about 4,000 gallons), remove pipelines and about 28,000 gallons of sludge at the tanks’ bottoms. This Navy task force will oversee the facility’s permanent closure — and what that looks like still must be determined.

Frankly, this brings concerns over continuity, and trepidation. After all, it was the Navy’s repeated lies about the Red Hill facility’s structural soundness that enabled the 2021 fuel-water contamination. The new NCTF-RH, headed by Adm. Stephen Barnett, will need to employ the same level of transparency, meticulousness to detail and community respect shown by JTF-RH under Wade.

Hawaii can neither withstand, nor abide, further arrogance or whitewashing by the military, whether it be over Red Hill or other environmental disaster. Trust remains huge, and the military must do right by Hawaii’s people.