“The Navy accepts responsibility for what happened,” said Admiral Samuel Paparo, commander of the U.S. Navy in the Pacific, in a press conference Thursday.
The management inquiry did not make any recommendations for individual disciplinary or administrative action. These decisions will come from a separate consolidated deployment authority led by Admiral Daryl Caudle, the commander of the U.S. Navy.
“The consolidated disposal authority will review the evidence and make an independent accountability decision under the Single Code of Military Justice,” Paparo said. It did not provide a timetable for decisions on any disciplinary or administrative action.
On May 6, 2021, the plant’s operators improperly started transporting fuel that caused an increase in pressure inside the system, the Navy command investigation found. The rapid accumulation of pressure destroyed two piping joints and led to a fuel leak. But the facility and its commanders did not realize or report the extent of the leak, believing it was only about 1,580 gallons.
In fact, about 20,000 gallons were spilled, the vast majority of which leaked into a fuel suppression system passing through a tunnel system, the study found. The system retaining lines held the fuel for six months and its weight caused the PVC pipes to loosen.
On November 20, 2021, a small underground trolley on a facility train hit a valve on damaged PVC pipes, causing fuel in the lines to be postponed. But emergency correspondents were initially informed that the liquid was a mixture of fuel and water, not just fuel, the Navy found.
For days, local Navy officials believed there was no threat to the environment, telling their commanders there was no danger to groundwater and no risk of environmental pollution, the Navy said, insisting fuel could not penetrate concrete tunnel or the 100 foot rock that separates the tunnel from the aquifer.
One week after the leak, the facility received its first complaint about the smell of fuel in the water from a neighboring resident. The next day, the facility received 37 additional calls with complaints about fuel in the water. The number of calls would quickly reach hundreds.
On November 28, the Navy closed Red Hill after reports that people living at their base suffered from nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, headaches and skin problems. The tests revealed hydrocarbons and oil vapors in the water, the Navy said at the time.
In the command investigation, the Navy found that the reactions to the May and November leaks were inadequate and that proper training and exercises after the initial leak could have identified the danger to the well.
“Ultimately, both leak reactions were wrong because they concluded that a significant amount of fuel remained unaware outside the stated limitation limits,” the investigation concluded.
A complex web of responsibilities and accountability has left it unclear who was responsible for what, the Navy found, making it increasingly difficult to identify the best solutions and how to implement them as the situation worsened.
“These shortcomings remain due to seams of accountability and inability to learn from past incidents that fall unacceptably below the Navy’s standards for leadership, ownership and safeguarding our communities,” the Navy said.
