Navy can’t dodge Clean Water Act claims over Honolulu fuel storage facility

A federal judge rejected the Navy's argument that an environmental organization hadn't put it on notice about some of their specific claims before filing their lawsuit.

by Edvard Pettersson, Court House News,  January 22, 2025

(CN) — The U.S. Navy must face claims that its Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility near Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, violates the federal Clean Water Act even as it is in the process of defueling and shutting down the massive, underground facility.

Senior U.S. District Judge Leslie Kobayashi in Honolulu on Wednesday denied the Navy's request to dismiss the claims brought by Wai Ola Alliance, an environmental advocacy organization.

Last year, the judge dismissed the nonprofit's lawsuit, but she allowed it to file a third, amended complaint specifying the claims as they apply to issues with defueling and closing the Red Hill facility not covered in administrative orders from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Hawaii Department of Health.

Wai Ola argues that decades of fuel leaks from the World War II-era facility have infiltrated nearby groundwaters along with waters in Halawa Stream and Pearl Harbor, affecting the animals living along the shoreline and degrading waters that hold cultural significance to Native Hawaiians.

The facility's massive 20 underground storage tanks and miles of pipes, the nonprofit claims, also risk contaminating Oahu’s main aquifer, which sits just 100 feet below the facility and provides water to over three-fourths of the island.

In seeking to have the Clean Water Act claims dismissed, the Navy maintains that the environmental organization didn't put them on notice about its specific allegations — such as those pertaining to the Halawa Stream — prior to filing its lawsuit, as it is legally required to do.

Kobayashi, however, rejected that argument, saying the purported Clean Water Act violations affecting Pearl Harbor that were stated in the Feb. 7, 2022, notice letter are the same alleged violations affecting Halawa Stream. 

Likewise, the judge found that claims pertaining to discharges at two piers not mentioned in the 2022 notice letter were similar to those related to two other piers that were mentioned.

"The 2/7/22 Notice Letter expressly alleged CWA violations at Hotel Pier and Kilo Pier and provided sufficient information to the appropriate parties to allow them to identify and attempt to abate the violations caused by problems with Red Hill’s infrastructure at Hotel Pier and Kilo Pier, such as seeping," Kobayashi said.

Representatives of the Justice Department, which represents the Navy in the litigation, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday evening.

Experts have estimated at least 1.94 million gallons of toxic fuel have been discharged from the facility since 1943, though military inspections throughout have consistently declared it safe.

State officials have also been taking steps to put pressure on the Navy to follow through with environmental remediation of Red Hill.

The alliance first sued the Navy in 2022, several months after reports of an extensive fuel leak from Red Hill emerged alongside reports from nearby residents — including the Navy’s own members and their dependents — of severe illnesses.