Two civilian workers have been indicted after allegedly providing the Hawaii Department of Health with false data regarding a catastrophic fuel spill that contaminated the state’s drinking water in 2021, resulting in the illness of thousands.
John Floyd, former deputy director of the Fuels Department at Red Hill, and Nelson Wu, the department’s supervisory engineer, are both facing charges of conspiracy and making false statements following the toxic spill.
Prosecutors claim that Floyd and Wu provided the Navy with inaccurate information about a spill at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility – the Department of Defense’s largest underground fuel depot.
The actions of these two men allegedly caused the military to mislead the Hawaii Department of Health about the true scale of the leak – months before 20,000 gallons of jet fuel leaked into a crucial drinking water well servicing 90,000 people at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam – resulting in the illness of 6,000 residents over Thanksgiving weekend.
The indictments are the first to arise from the fuel spill, which sparked outrage across Hawaii and led the U.S. military to close the World War II-era facility.
According to Thursday’s indictment, Floyd and Wu misrepresented the volume of fuel spilled in May 2021, reporting to the Navy – and consequently to the Hawaii Department of Health – that only 1,618 gallons had leaked, whereas the actual amount was closer to 20,000 gallons.
They allegedly failed to report that 18,000 gallons were unaccounted for and redacted crucial data from official records and their assurances misled Navy officers, who then repeated those falsehoods to regulators in the following months.
The Navy’s own investigation found that on May 6, 2021, fuel gushed from a ruptured pipe and collected unnoticed in a fire suppression system.
John Floyd, former deputy director of the Fuels Department at Red Hill, left, and Nelson Wu, the department’s supervisory engineer, right have been charged with conspiracy and making false statements following a catastrophic fuel spill
Pictured: Navy officials lead Navy and civilian water quality recovery experts through the tunnels of the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility, near Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 23, 2021
Six months later, a cart hit a sagging pipe, causing the trapped fuel to spill into a drain connected to the drinking water well.
Floyd and Wu were each indicted on one count of conspiracy and one count of making false statements.
Years earlier, in 2022, a Navy investigation cited poor management and human error as the causes of the disaster.
However, the Department of Defense inspector general later concluded Navy officials lacked a clear understanding of the risks of maintaining such massive fuel tanks directly above a critical water source.
Environmental advocates and local organizations are saying the indictments do not go far enough.
Wayne Tanaka, director of the Sierra Club of Hawaii, emphasized that culpability extends beyond the two civilians.
He pointed to the Navy’s own investigation, which revealed that military officials knew about the 20,000 missing gallons of fuel as early as May 2021 but failed to notify the public or regulators.
Tanaka also noted that Navy leaders sidelined a whistleblower who raised repeated alarms about mismanagement at the facility.
Pictured: A Navy spouse whose family was impacted by the fuel jet leak wipes away tears as she discusses the toll of the trial at her home on Monday, April 22, 2024
In a statement released Friday, the Sierra Club of Hawaii (pictured) reiterated the community’s long-standing demand for accountability
Pictured: Joint Task Force-Red Hill and spill response personnel deploy a water barrier during a spill response exercise at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, July 13, 2023
However, fuel leaks at Red Hill have long been a concern, with incidents dating back to at least 2014.
Despite repeated calls from the Sierra Club of Hawaii and the Honolulu Board of Water Supply to relocate the tanks, the Navy insisted the island’s water was safe – until it wasn’t.
In a statement released Friday, the Sierra Club of Hawaii reiterated the community’s long-standing demand for accountability, Hawaii News Now reported.
‘The Sierra Club of Hawaii and much of the Hawaii community has long called for full accountability, for the actions and omissions that led to the poisoning of the drinking water system for 93,000 Oʻahu residents, and the ongoing contamination of the island’s EPA Region IX sole-source aquifer.’
The statement continued, criticizing the Navy for failing to disclose fuel exceedances in water testing, for neglecting to complete essential groundwater models promised a decade ago, and for refusing to reimburse the Board of Water Supply and ratepayers for the estimated $1.2 billion in damages.
It also condemned military officials for continuing to ‘gaslight and deny the claims of its own service members and their families’ who still suffer from health impacts and psychological trauma.
