The Hawaii Sierra Club has filed a lawsuit seeking to block the Department of Health’s ability to automatically approve a permit for the Navy’s Red Hill Underground Fuel Storage Facility if the state agency hasn’t made a decision on the application by Nov. 19.

Under Department of Health rules, if officials have not approved a permit application for underground fuel storage tanks within 180 days, then the permit is automatically approved. The Navy submitted a completed permit application for its Red Hill facility May 23.

The Hawaii Sierra Club argues that this automatic approval process violates the department’s obligations to safeguard the state’s water supply. Some 27,000 gallons of fuel leaked from one of the 20 underground tanks near Pearl Harbor in January 2014. Recent Navy studies indicate that there is a 34% chance that sometime in the next 100 years, there will be a major fuel leak at the facility, while the risk of small, chronic leaks at the facility is much greater.

“Allowing the automatic approval of a permit application — regardless of the threat posed by the permitted activities — violates the Department of Health’s public trust duties,” according to the complaint filed by Hawaii Sierra Club attorney David Kimo Frankel in 1st Circuit Court.

The Sierra Club is asking the court to issue a temporary restraining order preventing the department from automatically approving the Red Hill permit on Nov. 19, which marks 180 days following the submission of its application. The complaint also asks the court to invalidate the respective language in the administrative rules governing underground storage tanks.

Separately, the Hawaii Sierra Club earlier this year requested a contested case hearing on the Navy’s permit application.

In response to the lawsuit, Department of Health Director Bruce Anderson said the contested case, which is proceeding, already stops the automatic approval process.

“DOH has already made known that a decision on the Navy’s permit application will not issue until the contested case and the public comment process have concluded, effectively staying the approval mechanism provided by rule,” said Anderson in a statement. “Proposed administrative rule amendments related to the long-term future of underground storage tanks have also been published and are proceeding to public comment.”

The Navy’s permit application seeks authorization to continue operating the tanks for another five years.