Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin visited the Navy’s Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility on Friday and met with newly formed Joint Task Force Red Hill’s commander, Rear Adm. John Wade, to discuss plans to defuel the facility.

In September, Austin appointed Wade to lead the task force, which will be responsible for carrying out defueling operations in partnership with the state Department of Health and the Environmental Protection Agency.

According to a Pentagon news release, Austin also met with state officials as well as with several families affected when jet fuel from the underground facility entered the Navy’s Red Hill water well and contaminated the service’s water system, which serves some 93,000 people on Oahu.

The aging World War II-era fuel farm near Pearl Harbor has a history of environmental and safety concerns, including previous fuel releases. The massive underground tanks, which can collectively hold up to 250 million gallons of fuel, sit 100 feet above an aquifer that the majority of Honolulu relies on for its drinking water.

“Defueling and closing Red Hill is the right thing to do — for our service members, our families, the people of Hawaii, the environment, and our national security,” Austin said in the news release. “We are moving out and will defuel this facility as quickly and safely as possible. I am confident that Rear Admiral Wade will effectively lead this important effort and that he will work closely with the Hawaii Department of Health, the Environmental Protection Agency and the community.”

Austin ordered the defueling and permanent closure of the Red Hill facility in March after months of the Navy vowing to fight an emergency order issued by the state Department of Health to defuel the facility. Navy officials had argued the aging facility was critical to operations in the Pacific and that shutting it down would jeopardize military readiness.

In announcing the move to defuel the facility, Austin offered a radically different appraisal, arguing “to a large degree, we already avail ourselves of dispersed fueling at sea and ashore, permanent and rotational,” and that “we will now expand and accelerate that strategic distribution.”

Also, Austin met with foreign officials here this week to discuss regional security issues. Military officials told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser and other local news outlets Austin would be unable to speak to media during his Hawaii visit.

On Thursday, Austin held a joint news conference with Jose Faustino, acting defense secretary of the Philippines. That event was attended by national and international media, with discussion ranging from relations between the United States and the Philippines to Hurricane Ian, the Russian-Ukrainian war, North Korean missiles and military tensions in the South China Sea.

The Pentagon’s news release also announced that Army Brig. Gen. Michelle Link will serve as Joint Task Force-Red Hill deputy commander. Link currently serves as executive director for Operational Contract Support in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment. Army Brig. Gen. Lance Okamura, who currently serves as commander of Joint Task Force Guantanamo — which oversees the military’s detainee program at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba — has been selected to serve as the Joint Task Force Red Hill’s Strategic Engagement Lead.