It’s been nearly a year since the Honolulu Board of Water Supply filed a $1.2 billion claim against the Navy to recover costs for its response to massive jet fuel leaks at the Navy’s Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility in 2021.

But the water agency says since the claim’s filing on Oct. 28, 2023, it’s still awaiting a formal reply from the military.

And, according to BWS, if that holdup continues, then its high-dollar claim might turn into a federal lawsuit.

Filed under the Federal Tort Claims Act, BWS’ claim asserts the Navy’s culpability for catastrophic fuel leaks that occurred at the once top-secret underground Red Hill fuel facility near the mouth of Halawa Valley.

Those included the Nov. 20, 2021, incident in which 20,000 gallons of fuel leaked into the Navy’s water system, which serves 93,000 people on Oahu, including military families and civilians in former military housing areas.

But BWS’ claim, filed with the Navy’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps in Norfolk, Va., granted the Navy six months to investigate and then respond.

“There is no express deadline under the FTCA by which the Navy must review the BWS’ claim. The federal government has six months from when the claim was filed to respond, or the FTCA empowers the claimant to file suit,” a BWS spokesperson told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. “Since the Navy has not expressly granted or denied the BWS’ claim within the six months investigative period, the BWS can opt to file suit.”

However, the spokesperson confirmed the Navy did respond “informally, within the six-month deadline, under the FTCA by requesting more information from BWS.”

“The Navy requested additional information, which BWS provided on June 25, 2024,” the spokesperson said. “If the BWS finds the claim will not be granted, BWS may initiate a FTCA action against the Navy in federal court.”

Meanwhile, the Navy’s investigation into the matter remains confidential but ongoing.

“The Navy does not comment on individual claims,” Patty Babb, a spokesperson for the Navy’s Judge Advocate General, told the Star- Advertiser via email. “Like any claim, once it has been evaluated and adjudicated, the claimant is promptly notified.”

“The filing under the FTCA was the first step in a cost recovery process and essential to preserving the BWS’ legal rights,” Ernest Lau, BWS manager and chief engineer, said in November during a news conference.

“The Navy is responsible for the massive environmental and human health crisis caused by releases of petroleum and other hazardous substances that occurred at the Red Hill Facility,” Lau said at the time.

“The Navy’s failure to prevent or timely and appropriately respond to these releases at Red Hill has inflicted devastating injuries upon the people of Hawaii, including the BWS, which is compensable under the FTCA,” Lau said.

According to Lau, the $1.2 billion figure stems from BWS’ 2021 response to “the ensuing drinking water contamination crisis” due to the Red Hill fuel leaks.

BWS involvement included permanently shutting down one of Oahu’s four main water supply shafts — among the largest of the agency’s more than 90 underground water sources.

“The BWS has no choice but to shut down its Halawa Shaft as well as certain Aiea and Halawa drinking water wells to prevent fuel contamination from entering our own water system,” Lau said previously.

To deal with this crisis, he said BWS was also “‘forced to implement enhanced water quality testing and protocols, install additional groundwater monitoring wells (and) temporarily increase its reliance upon other water sources to replace the lost water production, develop alternative water supply wells to make up for the lost water production, and evaluate drinking water treatment technology.”

But concerns over future Red Hill-related contamination of the city’s potable water wells is also of concern.

Earlier this month the City Council adopted a resolution urging the Navy and Department of Defense to immediately implement weekly testing of monitoring wells related to past fuel spills at Red Hill.

Introduced by Council Chair Tommy Waters and Vice Chair Esther Kia‘aina, Resolution 216 calls for the Navy and DOD to conduct weekly tests at all 36 of the Navy Red Hill monitoring wells and drinking water wells for all chemical contaminants stemming from past fuel and hazardous materials that were used, stored or released at the Red Hill facility.

The Council’s resolution was also amended to have water samples “submitted to a qualified, third-party laboratory facility for independent testing” of petroleum-related chemicals.

The resolution further requested installation of additional monitoring wells — possibly up to 100 of them — in the west and northwest beyond the Red Hill fuel facility.

BWS detected polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs — a class of chemicals found in coal and petroleum, known to cause cancer and other health issues — at its closed Aiea Wells in water samples collected in May and June.

The types of PAHs detected at the BWS Aiea Wells were also detected at the Navy’s monitoring well, NMW 24, in samples collected in June, indicating a contaminant plume might be migrating west of the Red Hill facility, the resolution states.

At the Council’s Sept. 4 meeting, Lau expressed his fear of having to shut down yet another drinking water source — specifically, the Kaa­milo Wells Pumping Station in Central Oahu — due to recent detection of PFAS, or so-called “forever chemicals,” also linked to harmful health effects in humans and animals.

Lau noted the affected well, which pumps a million gallons a day to the Aiea community, is a half-mile west of the shuttered Aiea Well.

He said an announcement on that well’s potential closure could come in “the near future.”