Very little about the Red Hill saga has been straightforward, so it’s only logical for Oahu residents to be skeptical about the Navy’s dismissal of a captain in charge.

Few could take that action at face value, especially not after the last several months of a water contamination crisis that forced the displacement of many families. At issue is the disposition of an aging fuel-storage facility that has put the nearby public water aquifer at risk for years, so attention to this controversy is intense.

Following a relatively small spill at the Red Hill underground fuel facility several days prior, the Navy on Monday announced that Capt. Albert Lee Hornyak, the commanding officer of NAVSUP Fleet Logistics Center, had been fired. The official reason was described as “a series of leadership and oversight failures” with the spill specifically cited.

But the public was already made wary by previous mammoth spills, most notably a leak of 27,000 gallons eight years ago, and then the water-contamination crisis linked to spills in May and November of last year.

People now also know that in October, Hornyak had been the one to raise concerns about operator error being the cause of the May fuel spill. This finding had followed an investigation by the Navy and came to light only because the contents of the email were leaked — not because the Navy has been forthcoming with this information.

It’s clear that disclosure with details about everything that’s happened — and will happen, going forward — will have to be driven by local officials, those elected to key offices as well as the state Department of Health (DOH). Even the extent of the most recent spill this month, initially described as a 30-gallon mix of fuel and water, remains murky: a Pacific Fleet official told state lawmakers in a separate email that the spill amounted to 50 gallons. Which was it?

The public should get an accounting of even this small detail and should not be satisfied simply by personnel being relieved of duties. Given that Hornyak had been ringing alarm bells, that dismissal silenced him and, if anything, that adds further to the unease and public suspicions.

The Department of Defense already has decided to defuel the facility, and the manner in which that’s done needs to comply with a DOH emergency order, issued Dec. 6.

That state agency already is on record asserting its oversight authority. Most recently, on Friday, it issued a joint release with the state Commission on Water Resource Management, part of the Department of Land and Natural Resources, indicating approval of the Navy’s plan to install eight additional monitoring wells at Red Hill.

Things aren’t moving along so swimmingly on other aspects of naval compliance, however. Last month, the Health Department announced that the Navy’s hiring of a contractor to assess the Red Hill facility for safely defueling the tanks did not align with the DOH emergency order.

That contractor, Simpson Gumpertz & Heger Inc., was hired Jan. 11, with state health officials saying they were notified only hours before the Navy executed the contract. The department said it was concerned the work wouldn’t be done independently.

The reason: Surely it was the same lack of trust that local authorities have felt for some time, starting with the halting way information came to light about the water contamination late last year.

The Health Department, along with the federal Environmental Protection Agency, had partnered with the Navy under a memorandum of agreement stemming from the 2014 spill, aimed at finding the best way to safeguard the aquifer.

But that accord soon weakened as the story about the fuel contaminants, largely detected in wells serving military residential areas, played out. An investigation into the incident was conducted, but the full report delivered to military brass in December was never released.

Even if a more comprehensive study is underway, the public still deserves to see the facts that this command report contained.

After the November water contamination, the Navy halted Red Hill operations — and later, pressed by a concerned public, local officials and Hawaii’s congressional delegation, the DOD ultimately agreed the fuel needs to be taken out. U.S. Rep. Mazie Hirono on Thursday pressed Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to restate his commitment to funding the process of defueling the tanks.

It is critical to get the secretary on the record about this. Having the top brass attuned to the situation will provide leverage to keep the Navy on task.

But this must be a sustained effort on the local front, with all hands on deck, to borrow a fitting naval expression. Gov. David Ige is on board, last week telling Hawaii News Now he could issue an emergency order to speed the development of additional wells, underscoring the ongoing worry about the security of Oahu’s water supply.

This pointed messaging must continue. State, county and congressional leaders, as well as the public, have to keep up the pressure on the Navy to work with transparency, and to move without delay toward a permanent solution.