The words “Ka Wai Ola” — water for life — is a slogan the Honolulu Board of Water Supply likes to use in describing its mission. Especially with summertime drought looming, water is precious, and not a resource to be squandered.

Yet that is what is happening, and at the worst possible time. Since February, the Navy has been pumping roughly 4.5 million gallons a day to help remediate contamination of the aquifer due to spillages from its underground Red Hill Fuel Storage Facility. The estimate of the water pulled from the Red Hill shaft tops 600 million gallons by now.

The remediation is necessary, but the wasted water — after filtration, it is being discharged into Halawa Stream — is hard for Oahu residents to endure, given the water board’s pleas to the public to cut back on water use.

State leaders are bristling, too, and with good reason. The Health Department has indicated it continues to urge the Navy to find a better use for the water, but no proposals have been forthcoming.

Honolulu Star-Advertiser staff writer Sophie Cocke contacted the Navy, and the only response was from a spokeswoman who said a contractor is conducting a water management study, which could yield some water-reuse solutions.

That is a weak effort, given the dismal track record with the community that the Navy must overcome. Consider that the potential hazards from the complex of 21 massive fuel tanks, perched just above Oahu’s main aquifer, first came to light in 2014 with the leak of 28,000 gallons of fuel.

And despite a pact forged with the Health Department and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and ongoing assurances that maintenance was well in hand, disastrous spills in 2021 were not immediately disclosed.

But once fuel traces turned up in Navy housing drinking water, sickening many and forcing families to relocate to temporary shelter, alarm bells were ringing loudly.

Intense pressure from the public, local officials, Congress and the Biden administration compelled the start of planning to deactivate the fuel facility permanently. And with ample justification, the Navy became bound by an emergency order issued by the Health Department, overseeing the process.

Meanwhile, to prevent the aquifer contamination from spreading, key wells were shut down and the Oahu community at large was urged to use less water. So when the Navy’s response to all of this was to exceed its own water allocation, the disconnect became intolerable.

On June 9, the state Commission on Water Resource Management notified the Navy about consistently drawing more than 14.977 million gallons a day, its permitted limit at Waiawa Shaft. The commission acknowledged the Navy’s conservation measures and the increased need due to the closure of two other sources.

But the Navy must either keep below the limit or apply for a modification, according to the written notice, or it could be subject to daily fines of up to $5,000. Navy officials have until July 9 to respond, detailing how they intend to correct the violation.

If anything, that should have underscored the critical need for water, and added urgency to the request for redirecting and reusing the millions of gallons the Navy is now just dumping into Halawa Stream.

“If the Navy does not care about our water, it is up to us, from regulators to everyday citizens, to make them care,” said Wayne Tanaka, director of Sierra Club of Hawai‘i in an emailed response to the Star-Advertiser. “This includes a demand that the Navy immediately and openly plan for the beneficial use of the filtered water they continue to dump into Halawa Stream.”

It is indeed time for the Navy to engage with the community on how to solve this problem — a problem Oahu can’t afford to ignore.