A federal grand jury subpoenaed Matson Inc. this week for documents linked to the massive molasses spill that killed thousands of fish, coral and other marine life last month in Honolulu Harbor and Keehi Lagoon, new public filings show.
Matson, a publicly traded company, disclosed the subpoena Friday in a what’s called a "form 8-K" to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission — a way to alert investors of new company information that can’t wait until the next quarterly report.
It comes as state health officials continue to investigate whether Matson committed any violations that helped cause the disaster. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency personnel initially teamed with the state Department of Health on the investigation, but they’ve been sidelined in the ongoing federal government shutdown, according to a DOH spokeswoman.
The grand jury subpoena was served Thursday through the U.S. Attorney’s office in Hawaii, according to company officials.
"Matson has cooperated with government agencies investigating the incident and intends to continue doing so. Beyond that, we have no comment beyond what is in the 8-K," company spokesman Jeff Hull said Friday in an email statement.
The spill was reported Sept. 9, and Matson took responsibility for a corroded steel pipe that investigators found to have leaked some 233,000 gallons of thick, syrupy molasses through a fist-size hole into the harbor.
Maui encountered a similar but far smaller molasses spill in 2003. Nonetheless, officials have described the Honolulu spill as being "without historic precedent in Hawaiian waters." Boat crews pulled some 26,000 dead fish from the harbor and lagoon during the initial response effort, which ended Sept. 20.
The state Department of Land and Natural Resources is still assessing the full scope of damage to the coral, fish and marine life in the harbor and Keehi Lagoon. What it concludes could help determine the spill’s full remediation costs. How long the work takes depends on what DLNR finds during its assessment.
Matson has not yet received any claims from government agencies for cleanup costs, damages or penalties from the spill, according to its SEC filing. It’s not yet clear how much the company will have to pay, and Matson has stopped short of committing to pay the full restoration tab.
Meanwhile, DOH officials also want Matson to provide them with records relating to the spill, and state Department of Transportation officials await Matson’s own assessment of what exactly led to the spill. DOT further wants Matson to guarantee the pipeline is safe to use before its molasses export operation can resume, DOT spokesman Derek Inoshita said Friday.
Neither of those two state departments has received federal subpoenas, their representatives said.
Ten days after the spill, DOT officials revealed that their workers twice saw molasses leaking from the same faulty, Matson-owned pipe. Leaks were spotted in July 2012 and May of this year. While Matson Navigation Co. was notified about the 2012 leak, there was no such notification in May, according to state harbor officials.
Elliot Enoki, a first assistant with the U.S. Attorney’s office in Hawaii, declined to confirm whether a subpoena had been served Thursday to Matson.
