Two civilian employees have been charged with allegedly supplying the Hawaii Department of Health with incorrect data concerning a devastating fuel leak that contaminated the state’s water supply in 2021, resulting in illness for thousands of people.

John Floyd, who previously served as the deputy director of the Fuels Department at Red Hill, along with Nelson Wu, who acted as the department’s supervisory engineer, are both charged with conspiracy and providing false information in connection to the hazardous spill.

According to prosecutors, Floyd and Wu delivered false information to the Navy regarding a spill at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility, which stands as the Department of Defense’s largest subterranean fuel storage site.

The two men’s actions allegedly led the military to mislead the Hawaii Department of Health about the true scale of the leak – months before 20,000 gallons of jet fuel seeped into a critical drinking water well serving 90,000 people at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam – sickening 6,000 residents over Thanksgiving weekend.

The indictments are the first to emerge from the fuel spill, which sparked outrage across Hawaii and prompted the U.S. military to close the World War II-era facility.

According to Thursday’s indictment, Floyd and Wu misrepresented the volume of fuel spilled in May 2021, telling the Navy – and, in turn, the Hawaii Department of Health – that only 1,618 gallons had leaked, when the true figure was closer to 20,000 gallons. 

They allegedly failed to report that 18,000 gallons were unaccounted for and redacted crucial data from official records and their assurances misled Navy officers, who then repeated those falsehoods to regulators in the following months.

The Navy’s own investigation found that on May 6, 2021, fuel gushed from a ruptured pipe and collected unnoticed in a fire suppression system. 

Six months later, a cart hit a sagging pipe, causing the trapped fuel to spill into a drain connected to the drinking water well.

Floyd and Wu were each indicted on one count of conspiracy and one count of making false statements. 

Years earlier, in 2022, a Navy investigation cited poor management and human error as the causes of the disaster. 

However, the Department of Defense inspector general later concluded Navy officials lacked a clear understanding of the risks of maintaining such massive fuel tanks directly above a critical water source.

Environmental advocates and local organizations are saying the indictments do not go far enough. 

Wayne Tanaka, director of the Sierra Club of Hawaii, emphasized that culpability extends beyond the two civilians. 

He pointed to the Navy’s own investigation, which revealed that military officials knew about the 20,000 missing gallons of fuel as early as May 2021 but failed to notify the public or regulators. 

Tanaka also noted that Navy leaders sidelined a whistleblower who raised repeated alarms about mismanagement at the facility.

However, fuel leaks at Red Hill have long been a concern, with incidents dating back to at least 2014. 

Despite repeated calls from the Sierra Club of Hawaii and the Honolulu Board of Water Supply to relocate the tanks, the Navy insisted the island’s water was safe – until it wasn’t.

In a statement released Friday, the Sierra Club of Hawaii reiterated the community’s long-standing demand for accountability, Hawaii News Now reported.

‘The Sierra Club of Hawaii and much of the Hawaii community has long called for full accountability, for the actions and omissions that led to the poisoning of the drinking water system for 93,000 Oʻahu residents, and the ongoing contamination of the island’s EPA Region IX sole-source aquifer.’

The statement continued, criticizing the Navy for failing to disclose fuel exceedances in water testing, for neglecting to complete essential groundwater models promised a decade ago, and for refusing to reimburse the Board of Water Supply and ratepayers for the estimated $1.2 billion in damages. 

It also condemned military officials for continuing to ‘gaslight and deny the claims of its own service members and their families’ who still suffer from health impacts and psychological trauma.