Page 3 - Hawaii Island MidWeek - May 3, 2023

MAY 3, 2023
HAWAI‘I ISLAND MIDWEEK 34
we have to do these repairs to make sure the integrity of the facility and the pipes are at 100% so that we can success- fully defuel.”
While Okamura has com- plete trust in the team at JTF- Red Hill — “We have brilliant engineers who have already figured out how we are going to safely transfer the fuel,” he says, beaming with pride — he also understands the difficulty of regaining the trust of locals when considering a histori- cal record that demonstrates “years of unfulfilled obliga- tions by the military in mutual environmental stewardship.”
have to make it happen,’” re- calls Okamura, chuckling at the memory of the conversa- tion.
“I’m required to engage with members of the community, from the local and state level all the way up to the federal and congressional level, to ensure that they understand that we are doing the right thing for the right reason, that we’re be- ing open, communicative and transparent, that we’ re con- sistent in our messaging, and most importantly, that we’re fully committed to protecting the environment and the people of Hawai‘i,” he says.
ity, nearly 70% of them (174) have been completed.
“In Hawai‘i, people have long memories. They don’t want Red Hill to be another Kaho‘olawe, where this just extends for years ... where we don’t care for the environment, don’t take care of the water.”
“Growing up, I have memo- ries of Kaho‘olawe, where the island was used for targeting practice and was bombard- ed repeatedly, which ruined the environment. To this day, Kaho‘olawe is still uninhabit- able,” he says.
Lance Okamura has dedicated
his life to completing assignments in the service of others. His latest task? Rebuild trust with the public in the wake of the Red Hill disaster.
Communication break- downs happen every- where in life, even in
24 hours earlier at a press con- ference.
Now several months into his latest assignment, a mis- sion that requires navigating through what he calls “the complexities of Red Hill” — specifically, the safe removal of 104 million gallons of fuel while staying on course to hit the facility’s targeted defueling completion date of June 2024 — Okamura remains pleased to be back in familiar terrain, a son of the ‘āina who stands at the ready to “serve my com- munity ... serve the people of Hawai‘i.”
the usually orderly world of the military.
“Normally when you get your assignment, there’s an ac- tual person who calls and pre- pares you,” explains Okamura. “But there was no preparation whatsoever.”
He also hopes to clean up misperceptions surrounding Red Hill in his engagements with the community, including the belief among some that the facility will be reused for fuel in the future.
“Even though the process is slow and it may not be hap- pening as fast as many would desire, we’re still making prog- ress to ensure that Red Hill will in fact be closed, shut down and, more importantly, that the environment will be clean and safe for future generations,” he promises.
Brig. Gen. Lance Okamura knows this first-hand. On the morning of Oct. 1, 2022, he awoke at Guantanamo Bay to a barrage of personal emails congratulating him on his up- coming trip home to Hawai‘i, where he was to be installed as director of strategic engage- ment of Joint Task Force-Red Hill. Problem was, no one from the military had even bothered to give him the news — this despite U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s announcement
Even the human resources agency for the U.S. Army’s general officer corps was un- aware of the new assignment. Okamura immediately for- warded a copy of the press release to the department and requested confirmation.
True to form, the decorated Okamura welcomes his latest challenge of helping to clean up the environmental disaster at Red Hill — a crisis that be- gan in 2021 when fuel leaked from an underground fuel storage facility into a freshwa- ter aquifer and contaminated sources that provided drink- ing water to area residents. He points out that of the 253 re- pairs and modifications identi- fied as problematic at the facil-
That’s not happening, reas- sures Okamura.
“I asked, ‘Is this really going to happen?’ They said, ‘Hmm ... well, yeah. If the secretary of defense said it, then we’ ll
Interestingly enough, his chief responsibility with JTF- Red Hill is to ensure open lines of communication as he attempts to rebuild trust with the public.
learly, Okamura is the right man for the job.
“So literally in a matter of weeks, I was packing up my stuff and coming here.”
“I can’t say we’re ahead of schedule,” says the man who’s received such honors as the Defense Superior Service medal, the Legion of Merit and the Bronze Star Medal over the course of his distinguished military career, “but we’re defi- nitely on schedule.”
That’s why it’s important for Okamura to remain in constant dialogue with the public, reas- suring all who will listen that headway is being made re- garding the facility’s eventual closure and the end result will be pono, the Hawaiian word for “righteous, moral and cor- rect,” for the people.
“The repair work that we’re doing is so we can safely get rid of the fuel,” he explains, add- ing there are other established facilities throughout the Pacific that eliminate the need to ever store fuel at Red Hill again.
C
He is intelligent, high-
“We don’t want another fuel leak or fuel spillage, but
ly disciplined and committed to assigned tasks. He’s also SEE PAGE 4