Navy commander fired after third leak at Hawaii fuel facility

The Navy has fired the officer in charge of a fuel supply facility in Hawaii that contaminated drinking water after another spill happened last week, the service announced. 

Capt. Albert Lee Hornyak, head of the Navy Supply Systems Command Fleet Logistics Center, was relieved of command due to “loss of confidence in his ability to perform his duties following a series of leadership and oversight failures at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility,” according to a Navy statement posted Monday.  

Hornyak, who had been commanding officer of the facility since August , was fired after news broke that “no more than 30 gallons” of a fuel and water mixture spilled at the storage facility on Friday. 

Based at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Honolulu, the aging Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility has been plagued with a series of leaks, including one in November, when 14,000 gallons of petroleum made it into a drinking water system for 93,000 people. 

That leak sickened nearly 6,000 people, most of whom lived in military housing, and prompted the Pentagon to order the facility’s closure last month. The U.S. military now has a year to fully defuel and shutter Red Hill. 

Prior to that, in 2014, one of the facility’s tanks spilled 27,000 gallons of fuel. 

Rear Adm. Kristin Acquavella will take over temporarily as commanding officer of the Navy Supply Systems Command Fleet Logistics Center while a formal replacement is identified, the service said.