Navy Lt. Cmdr. Shannon Bencs, a former fuels director at Red Hill, has been called a whistleblower for trying to flag the dysfunction at the fuel storage facility.
This month marks three years since Red Hill fuel contaminated a drinking water well that supplied water to 90,000 people at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.
Bencs currently serves as a supply officer at Marine Corps Base Hawaiʻi after her superiors transferred her out of Red Hill following her complaints about the operation.
A previous after-incident report indicated she was the last remaining person with fuel expertise, and she told us she was cut out of the emergency response.
"I was cut out of communication, so that's definitely something that could happen in the future, again, by senior officers making the calls. Even though there's documentation that the fuel director is in charge with the emergency response personnel and the Navy on-scene coordinator, even me and that Navy on-scene coordinator person was cut out of the game throughout this spill response," she said about the initial May 2021 spill.
She affirmed she feels some vindication with the latest Department of Defense Inspector General's report. Bencs said she was interviewed by the IG investigators and hopes she helped them understand the systemic problems she tried to flag to her superiors and others.
She said what didnʻt come out of the report was accountability — who would be held responsible for the mismanagement, the non-maintenance, the inadequate training, and more.
"A lot of these were known facts to leadership. However, I think rank and abuse of power got in the way of a lot of these operations," she said.
She said that during her time at Red Hill, she realized that contractors had open access to the facility.
"They were making calls and calling shots without any government approvals. They were not doing maintenance. It was really the wild wild west," she said. "But as you can see by the IG report, there is some government fault and mismanagement. I think that has a lot to do with these people, these civilians and senior officers not being fuels trained."
While she had filed a False Claims Act complaint with the U.S. Justice Department against defense contractors, the department opted not to go forward with her concerns.
Bencs said the IG's report validated that Red Hill is a problem, along with other Navy fuel facilities.
"My hope is that they finally get petroleum engineers and people certified in petroleum operations, that they hire experts to read and understand Red Hill — even call me. I haven't been ever contacted by Navy, even though I know Red Hill inside and out. I've offered," she said.
Bencs said she was "appalled" when she found out that the fire suppression system at Red Hill was not working — putting her and other workers at risk.
"I just cannot believe that Navy officers or officials above me allowed me and my workers to go inside that facility," she said.
She said that as a woman, she has to work harder to have the same credibility as a man.
"This is just my opinion, but being a woman in the military is really hard because there's not a lot of us, and I think that was kind of what the Navy did wrong too because they didn't take my credibility as all the rest of the people that worked there," she said.
When questioned if she would take a position back at Pearl Harbor if asked by the military, she said she would consider it.
This interview aired on The Conversation on Nov. 18, 2024. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1. Tori DeJournett adapted this story for the web.
