The U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Division has announced that the United States will pay approximately $17 million to resolve claims brought by nearly 630 plaintiffs arising from the Red Hill jet fuel spills, a significant development in the long-running legal fallout from the Hawaii fuel contamination crisis.

The settlement stands out not only because of the dollar amount, but because it reflects the government’s continuing exposure from one of the military’s most visible environmental disasters in recent years.