Found on Karen's site speaks to the fallibility of oil pipeline systems.
First found leaking in 1999.
/(Sorry, couldn't get rid of the tamper-proof ads)
/
Natalia
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/23/kirtland-air-force-base-spill_n_1537913.html
Kirtland Air Force Base Jet Fuel Spill Could Be Three Times Larger
Than Previously Thought
*AP* | By JERI CLAUSING <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-gerken>
Posted: 05/22/2012 8:50 pm Updated: 05/23/2012
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) --- A decades-old jet fuel spill threatening
Albuquerque's water supply could be as large as 24 million gallons, or
twice the size of the oil spill from the Exxon Valdez, New Mexico
environment officials acknowledged Tuesday.
Officials previously estimated the spill from Kirtland Air Force Base to
be about 8 million gallons. But state geologist William Moats, who made
the original calculations, recently estimated the spill could be up to
three times larger.
By comparison, the Exxon Valdez spilled 11 million gallons of crude oil
when it ran aground in Prince William Sound in Alaska in 1989.
Jim Davis, head of the New Mexico Environment Department's resource
protection division, calls the newest calculation a "first-order
estimate" based on new data from Air Force monitoring wells. He
emphasized that the calculations have not been reviewed, and said no one
will really know how large the spill is until it has been remediated.
"It is not knowable," Davis said.
But he said he is confident the spill can be cleaned up, no matter how
large. And while the fuel threatens groundwater, officials have said it
poses no threat to people living above the plume.
"The bottom line is this ... we take it very seriously," Davis said. "We
are pushing the Air Force and we are going to stay on top of it until it
is fixed."
Kirtland spokeswoman Marie Vanover did not dispute the new estimate.
"There is really no way to carefully measure how much fuel is in the
ground," she said. "What's important here, as far as the Air Force is
concerned, is that regardless of the amount of fuel in the ground we are
committed to two things: that the water stays safe and to continue our
remediation efforts."
The fuel came from what officials now believe was a 40-year leak from
underground pipes at a Kirtland aircraft fuel loading facility.
The leak was discovered in 1999. In 2007, Air Force investigations
revealed the fuel had reached the water table and was moving off the Air
Force base, beneath the neighborhoods of southeast Albuquerque and
toward the city's water wells.
Since then, the Air Force, under pressure from the Environment
Department, has cast an ever-wider net of monitoring wells, trying to
figure out how far the fuel has spread.
Davis said officials still believe no contamination will reach city
wells for at least five years. He said the Air Force has removed about
400,000 gallons and he hopes broader remediation targeting the largest
concentration of the spill can begin this summer.
Environmental activists planned to raise the issue Wednesday at an
Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Water Utility Board meeting.
"Basically they have a larger problem than they thought," said Dave
McCoy of Citizen Action New Mexico. "... They need to begin planning for
construction of a water treatment plant to protect Albuquerque's water
supply."
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