Kirtland jet fuel spill could be larger Updated: Wednesday, 23 May 2012, 1:26 PM MDTPublished : Wednesday, 23 May 2012,

1:26 PM MDT JERI CLAUSING,Associated Press ALBUQUERQUE (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 AlbuquerqueBernalillo 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." Fuel Leak Estimate Triples

By John Fleck / Journal Staff Writer on Wed, May 23, 2012 As much as 24 million gallons of jet fuel might have escaped from a decades-long leak in an underground Kirtland Air Force Base pipe, three times more than previously estimated, according to a new calculation by a New Mexico Environment Department scientist. Officials cautioned that there is still a great deal of uncertainty about the number, and that they may never know how much fuel has spilled. But new data from state-mandated monitoring wells show the fuel in soil beneath the spill site is more widespread that previously known. And regardless of the specific number, the new data show the spill is larger than previously known, state officials said. The news raised alarm bells at the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority, which has two large water well fields near the contamination site. The contamination is less than two miles from the nearest well. It scares the heck out of me, said John Stomp, the water utilitys chief operations officer. A jet fuel spill beneath Kirtland Air Force base could be larger than previously thought, according to a calculation by a state scientist. The Air Force has been using engines like this to pump contamination from the ground, and larger units are now being installed. Kirtland spokeswoman Marie Vanover called any attempt to estimate the spills size speculative in nature. Regardless of the amount of fuel under ground, the Air Force is committed to clean it up, Vanover said Tuesday. The Air Force is in the midst of installing giant vacuum machines drilled deep into the heart of the contaminated area that will begin sucking out and burning jet fuel later this year. Vanover noted that no contamination has been detected in Albuquerques supply wells. The water is safe, she said. The new calculation by Environment Department geologist Will Moats was brought to light by Dave McCoy of Citizen Action, an activist group based in Albuquerque that has been pushing the Air Force and other government agencies to act more quickly to deal with the problem. I think theyve got to do more than theyre doing right now, McCoy said in an interview Tuesday.

McCoy said the higher estimate suggests the fuel spill could be significantly harder to clean up than previously believed. Moats, part of the Environment Department team working on the spill, did a calculation in 2010 that yielded a widely used estimate of 8 million gallons. In an interview Tuesday afternoon, Moats said that when new data from more extensive Air Force testing of the extent of soil contamination was plugged into the formula, it yielded an estimate of 24 million gallons. In the same interview, Moats boss, Jim Davis, cautioned that the 24 million number was just a crude estimate, and did not represent the agencys official position about how much fuel was in the ground. Youll never know the actual volume released, said Davis, head of the Environment Departments Resource Protection Division. The fuel came from underground pipes at a Kirtland aircraft fuel loading facility built in the 1950s. Air Force officials first noticed something amiss in 1999, but they think it had been leaking for decades. An Environment Department analysis concluded that as much as 8 million gallons may have leaked unnoticed over the years. It was not until 2007 that 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 citys water wells. Since then, the Air Force has cast an ever-wider net of monitoring wells, trying to figure out how far the fuel has spread. The latest results from Air Force test wells show evidence of jet fuel in groundwater beneath the neighborhood around the corner of Louisiana and Anderson SE, more than a mile from the source of the leak. The state has asked the Air Force to drill more wells to determine how close the contamination is to the nearest Albuquerque drinking water wells. McCoy said he plans to bring up the issue this evening at a meeting of the water utility authority board. The board meeting begins at 5 in the council chambers at Albuquerque City Hall. This article appeared on page A1 of the Albuquerque Journal