Kirtland AFB holds public meeting on fuel, groundwater issue

  • Published
  • By Steve Milligan
  • Nucleus Staff
KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, New Mexico --  Kirtland AFB officials held a public meeting July 31 at the New Mexico Veteran's Memorial to discuss environmental issues surrounding jet fuel on the groundwater table. 

Col. Michael S. Duvall, 377th Air Base Wing commander, hosted the meeting along with members of the 377th Civil Engineer Division. Also in attendance were officials from the New Mexico congressional delegation, New Mexico Environment Department, and the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority. 

Approximately 130 members of the local community, base officials, contractors and media attended the meeting. 

Colonel Duvall opened the meeting with some background on the situation and laid out a path forward to swiftly remediate the fuel contamination and investigate the extent of the contamination in the soil and on the water table. 

The jet fuel on the groundwater is the result of a leak that occurred in underground piping at the Kirtland Bulk Fuels Facility. The leak was detected in November of 1999 during a pressure test conducted on the old piping. The fuel offloading rack, where the leak was detected, was immediately taken off line and a new offloading location was established. 

A monitoring well installed in 2000 at the point of the leak indicated fuel to a depth of 300 plus feet within the soil but not to the groundwater which is at a depth of over 500 feet. A fuel vapor extraction system was put in place to remove fuel from the ground. The extent of the groundwater contamination was not known until much later when additional monitoring wells indicated the presence of fuel. 

The old fuel offloading and storage system was designed in the late 1940s and installed in the early 1950s. The system was due to be replaced in the mid 1990s. A new facility was designed and funding secured but was lost when the base came out on the Base Realignment and Closure list in 1995. Kirtland later came off the list but the funding was not recovered. The necessary funding has since been secured and a new facility will be constructed in the next two to three years. 

Colonel Duvall made it clear his priorities were the health, safety and welfare of those who live and work on Kirtland AFB and the members of the Albuquerque community. He said the Air Force takes full responsibility and described the current actions to fully determine the extent of the problem and fix it. He also committed to continued dialogue with members of the public and regulatory agencies and to provide regular updates of ongoing remediation efforts. 

The colonel presented a four-pronged approach to dealing with the issue: 

· Continuous monitoring, investigation and notification 

· Active remediation (remediate while we investigate) 

· Refinement of remediation through improved methods and new technology 

· Preventive infrastructure investment 

Community members wanted to know if their water would be affected and how long it would take to clean up the fuel spill. 

They were assured that to date, no contamination has been found in the base or city drinking water. The colonel also said every effort is being made to monitor and sample the wells that may potentially be impacted by the contamination and rapid notification would occur should there be any change. 

As for how long it would take, Colonel Duvall said that we had to get our arms around the problem to know the extent of the contamination in order to make that determination. He said that $2.8 million in out-of-cycle funds have been secured to do just that. In the mean time, remediation efforts will continue. 

The next scheduled public meeting to address this and other environmental issues will be held at the Cesar Chavez Community Center, 7505 Kathryn Avenue SE, 6 p.m. on Oct. 16.