KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. -- Leaders in the effort to remove an underground plume of leaked jet fuel say they expect to have the last set of monitoring wells and a fourth extraction well installed this fall.
Kathryn Lynnes, senior program manager for the cleanup project at Kirtland Air Force Base, and Diane Agnew, project technical lead with the New Mexico Environment Department, updated the Kirtland Partnership Committee on progress during KPC annual membership meeting Tuesday at the African American Performing Arts Center.
The underground fuel plume comes from a leaky pipeline for the Bulk Fuels Facility, and was discovered in the 1990s. Studies indicate the contamination hasn’t reached drinking water supplies.
“There is no risk if you live above the plume or near it,” Lynnes said.
She said the last cluster of monitoring wells to finish defining the plume would go in this fall. The same casing will hold all the wells to save taxpayer money.
Agnew said the project has installed three extraction wells to remove the contaminated groundwater for treatment, but one was taken offline because sediment and bacteria were getting into the pumped water. The extra contaminants could cause expensive problems in the treatment system, she said.
Engineers are designing sand filters to remove them. Agnew said she hoped the third well would come online again by the end of the year.
Meanwhile, the other two extraction wells are pumping at higher rates than originally planned.
The cleanup plan calls for five extraction wells. The team is installing them one at a time to be sure the system operates as expected before proceeding.
Agnew anticipates installing the fourth well this year and starting its operation in 2017.
Even with two wells running, she said, they’ve formed a “cone of depression,” or a drop in the groundwater table around the wells. This phenomenon indicates the wells are working.
“This in no way indicates we’ve done everything we need to do, but we’re in the right place,” Agnew said.
As another part of the cleanup, Lynnes said, researchers are testing the affect of feeding underground bacteria in hopes that it will eat contaminated soil vapor near the plume.
The plume is too deep for vapors to get to the surface, she said, so gardeners don’t have to worry about it reaching their plants.