4-12 Citizen Action KAFB Jet Fuel Spill communique: Dear Neighbors, The only way to know whether the municipal wells are contaminated or not would be to place groundwater monitoring wells very close to the municipal wells. The municipal wells have well screens 800 ft long and can supply up to 2850 gallons per minute that is a tremendous factor for dilution of samples when one is looking for ethylene dibromide (EDB) in parts per trillion. A monitoring well has a screen 10-15 ft long and takes very discrete samples. Claiming the water is safe is nonsense unless adequate groundwater monitoring is put in place. ABQ WUA Resolution 12-14 requested that monitoring wells be installed as close as possible to the municipal wells. (See attached). That is done in other locations such as for the naval spill of TCE at Beth Page on Long Island where each supply well has 2 monitoring wells installed at 180 degrees. But considering that its not done in Albuquerques situation is not too surprising given an environment department secretary who is also in the ongoing employment of the Air Force and politicians who want to cozy up to the military rather than enforce environmental law. Have you seen a single dollar in fines or a single gallon of jet fuel removed from the aquifer since the Air Force knew about the leaking in 1992 at the Pump House? Why havent Senators Udall and Heinrich and Representative Grisham acted on the NM Legislatures Joint House and Senate Memorial 13 (2014) asking that an independent task force be set up to consider immediate emergency remediation possibilities? (See attached). By the way, New Mexicos maximum contamination limit for drinking water from EDB is 5 times higher than California, Massachusetts and other states. The latest Soil Vapor Extraction application submitted by KAFB to the Air Quality Board would allow air emissions of 29 tons per year of volatile organic compounds and hazardous air pollutants including EDB. Since Air Force negligence was responsible in the first place for the horrendous contamination of the aquifer, why should the community now be further exposed through the air pathway instead of KAFB installing recovery systems? And why is the NMED on the verge of approving 20,000 lbs of toxic air emissions from Sandia National Labs from open burning and detonations. Are any of us allowed to use a burn barrel anymore? The public really needs to wake up from denial to the sad fact that the Air Force only intends to do the minimum for Albuquerque, allowing the EDB to hit the supply wells and then for the wells to be shut down. See p.9 of attached 2011 report to Congress-- The Air Force goal, however, is to achieve site completion with a remedy that requires no or minimal long term costs. There is no basis for the belief that bio-degradation will remove the EDB by 2025 or that even groundwater remediation is going to be effective. Give a careful reading to the attached Black Swan remediation article. Unless the public begins to seriously demand change from the politicians and regulators, we can await the worst case scenarios that will bring consequences not even presently foreseen. See the attachment Demand for Action. The Air Force and environment department have many people devoted to public relations. The PR has been developed over years of dealing with communities where community water supply have been destroyed by the Air Force (42 Superfund sites at present). The current nonsense espoused is that it will be 30 years before the municipal wells are contaminated at the MAXIMUM CONTAMINANT LIMIT for EDB and that doesnt account for the trace amounts that will be there long before and toxic at any level. At the Navys Beth Page site, the modeling predicted a 25 year arrival time and the actual arrival time was in 7 years. But the thing that is overlooked by the AF, the ABQ Journal and government apologists in focusing on arrival time is that the aquifer between the (unknown) leading edge of the EDB plume and the municipal wells is being destroyed for use in tremendous quantities. One-half teaspoon of EDB that was in every gallon of the millions of gallons of spilled aviation gas can contaminate about 9,000,000 gallons of water. Eighty percent of the EDB has traveled off base into the citys groundwater and is at levels 5000 times the drinking water limit in some locations. That water is now unavailable for use if the city wanted to develop a supply well north of Gibson Ave where the plume of EDB exists. See Citizen Actions website at radfreenm.org for more information. Sincerely, David B. McCoy, Esq., Executive Director Citizen Action New Mexico 262-1862 radfreenm.org.
Posted on: Tue, 15 Apr 2014 22:10:53 +0000
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