ALBUQUERQUE BERNALILLO COUNTY
WATER UTILITY AUTHORITY
BILL NO. R-12-13 F/S (2) |
RESOLUTION
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Authorizing an Agreement with the Kirtland Air Force Base for Protecting Albuquerque’s Drinking Water and Contingency Plan Coordination
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WHEREAS, the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority (Water Authority) was established to provide safe and sustainable water supply for the Albuquerque metropolitan area; and
WHEREAS, the Water Authority has worked diligently to conserve water usage and invested more than $500 million in the San Juan-Chama Drinking Water Project to preserve and protect the aquifer and the regional water supply; and
WHEREAS, a former Kirtland Air Force Base (KAFB) bulk fuel facility leaked an estimated 24,000,000 gallons of aviation gas and jet fuel, creating what may be the largest spill of this type in the history of the United States (U.S.); and
WHERAS, the jet fuel plume has and continues to migrate from the source and represents a significant threat to the downgradient municipal water supply wells; and
WHEREAS, a concentrated plume of aviation gas and jet fuel containing benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene, ethylene dibromide (EDB) and other organic compounds is dissolving into the groundwater and extends at least a mile from its source; and
WHEREAS, The U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry characterizes Ethylene Dibromide (EDB) breakdown in ground water as “hardly at all”; and
WHEREAS, the dissolved phase plume as represented by ethylene dibromide (EDB) may arrive at the Water Authority’s Ridgecrest Well Number 5 within five years; and
WHEREAS, KAFB continues to investigate and is actively remediating the fuel spill in the vadose zone using soil vapor extraction technologies; and,
WHEREAS, KAFB has not proposed to contain or extract the dissolved phase plume; and
WHEREAS, the Water Authority, KAFB and the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) have been working cooperatively and pr...
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