ALBUQUERQUE BERNALILLO COUNTY
WATER UTILITY AUTHORITY
BILL NO. R-12-14 |
RESOLUTION
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Protecting Albuquerque's Water Supply
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WHEREAS, Albuquerque has the largest underground contamination threatening any city's drinking water aquifer in the history of the U.S., now estimated at 24,000,000 gallons, more than twice the Exxon-Valdez spill; and
WHEREAS, the Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico Environment Department, and other experts do not deny that a dissolved plume of the toxic chemical contamination from Ethylene Dibromide (EDB) may arrive at the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority's five Ridgecrest well number 5 within five years; and
WHEREAS, The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry characterizes Ethylene Dibromide (EDB) breakdown in ground water as “hardly at all”; and
WHEREAS, a liquid plume of jet fuel (LNAPL) containing Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene, Xylene and other toxic components is dissolving into groundwater and extends to a mile long and a half mile wide; and
WHEREAS, Soil Vapor Extraction technology cannot remove the LNAPL to keep it from moving further toward Albuquerque's municipal drinking water wells; and
WHEREAS, although the Air Force recognized the spill in 1997, there is still only poor understanding of the size, depth and rate of the expansion of the plume of contamination; and
WHEREAS, there is no approved containment plan, no remediation plan, or ongoing effort to remove the liquid portion of the jet fuel (LNAPL) and the dissolved plume of EDB from Albuquerque's drinking water aquifer; and
WHEREAS, the full size of the dissolved EDB plume is unknown and there are no monitoring wells close to the city wells; and
WHEREAS, The City of Albuquerque and Bernalillo County joint Water Utility Authority is the only governmental entity that can demand that the Air Force take action to implement treatment technology to save the City's highly productive Ridgecrest ...
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