Environment Department calls Kirtland jet fuel characterization “inadequate”

As I reported this morning, the New Mexico Environment Department is none too pleased with the Air Force’s efforts to figure out how far jet fuel from a decades-long leak has spread beneath southeast Albuquerque:

Kirtland Air Force Base’s efforts to determine the extent of jet fuel groundwater contamination are “inadequate,” according to the New Mexico Environment Department, which is demanding new, deeper monitoring wells to determine the risk to Albuquerque drinking water wells.

The criticism, leveled in a letter Friday, comes after the latest Air Force data show contamination from a decades-old leak migrating northeast beneath southeast Albuquerque with no clear picture of how close the fuel is to the wells that provide drinking water to area neighborhoods.

For those who would like to pursue this in more detail: a link to the Air Force April 2 letter laying out its plan for further characterization (pdf from the NMED’s Kirtland docs web site) and here’s the Friday letter, which doesn’t look like it’s made it to the NMED web site yet (scroll past the Scribd window for a direct download):
4/13/2012 NMED letter requiring further Kirtland Air Force Base groundwater characterization