New Wells To Monitor Jet Fuel Leak Delayed

New monitoring wells to try to determine the extent of groundwater contamination from a Kirtland Air Force Base aviation fuel leak will be delayed three months after one of the Air Force’s two well-drilling contractors went out of business.

One of the contractors is currently drilling wells, but the loss of the second company’s drill rigs has delayed the work, according to Air Force spokeswoman Marie Vanover.

Under a deadline set by the New Mexico Environment Department, the wells were supposed to be installed and ready for testing groundwater by Tuesday. The Environment Department last week granted the Air Force an extension until Nov. 30 to get the drilling done.

The delay drew criticism from a top official with the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority, which is worried about the risk the contamination might pose to municipal drinking water wells nearby.

“It just gives the appearance that they don’t feel the same urgency about this that we do,” said Bernalillo County Commissioner Maggie Hart-Stebbins, a member of the water utility’s governing board.

The three wells will be drilled in and near the base in an area northeast of Kirtland’s fuel loading facility, where officials in 1999 discovered that an underground fuel pipe had been leaking for decades. The fuel, possibly as much as 24 million gallons according to an analysis by an Environment Department scientist, reached groundwater and is now moving toward Albuquerque’s municipal drinking water wells.

In April, the Environment Department called the Air Force’s attempt to determine how far the contamination has traveled “inadequate,” saying it was taking too long and demanding more wells be drilled.

In response, the Air Force had pledged to get the new wells drilled by July 31.
— This article appeared on page C2 of the Albuquerque Journal