Kirtland AFB Jet Fuel Spill
Posted by Pete | Posted in News | Posted on 08-07-2010
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I don’t want to beat a dead horse, but when one dies you have to bury it and the sooner the better. (We have discussed this before.) The paper is reporting that the leak was discovered in 1999, and they say it has probably been leaking for decades prior to the discovery. Now the Air Force is proposing to drill 23 monitor wells. Air Force monitoring wells have already discovered jet fuel floating atop the aquifer, in a layer that is in some places 3 feet thick. EPA says the Air Force is not moving fast enough. Concern is that soon the fuel may reach Albuquerque drinking water…Golly Mr EPA Man, it has only been eleven years, why are you upset? Did you mean “right away”? Wonder if some of the Air Force officials are now working for BP?…. It’s not like we have a whole lot of choices when it comes to drinking water…Let’s hope they soon get some flares or recovery efforts made…Eleven years?…Wow
Most leaks do leak for decades prior to the discovery. There is nothing new about that. I’m sure that the leak in the Gulf leaked for many decades prior to the Deepwater Horizon as evidenced by all the tar balls that has been found along the Gulf Shore from time to time throughout history. It just hasn’t been leaking as much.
Personally, I cannot see where a simple jet fuel leak at Kirtland can be all that big of a problem. The storage tanks are all above ground where any leakage can be seen and monitored, and the leakage is from a known and finite source. So it takes a little time to clean up, the source and the extent of the leak is known.
In the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf nobody knows the true extent, the far-reaching affect, or the long term consequences. They just know that the spill is huge, under a very lot of water, and then very deep within the earth below that. What is going to happen as the pressure on this geological, oil bearing formation begins to wane and billions of gallons of seawater begins to penetrate through the well head into the >400 degree centigrade formation? The water will instantly turn to steam producing unfathomable pressures that will cause such a tremendous uplifting of the terrain at the bottom of the ocean, producing a tsunami that will devastate the entire Florida peninsula and perhaps the entire states of Louisiana and Mississippi as well. The Deepwater Horizon may have set us up for an unfathomable catastrophic event that, in a worse case scenario, could cause a Mt. St. Helens type of explosion one mile deep under water. In a worse case scenario, the bottom of the Mississippi Canyon could disappear overnight along with much of the overlaying water. In a better scenario, the uplifting of the ocean floor would cause a tsunami of such magnitude as to totally submerge the entire Florida peninsula as well as much of the southeastern United States. Just think, our property in Coal Fire might become valuable beachfront property overnight. What a dream this could turn out to be?
My point is that it is foolish to worry about a little fuel oil leaking around Kirtland AFB. The millions of people who live around the Gulf of Mexico and the southern USA have a much bigger issue to worry about. It could happen folks. A Mt. Saint Helens type explosion could be shaping up in our own back yard.
I’m sorry Errol but 3 feet of fuel on top of our aquifer is not good. We just don’t have the water to afford to lose any. The consumpion of fuel at Kirtland is millions of gallons per year. The Air Force just needs to get in high gear and get it cleaned up…Eleven years is long enough and the process is available for clean up to be done…
Well, I have attended several community briefings and guess what, the article is WRONG! The original leak was discovered and fixed in 1999. Only in 2007 did the base discover that leak was not totally fixed and the fuel had gotten further than they thought. The clay layers are part of the reason. The base has not dragged their feet. The impression that the base has done nothing since 1999 is way wrong.
True! The problem at Kirtland, once again, is government negligence and bureaucratic haggling. It is, again, a case of our magnificent flyboys “flying through the wild blue yonder” in order to perpetuate their magnificent careers without worrying about what happens on the ground. They did it in North Viet Nam, and they will do it again and again until they are forced to clean up their mess. It is only human nature. If you don’t believe it, just go into the nearest public rest room facility at any time of the day and see how few people willingly and automatically clean up after themselves. It is the same thing; rather it is the ordinary public using public facilities, magnificent flyboys “flying through the wild blue yonder” on a mission of defending the public, or BP employees in the Gulf cleaning up their mess while making their “big bucks”. In 1970, the Government finally got around to passing and and writing the Environmental Protection Act of that year. Fiftten years were required to create and enpower the Agency (the EPA) that it established to enforce it, only to have thousands of lazy, short sighted bureaucrats “drop the ball” in the enforcement arena.
Only 23 monitoring wells seems to me to be a bare minimum and an inadequate number for an area as large as Kirtland AFB. The EPA and the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, as the local enforcement agency of the EPA, made Ensco, Inc. (a hazardous waste disposal facility and a former American Oil Refinery site and my employer for 15 years) bore 150 monitoring wells in order to monitor a site much, much smaller in area. 23 monitoring wells is a bare minimum needed to monitor a site as large as KAFB. Perhaps our government is busted. It simply can’t afford more than that. In the case of Ensco, it is American industry (and eventually the American consuming public) that paid for it. In the case of the government, it is the American taxpayer who pays for it. The two ballparks are much different, though it all boils down to the same people who are left holding the Judas’ bag in the end.
After we did finally get the American Oil mess cleaned up, they did reduce the number of wells to about 25, but that is over a site which is still much smaller than KAFB. Environmental cleanups are costly, but they must be done if we are to continue to enjoy the benefits of modern industry and technology. There is more to technology than just iphones and computers. The polluting chemistry that goes into the manufacture of these iphones and computers, not to mention all those automobiles and trucks, must be given its due as well as us smart chemist who are working in the background to clean up the mess.
Thanks, Errol, it is something of concern for the citizens of Albuquerque. Water is more precious that oil or gold and one thing that citizens of the arid west thinks of more often than most folks….
Charles, thank you for your timely comment. We have been hitting on the base and no one from there has responded with their side of the story. We appreciate it and we are centainly happy to hear that the 1999 leak was repaired in a timely fashion….Pete