In August 2013 the NM Mercury published an article of mine entitled “Why Aren’t More People in Albuquerque Concerned about the Kirtland Jet Fuel Spill?” After working on issues related to the spill for the past 10 months, I now know much more about the spill itself and have a much better idea about why most people in Albuquerque are not particularly concerned about this major threat to our drinking water.
Here are the top ten reasons:
1. Many people, even the highly educated, have never heard about the spill. They often do not regularly read the Albuquerque Journal or pay much attention to local news. People do not talk about the spill very much in informal conversation and when it is brought up, people do not seem very interested and change the subject rather quickly.
2. If people have heard about the spill, they tend to be misinformed about it. For instance, they are under the impression that the spill is minor and confined to the Kirtland base, whereas in fact the spill is enormous (the NMED estimate is 24 million gallons, with a plume that is more than a mile long and half a mile wide—the largest in the history of the U.S.) and the majority of the contamination is now off the base and underneath SE Albuquerque neighborhoods.
3. Similarly, people frequently believe that the spill is confined to the soil (vadose region) and do not realize that the toxic contamination has now traveled 500 feet down into our aquifer where it has been spreading and dissolving for over 10 years (although the contamination was officially acknowledged by KAFB to be in the aquifer in 2007, emails from Kirtland reveal that they were seeing elevated ethylene dibromide (EDB) levels in the aquifer as early as 2001).
4. Another popular misconception is that the spill only affects the neighborhood adjacent to Kirtland. Since this neighborhood, the “international district,” is one of the poorest in Albuquerque, people may tend to ignore the spill for the same reasons that they ignore this part of town. In fact, however, the spill is a serious problem for all of Albuquerque and the surrounding region. The Ridgecrest wells, which are about half a mile from the (estimated) leading edge of the plume, are extremely productive wells (supplying approximately 20% of the water from the aquifer) with unusually pure water containing little or no arsenic. Water from the Ridgecrest wells is thus in high demand to blend with the arsenic-laden water from other drinking wells to make it conform to EPA arsenic levels. If the Ridgecrest wells become contaminated with EDB and have to be shut down, the entire city will suffer a water crisis due to rising arsenic levels and insufficient supply of uncontaminated water (the drought and reduced river water levels will contribute to the crisis). Moreover, if the Ridgecrest wells are shut down, the EDB contamination will continue to spread through the aquifer towards other drinking wells.
5. People are unaware of the unique dangers which EDB poses to our water supply. The Kirtland contamination, which is composed of three different types of jet fuel, contains not only EDB but also contaminants such as benzene, toluene, etc. However the EDB contamination is by far the most serious, for several reasons. First, unlike other contaminants, EDB is soluble in water, which makes removal more challenging. Second, EDB is extremely carcinogenic; it is #1 on the HERP (Human Exposure/Rodent Potency) index of carcinogenic hazards. Finally, EDB is toxic at very low levels of exposure. Fifty parts per trillion is the official maximum contaminant level (MCL), although the EPA goal for exposure is zero. Although the exact quantity of EDB in the aquifer is not known, we do know that one teaspoon of EDB can contaminate 28 million gallons of water. It is highly probable, if not certain, that there is currently enough EDB in the aquifer to contaminate the entire aquifer, which it will if not removed.
6. Some people who know the basics about the spill believe that Kirtland and NMED “are taking care of it.” This is not surprising since Kirtland is putting most of its energy into public relations, attempting to placate the public rather than informing them. The Citizen Advisory Board meetings that Kirtland holds every three months are classic examples of obfuscation and projection of the illusion of efficacy. Men in suits or military uniforms smile a lot and present irrelevant or misleading information that is designed to give the appearance that “everything is fine and we are taking care of this.” Sometimes they lie. For instance, earlier this year, one NMED official told the crowd that “this is not an exceptionally large spill” and that it can be easily cleaned up. Kirtland officials have given the impression that its soil vapor extraction (SVE) efforts will remove the contamination from the aquifer, which is false. SVE can only remove contamination from the soil, and the large majority of the contamination (over 80%) is currently in the aquifer. To date, not one gallon of contamination has been removed from the aquifer.
7. People believe that we have “plenty of time” to clean it up, since recent modeling estimates from the EPA and others have concluded that it will take 30-40 years for the EDB to reach the Ridgecrest drinking wells. In fact, these recent attempts to model the spill are highly biased and fraudulent. In February of this year, I (along with others from Citizen Action NM) wrote an editorial for the Journal critiquing the draft EPA report by Scott Ellinger that concluded that it will be 30 years before the EDB reaches the Ridgecrest drinking wells. This draft report used a sophisticated mathematical model but suffered from inadequate data. Given the substantial data gaps, several extremely problematic data substitution decisions were made, all of which biased the conclusions so as to underestimate the velocity of the contamination and overestimate the amount of time before the EDB reaches the drinking wells. The NMED estimate of 5-7 years is more realistic, although no accurate predictions can be made until the exact size, location and speed of the toxic plume are specified. It is outrageous that neither Kirtland nor NMED has accurately characterized the parameters of the spill more than 20 years after it was discovered (KAFB officially acknowledged the spill in 1999, but internal documents revealed through FOIA indicate that they knew about the spill at least as early as 1992).
8. KAFB and the military in general inspire a high degree of respect in many people. There exists, in fact, a Kirtland Partnership Committee whose mission is to “support, preserve and grow” KAFB. Kirtland supporters do not want to acknowledge its gross negligence in allowing the fuel to leak for decades and in failing to effectively remediate the spill for over 20 years. They are not willing to admit that Kirtland officials may be misrepresenting the truth. Kirtland is also the city’s largest employer, and some fear economic repercussions if Kirtland is held accountable for the spill. Senator Sue Beffort, for instance, testified in the legislature earlier this year against HJM 13 (a Citizen Action sponsored memorial that mandates the creation of a task force of experts to analyze and make recommendations about the spill) by saying that the memorial was “disrespectful to Kirtland.” She went on to talk about the importance of Kirtland to the economy of Albuquerque and New Mexico. Senator Beffort apparently does not realize that safe drinking water is also vital to the economy of our city.
9. The media coverage that the spill has received is often biased in favor of Kirtland and NMED, and appears reluctant to criticize their efforts. This can be seen, for instance, in the recent PBS Newshour story about the spill. The vast majority of the air time was given to Kirtland, NMED, and ABCWUA official spokespeople. Dave McCoy of Citizen Action got about 30 seconds and I got about 10 seconds (from an interview that lasted over 30 minutes, during which I spoke at length about the negligence and ineptitude of KAFB and NMED and the need to create an independent task force of experts). Another glaring example of biased media coverage is the fact that the extremely flawed draft EPA report (see #7 above) was trumpeted by John Fleck as the lead story on the front page of the Albuquerque Journal on Jan. 14, 2014,announcing that the crisis is over and we have 30 years before the contamination is a problem. It should also be noted that the 100 member Board of the Kirtland Partnership Committee includes Bill Anderson, President and General Manager of KRQE-TV and KASA-TV.
10. The spill is never mentioned by our mayor or our governor. This gives people the impression that it must not be a serious problem. Governor Martinez, in fact, as one of her first acts after taking office in 2012, removed James Bearzi as the Director of NMED. Bearzi had written five letters to Kirtland in 2011 demanding action on the spill and threatening fines if action did not occur. After Bearzi was removed, Gov. Martinez wrote in a letter that she advocated a “kinder, gentler approach” to Kirtland. Now we have Ryan Flynn as NMED Director. He is certainly kinder and gentler towards Kirtland; in fact, he is currently employed by Kirtland, as well as by NMED.
What can be done? There are strategies that can be used for containment and cleanup, but given the size of the spill and the unique challenges of EDB removal, remediation will not be simple, easy, or fast. Kirtland and NMED officials have proven to be inept and untrustworthy and we need to bring in an independent task force of experts to characterize the exact parameters of the spill and make recommendations for remediation. Earlier this year, Citizen Action got HJM 13, which mandates such a task force, passed by the NM legislature, although so far no implementation has occurred. Everyone concerned about the spill should contact the offices of Senators Udall and Heinrich and Rep. Lujan Grisham and demand that HJM 13 be implemented.
I am convinced that sustained public mobilization and pressure on public officials is our only hope for achieving remediation of the spill before it results in a catastrophic contamination of our drinking water. If you want to learn more about the spill and opportunities for involvement, go to the Citizen Action NM webpage where you can read informative documents about the spill or watch CANM’s recent teach-in. Everyone who cares about the future of Albuquerque has an obligation to get informed, inform others, and demand action to protect our drinking water for ourselves and future generations.
June 23, 2014