What is the problem?
A 58-acre underground plume of toxic chemicals stretches from the Norge Town Cleaners on Railroad Avenue south to the Rio Grande. The plume has contaminated at least 280 million gallons of water, forced the closure of two city wells and threatened to spread into the river.
Since 1999, the plume has been listed as a federal Superfund site, a designation reserved for the worst toxic spills in the country. Because of cuts to the Superfund budget, however, the $3.6 million clean-up effort did not received funding until this year.
How did it happen?
Two west side drinking water wells were found contaminated with dry cleaning chemicals in 1989. The contamination was traced back to Norge Town, whose former owners apparently had dumped chemicals into the ground behind the cleaners for years. Norge Town had been in operation for about 20 years by the time the contamination was discovered.
The current owners had nothing to do with the contamination.
Should you be worried?
For the most part, health and environmental officials say, no. The contaminated wells have not been used since 1989, and the city’s other drinking water wells are tested regularly and have shown no contamination. Except in the immediate surroundings of the dry cleaners, the toxic chemicals are confined to the underground aquifer, which means they would only be encountered by digging deep to the water table.
However, a private irrigation well in the southwest part of the city was recently found contaminated. Contact with the chemicals, including breathing their fumes, can be hazardous. The chemicals have been linked to cancer, nervous system disorders, birth defects and kidney problems.
What is happening now?
A major clean-up effort is set to get underway this month. The project will involve the digging of 99 wells and construction of two small treatment facilities. Parts of the clean-up effort could continue for as long as 30 years.
How Will They Clean It?
Work crews contracted by the state Environmental Department began drilling treatment wells on August 1, 2005, around the city and on Santa Clara Pueblo. In all, the project will include 99 wells and two small treatment facilities — one behind Norge Town Cleaners on North Railroad Ave. and one on Santa Clara land.
New Mexico Environment Department Project Manager Stever Jetter said drilling of the treatment wells should be completed in late 2005. Then, he said, a process known as surfectant flooding would begin in the area around Norge Town.
Jetter compared surfectants to laundry detergent, designed to break the toxic chemicals free from the ground around the cleaners in the way detergent breaks dirt and stains free from clothing.
The surfectants and chemicals will then be pumped out of the ground and treated at a small facility built behind the cleaners, before being hauled away. The surfectants are bio-degradable.
Jetter said that phase of the project would take about a month and was designed to prevent chemicals in the ground from continuing to spread into the aquifer.
"In a month, we will have removed a good chunk of the source of the problem," he said.
However, treating the contamination that has already spread into groundwater will take much longer, he said.
That part of the job will rely on bio-remediation. Essentially, contractors will use pairs of injection and extraction wells in an effort to bolster naturally-occuring micro-organisms that feed on the chemicals. At first, officials will inject nutrients designed to aid the growth and reproduction of already-existing micro-organisms. If that doesn't work fast enough, they may also inject additional organisms, Jetter said.
Crews will also build a "bio-barrier" on Santa Clara land intended to stop the spread of the plume south toward the river.
Jetter said that while the plume would be dramatically reduced within 10 years, it could take thirty years or more to complete the project.
Information
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Information Page
MAP 1 - Sites
MAP 2 - Migration
MAP 3 - Health Information
History
Area Declared Superfund Site - 1/19/99
Federal Officials Explain Plume - 5/8/03
