News and Articles

An article in the Journal Santa Feasks the question, "Did Santa Fe County Miss Detection Chance?" Here is Santa Fe County's response:

1. It is probable that the test well requested by the New Mexico Environment Department would not have identified the free phase contamination (gasoline) that is currently troubling the project. The County, in August of 2008, placed a well in the same location that had proposed earlier by the Environment Department. This is the well that your article claimed presented an opportunity to determine that the site had more serious problems than previously believed. The well that the County placed there in August of 2008 did not show contamination. The information gathered from the well would have been valuable to the Environment Department and it regrettable that bureaucratic snafus at the Environment Department and the County prevented gathering this important information. But, as noted, the information received from the well would not have identified the free phase hydrocarbons (gasoline) that currently trouble the project.

2. Contamination was found in wells on the extreme east and north end of the construction site. Until last summer, a building was located there that housed the County's Human Resources, Public Utility, and Community Services Departments. Unless the County had demolished this valuable office space many years ago to conduct testing, the area where the contamination was recently found could not be tested and the serious contamination now known to exist would not have been detected.

3. The courthouse site is not the source of the contamination. The site was contaminated by leaking underground gasoline storage tanks adjoining the property. One site, located at 210 and 218 Montezuma (across the street from the courthouse), has been identified by the Environment Department as having been a source of free phase contamination. Judging from the high concentrations on the North property boundary, another source of contamination may include the Texaco station that used to stand where the offices of the Albuquerque Journal now stand. There are several other potential sources of gasoline contamination in the vicinity, some of which have been investigated, and some of which have not.

4. The County conducted a thorough investigation of the entire Courthouse property in August of 2008. Working with its environmental consulting firm, the County drilled six wells across the property, positioning the wells on a line starting from the (known) contaminated Montezuma site at 210 and 218 Montezuma, across the courthouse site along what is believed to be the groundwater gradient (flow direction). The six wells revealed the presence of dissolved phase hydrocarbons, which was anticipated from information the County had gathered from previous studies. The levels detected in the County wells were far below what had been expected, and posed no construction difficulties. Indeed, a dewatering treatment plant that had been planned to assist the dewatering effort was scaled back because the contaminant levels were much less than expected. It was only when the contractor began excavating on the extreme eastern edge of the property and the extreme northern edge of the property in January and February 2009, that free phase contamination was encountered. This discovery revealed that the site was a public health hazard and construction could not be completed without addressing the problem. The County immediately hired a large environmental consulting firm (Intera Inc.) to conduct a through investigation of the free phase contamination.

5. The County intends to clean up the courthouse site, and has filed its application with the Environment Department to do so through the Voluntary Remediation Program. The County will: remove all free product from the site, remove the contaminated soil, address any remaining soil vapor issues, and address the groundwater contamination. These efforts will ultimately fail, however, without cooperation of the Environment Department to address the off-site sources of the free product. A critical goal of the County's application under the Voluntary Remediation Program is to work with the Environment Department reach a global solution.


6. It is premature to speculate on the effect of the environmental problems on the courthouse construction project. The County doesn't have enough information to make decisions on that subject, and the County is instead focused on gathering information and conducting studies. Once all the facts are in, the County will make the appropriate decisions about the project.

7. The contamination from the historic gasoline stations has become a community environmental problem - preliminary indications are that the contamination extends well beyond the Courthouse site. It is important that the County work closely with the Environment Department to remediate the problem before it becomes any more of a problem than it already is. Although the leaking underground storage tank sites may not rank as highly as other sites, an opportunity exists because of the Courthouse construction to remedy the problem now. The contamination will eventually have to be dealt with; since the County is willing to be the catalyst for a comprehensive solution, there is no better time to resolve this than now.


Roman Abeyta
Santa Fe County Manager