Residents again converged at the Portuguese S.E.S. Hall to listen to local, state and Navy leaders discuss the large fuel plume at the Naval Base Point Loma. The gathering Thursday, July 7, drew a smaller crowd and less contentious discussion than the previous meeting in March, but offered an extensive update on the plume’s location and characteristics.
Rough estimates have indicated that the mass, which lies within 340 yards of San Diego Bay, could be as large as 1.5 million gallons. Roughly 420 million gallons pass through the Strategic Petroleum Reserve each year on its way to military installations near and far.
District 2 Councilman Kevin Faulconer hosted the town hall meeting, which was attended by Commanding Officer Capt. Mark Patton, Rep. Susan Davis (D-San Diego) and Laurie Walsh of the California Regional Water Quality Control Board, the regulatory agency overseeing the Navy’s actions.
Faulconer and Davis spoke briefly about the importance of disseminating information to residents and their roles in facilitating communication from the Navy to the public. Both applauded Patton’s openness and forthcoming approach, but noted that they will continue to encourage a timely response from the Navy on all related matters.
â€ÂWe’ll make sure it doesn’t take a moment longer than expected,†Davis said, citing the release of the tank replacement project’s environmental report as the next big milestone.
Walsh agreed that Patton and the Navy have been working quickly and doing a â€Âcomprehensive job,†though she expressed concern that the extent of the plume has not yet been fully mapped nearly six years after its discovery.
Fuel began dripping from the bottom of one of the 50 aboveground tanks in 1999. The petroleum continued to seep through the dry, rocky ground until it hit the water table 50 feet below, where it spread laterally.
Sensors alerted officials to the first leak in 2000 and the Navy took one tank offline. Two more leaks were subsequently discovered in 2002 and 2003.
Since 2001, the Navy has collaborated with state and local governments to extract the fuel and water mixture from the ground. Each week the Navy removes 45,000 gallons of liquid from the affected area. Roughly 128,000 gallons of actual fuel have been pumped out of the plume to date, along with a much greater amount of water, which is extracted from the mixture and sent into the sewer system. The recovered fuel is later resold and reused.
Both Patton and Walsh confirmed that there are no more leaks after taking four tanks offline, two of which were recently emptied and found to be in perfect condition.
Patton’s presentation offered updated diagrams of the plume, as well as speculation about its unexpected move to the north, discovered last year after the board called for an investigation near the base’s border with the La Playa community. Known migration had been eastward and downhill toward the bay, which the Navy halted for years by extracting fuel from various locations.
Patton offered the first explanation of the move since the Navy went public with the leak in February. With the help of new data, he attributed the migration to hydrolic forces pushing north as the underground water table flattens, as well as small ground fractures detected by electric and seismic signals that might have guided the fuel in that direction.
The highly sensitive technology used to detect the plume now offers the most accurate picture possible of the mass to date, detecting fuel deposits only inches wide. For that reason alone, the plume is much larger than originally estimated, Patton said.
The Navy is currently using three types of wells to keep track of the fuel: recovery wells above the plume to extract the water and fuel mixture, monitoring wells near the plume that check its depth and thickness, and sentry wells outside of the plume’s known scope to watch for movement. Patton said the dozens of wells have cost $1.5 million and are a significant commitment from the Navy.
He stated that 12 new wells have been added along the plume’s perimeter and two on private property, as well as 15 vapor monitoring points to detect potential releases of harmful chemicals.
On the subject of vapors, Patton said that the leaked fuel is very stable and contains no carcinogens. Additionally, tests have found only trace detections of toluene, benzene, ethylbenzene and mp-xylene, far below the most conservative levels permitted for the area by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Walsh emphasized that her main priority is now public health, as the threat to the bay appears to be under control. She added that the Navy’s extraction efforts at the plume’s eastern edge should have the same stopping effect on the northern section.
All work taking place now is merely an interim action, Walsh continued. A final, corrective action plan should be formulated by September and implemented by November, and will be compatible with the new tank system to be constructed beginning October 2007 at a cost of $135 million.
â€ÂWe want to combine the construction of the new tanks with the permanent recovery system so that they both work together,†Patton said.
He added the Navy will continue testing the tanks and the fuel pipeline to Miramar, but said the Navy cannot pursue aggressive alternative extraction methods because of the sensitive location and volatile nature of the plume.
Faulconer requested another community forum as the information from the wells in La Playa and the September clean up plan becomes available, and Patton said he’d be happy to oblige.
â€ÂI’ll do as many town hall meetings as everyone can stand,†he said.
Detailed data from the wells are available from the board at www.geotracker.swrcb.ca.gov. Contact Walsh at (858) 467-2970 or [email protected] for directions on using the database.
For more information, visit www.house.gov/susandavis or www.cnrsw.navy.mil/News/News.htm.
