Funding to mitigate the massive underground fuel plume at the Naval Base Point Loma (NBPL) took one legislative step forward last week. Congresswoman Susan Davis (D-San Diego), who continues to monitor the Navy’s cleanup and mitigation efforts, recently inserted language into the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) affirming the government’s desire to see the military act as quickly as possible.
On May 3, Davis and fellow members of the House Armed Services Committee passed the act, which approves defense projects to be considered for funding at a later date. The passage authored by Davis states that the committee expects the Navy to expedite fuel extraction efforts, as well as the military construction project planned to replace the base’s 50 aging tanks in 2008.
And while the language inserted does not mandate any specific actions or contain regulatory power, it is a formal acknowledgement of Washington’s position.
“[Davis] just wanted to put everyone on record so the legislative branch is committed to finishing the project,” said Aaron Hunter, Davis’ press secretary. “She wants to make sure that everybody is moving forward on this.”
Davis also maintains continuous dialogue about the plume with Secretary of the Navy Donald Winter, who arrived in San Diego on Wednesday, May 8, to address the San Diego Military Advisory Council. NBPL Commanding Officer Capt. Mark Patton did not miss the opportunity to personally update Winter.
“I am briefing the Secretary of the Navy during this visit on the fuel plume issue,” Patton said. “That says right there that this is getting the highest levels of attention in the Navy.”
The plume contains an estimated 1.5 million gallons of leaked jet and diesel fuel within 340 yards of the San Diego Bay. The Navy went public with the plume Nov. 7 after discovering that it had unexpectedly migrated north toward the base’s border with the La Playa community.
According to Patton, fuel began dripping from the bottom of one of the 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.
For five years, the Navy has collaborated with state and local agencies to extract the fuel and water mixture from the ground, as well as plan a tank replacement project. 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.
The Navy has simultaneously pursued a project to replace the 27 aboveground and 23 underground tanks with 10 state-of-the-art mega-tanks. As one of the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserves, the submarine base stores roughly 42 million gallons of fuel on site for the Navy, Army, Marine Corps and Air Force.
Patton said that funds have already been programmed for the project: $115 million over three years in the Defense Energy Supply Center budget and $20 million from Navy Environmental Restoration funds. The $135 million price tag is $10 million more than initial estimates presented at a community meeting on March 20.
The first dollars are scheduled to be released in fiscal year 2008, or October 2007. The project is currently in the lengthy environmental assessment phase, though Patton expects the planning to be 90 percent finished by January 2007. The public review process is slated for February 2007, the money will follow in October and a contract should be ready for bids by December. Should all of the prerequisites be completed on time, construction could begin in early 2008.
“We are going as aggressively and as rapidly as possible and we are getting a lot of congressional support to make sure that the money keeps up with us,” Patton said.
It is not necessary to complete the cleanup before installing the mega-tanks, he added, even though they will be located in the same area as the old tanks and the plume.
In the meantime, the Navy continues to recover product from the ground, monitor the plume’s movement and growth, and test for potential health risks.
Because of the plume’s vicinity to private property, the Navy is requesting permits to establish one or two investigation wells within the community to quell neighborhood concerns.
“The state has asked us and we concur that we want to dig these to make sure [the plume has not moved north],” Patton said, adding that they have identified the best locations, but will need permission from residents.
Patton does not expect the plume to have invaded La Playa. In fact, he said that recent mapping suggests that the plume has decreased in size.
“It’s positive and it shows that we’ve managed to pull back the amount of product near the federal property line,” he said of preliminary drawings.
In order to ensure an accurate map, the Navy stopped recovery efforts for two weeks and allowed the plume to stabilize. The most recent mapping incorporated seismic and resistivity measurements and covers a wider area than previous drawings. Patton attributes the larger scale to more sensitive technology, which was able to detect thin areas of fuel not seen before.
Patton, Davis, District 2 Councilman Kevin Faulconer and other officials will present the new maps and provide updates on the tank replacement project during another town hall meeting on July 6 at 6 p.m. at the Portuguese SES Hall, 2818 Avenida De Portugal.