State and federal officials are becoming increasingly confident they'll be able to clean up a massive plume of jet fuel at the edge of Albuquerque before it reaches drinking water wells.
Kirtland Air Force Base and state environment officials will be updating the public on the effort during a meeting Thursday evening.
A pump-and-treat system began operating earlier this month, and officials have plans to bring more extraction wells online before the end of the year. More monitoring wells are also planned.
Environment Department geologist Dennis McQuillan says those will help determine how far north the contamination extends.
First detected in 1999, the fuel leak is believed to have been seeping into the ground for decades. Estimates of the amount of fuel spilled range from 6 million to 24 million gallons.
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