FORT DRUM — Six of the seven wells that were shut down in 2006 for fear of contamination from a fuel spill are ready to be reopened, according to Fort Drum officials.
The wells just have to be approved by the state Department of Health before that can happen.
"None of them were contaminated by the spill; they never were," said James W. Corriveau, Fort Drum's public works director. "Some were located really close to the site and probably won't be used again. If we draw from those wells it could disrupt the recovery process."
The fuel spill was near an aircraft refueling station on Wheeler-Sack Army Airfield, and the last estimates released in May estimated there were 350,000 gallons of jet fuel sitting 44 feet below the ground. To date, 42,000 gallons of fuel have been recovered from the plume that is 450 feet by 550 feet.
The cleanup of the site is projected to cost $16 million and take until 2012 to complete. The restoration of the refueling site, which includes upgrades to storage tanks, piping and a system of alarms to warn when there is a leak, has cost $8 million to date. The bill for the cleanup and restoration is being paid by the Defense Energy Support Center in Fort Belvoir, Va.
Mr. Corriveau did not have an estimate of what the entire upgrade would cost, but said it was nearing completion.
"There never was comprehensive construction on the site since it was built in 1991, so what's being done is a reworking of the whole site," he said.
When the fuel leak was found in 2006, Fort Drum shut off access to the on-post water sources and started pumping in all water from the city of Watertown through the Development Authority of the North Country line.
Before the state Health Department will approve the use of the wells, Fort Drum must finish a study on the groundwater and how it shifts under the ground. This would help to determine how the groundwater flows and to estimate how long it would take for contaminants from the spill to reach the wells.
"We are convinced that there is not an immediate risk to the wells," said Gary McCullouch, the regional spill engineer with the state Department of Environmental Conservation, which has monitored the cleanup process. "We want to make sure the use of the wells doesn't change the characteristics of where the oil is in the ground."
Guardian wells would have to be installed as a buffer between the spill area and where the drinking wells are, and would require monthly testing by officials on Fort Drum.
The recovery pumps are extracting about 1,500 gallons of jet fuel from the ground each month. After all of the free fuel is removed from the ground, the next step is to clear the soil above the spill that may be contaminated.
"Pumping out the free-product plume is the first and easiest step," Mr. Corriveau said.
