RESOLUTION TO PROTECT ALBUQUERQUE’S DRINKING WATER

Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority

Whereas, Albuquerque has the largest underground contamination threatening any city’s drinking water aquifer in the history of the U.S., now estimated at 24,000,000 gallons, more than twice the Exxon-Valdez spill;

Whereas, a dissolved plume of the toxic chemical Ethylene Dibromide is moving in the direction of, and is less than ¾ mile from Albuquerque’s Ridgecrest drinking water supply wells;

Whereas, The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry characterizes Ethylene Dibromide breakdown in ground water as “hardly at all”;

Whereas, Ethylene Dibromide is toxic in any quantities, can cause liver, digestive, pulmonary and kidney disease and is a suspected carcinogen;

Whereas, the Environmental Protection Agency public health goal for exposure to Ethylene Dibromide in drinking water is zero;

Whereas, Kirtland Air Force Base has no plan or technology in place to remove the dissolved plume of Ethylene Dibromide before it reaches the municipal supply wells;

Whereas, Kirtland Air Force Base has no plan or technology in place to treat the dissolved plume of Ethylene Dibromide to a level of zero before it reaches the municipal supply wells;

Whereas, there is no plan in place for treatment at the wellheads and to dispose of treated waste water containing Ethylene Dibromide;

IT IS HEREBY RESOLVED that in order to protect the public health and environment, the City of Albuquerque and its Water Utility Authority will not allow Ethylene Dibromide to enter the municipal supply wells and will not allow public exposure to Ethylene Dibromide in municipal water.