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| Wilson Gets Commitment For Superfund |
March 23, 1999 |
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WASHINGTON -- Congresswoman Heather Wilson today received a verbal commitment from Tim Fields, Assistant Administrator for the federal Superfund program at the Environmental Protection Agency, to begin clean-up of the AT&SF; site in the South Valley by this Summer. Fields made the commitment in a hearing before the Finance and Hazardous Waste Subcommittee of the Commerce Committee, on which the Congresswoman serves.
"The AT&SF; has been as a Superfund site for seven years and nothing has been done," Wilson said. "My constituents and I take this administrator at his word, that the remedial investigation feasibility study will be completed by April of this year. A plan to clean-up the site will be completed by June and actual clean-up will begin this Summer."
Wilson had written a letter to Carol Browner Administrator of the EPA in October to encourage expedited clean-up of two Superfund sites in the Albuquerque area after Wilson toured the AT&SF; Superfund site. The site had been placed on a National Priority List in 1992.
The AT&SF; site is an abandoned wood preserving facility in an industrial area of the South Valley that threatens Albuquerque`s limited water supply. There are 166 wells -- 15 City of Albuquerque, 3 Kirtland Air Force Base and 148 private -- within 4 miles of the site that serve an estimated 43,500 people. Depth to ground water is approximately 20 feet. Ground water contaminants include arsenic, barium, lead, and creosote constituents, among others.
"People in the South Valley have waited long enough for their neighborhoods to be cleaned up," Wilson said. "This is an urban site that has been passed over for the past seven years. Until it is cleaned up, businesses won`t locate near it and good jobs won`t come. It is long past time to do this job."
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