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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Albuquerque neighborhoods atop an underground fuel plume caused by a massive leak on Kirtland Air Force Base can expect to host more monitoring wells in the new year, officials said during a public meeting on the leak Thursday evening.

Swiftly rising water table levels underground have taken 53 of about 150 of the existing wells out of commission, according to the New Mexico Environment Department.

“There is a crucial need to install groundwater monitoring wells and sentinel wells to be able to provide continued confidence in the EDB (ethylene dibromide) extent,” said Diane Agnew, a hydrologist with the New Mexico Environment Department.

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More than 150 wells have been dug on and around the plume to measure levels of the toxic chemical EDB, which floats atop the groundwater.

The water table was previously rising at two to three feet per year, Agnew said.

It has now risen five feet in the last six months, she said.

If the devices in the wells that test EDB levels are too far underwater, they’re no longer effective.

Kate Lynnes, senior advisor on the clean-up for the U.S. Air Force, said there are still enough working wells to monitor the plume for now.

“There’s still an adequate network,” Lynnes told the Journal on Friday. “If the water continues to go up at this rate, we’re going to need some new ones.”

Lynnes said the work plan for new wells has not been completed, but she estimated that they’ll need to put in around 10 more sentinel wells, which sit outside the plume area and are used to determine whether the plume is spreading.

She was unsure of how many monitoring wells would be needed. Those sit atop the plume and measure EDB levels.

Lynnes said drilling of those wells may start at the beginning of 2018.

The majority of Thursday’s meeting was spent discussing two recently submitted reports, which largely detail information that was already suspected or known about the leak and resulting plume.

Lynnes detailed the findings of the Risk Assessment report, which analyzed potential adverse health effects of the leak. It found no current or future health concerns on- or off-base for workers and residents of the area.

The report examined possible pathways to humans through groundwater, soil and soil vapor. While groundwater is contaminated above legal drinking water limits, there is no way for it to get to humans at this point, Lynnes said.

“We’re here to commit to cleaning this plume up. That’s why we’re here, that’s what we’re going to do,” Lynnes said. “But we wanted to show that you’re safe while we’re doing that.”

The other report, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act Facility Investigation, is a 4,000-page document containing detailed data taken from the leak.

The reports will be used in eventually identifying final corrective actions for the leak.