By Brian K. Murphy
Wilson County News

PLEASANTON — A 10-year-old jet-fuel spill in Wilson County took center stage Thursday as Evergreen Under-ground Water Conservation District directors discussed the status of efforts to clean up the spill.

The leak was discovered in January 1992 in a Koch Refin-ing Company’s pipeline near F.M. 775 in the Eagle Creek area. The pipeline runs roughly parallel to U.S. 181.

Some of the jet-fuel product got into the Carrizo Aquifer; however, it has not moved be-yond the perimeter of the spill site into other parts of the aqui-fer, Evergreen General Man-ager Mike Mahoney explained last week.

Remediation efforts in-cluded the construction of re-covery wells to capture the leaked jet fuel and monitoring wells to test for contamination of the underground aquifer.

To complete the process, however, a new vapor-extraction system was in-stalled at the site, explained Mahoney.

"They had pumped all the product they could through the recovery wells," he said.

The new equipment, which was installed earlier this year, will allow the remediation contractor, Reiss Environ-mental, to further reduce the percentage of product in the area.

"Within 18 to 24 months, they plan to reduce it down to 2 to 5 percent," Mahoney said.

"There is product in the Carrizo Aquifer, but it has not left the site and there is no contamination up to the out-side perimeter," Mahoney added. "At this point it is con-tained within the site. They found no product in samples taken from the outside perime-ter wells."

Director Darrell Brownlow requested an update on the 10-year-old spill after he noticed a lot of activity at the site earlier this month.

"This is basically right in the heart of the Carrizo Out-crop," Brownlow said during Thursday’s meeting.

Directors Paul Bordovsky, Edward Jarzombek, Fabian Jendrusch, William Ruple, Clifton Stacy, Steve Snider, and Kenneth Stephens also attended the meeting.

Mahoney said he expects representatives of Reiss Envi-ronmental to make a presenta-tion about the situation at the next meeting of the Ever-green’s board of directors, which is scheduled for May 30 at 9 a.m.

The board also unanimously approved a resolution opposing the passage of Senate Bill 1494.

If passed by the state legis-lature, the bill would expand and create new authority for the Bexar Metropolitan Water District (BexarMet) that could create regulatory conflicts for BexarMet and other entities, according to the resolution.

"It could encroach upon the powers of other entities north and south of Bexar County," Mahoney said later. He did not elaborate on how the proposed legislation would affect Wil-son County or its residents.

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