welcome Chris Gierke.

Thanks for  joining me on New Mexico in Focus.

The Air Force announced a 16.6  million dollar contract to AECCOM   and Bryce for a pilot project at Cannon Air  Force Base.

It'll be a water treatment system   installed at the southeastern portion  of the base to treat PFOA and PFOS.

It'll test three different pump and treat methods  what are you trying to learn from this project?

>>Well, so, to step back a little bit.

This  project is more than just a pilot study, so   in the comprehensive environmental response  compensation and liability acts of CERCLA,   before you're able to do any interim  actions we must perform what is called   an in Engineering Evaluation Cost Analysis  so that takes a look at all the different   treatment options and data that's available  to us and then provides us different options   on executing an interim corrective measure and  so that's what this project is is we have an   eca is the engineering evaluation cost analysis  you'll hear it commonly referred to as an eca   with a pilot study so with that pilot study  it's going to feed data in there to give us more   information to finalize a full interim corrective  measure that can be implemented here while we're   going through our remedial investigation so with  that with our knowledge of our groundwater flow   the aquifer and the information that we had pulled  from the site investigation through rpfos before   we looked that the best location for this pilot  study would be at the southeast corner because   that is typically where the groundwater closed  out of and that's also where we saw our highest   ppos pifoa impacts and so with that this pilot  study with the our extraction wells the data that   it's going to help provide us is one it's going to  show us capture zones so how close how far apart   do these extraction wells need to be put also in  this process they're going to be pulling samples   so they'll do a treatability study so they're  going to look at either granulated active carbon   ion exchange or combination of the two  to determine what is the best method for   treating phosphifoa so there'll be that study  portion of it and then once that is completed   then they'll go into the design and the actual  construction of the pilot study that'll get put in   and then throughout the operation of the pilot  study that data the samples will be taken and   it will help inform that eco at the conclusion  of this process then we'll take the information   from the eca and if it does inform us that  a full-scale pump-and-treat system will be   the most viable option for treating the  the aquifer here at cannon air force base   then this system the pilot study that  we created is done in a way where it's   flexible and made to be expanded upon so then  we can go back and actually expand this system   quite easily to go to a full-scale pump and treat  system on the base so what kind of a timeline are   we looking at just for this pilot project when  the system will be built and when when water will   start being pumped thank you for that uh so  actually this is going to be a very fast project   we've already had on the second so we were awarded  the contract on or we awarded the contract on   may 27th and we had our first site visit from the  contractor on june 2nd followed up shortly with   june 8th we had our actual kickoff meeting with  the contractors here at the base to perform   additional site visits and planning so with  that they will actually be out on the base   on the 14th to start pulling the samples to do  that treatability study so we're going to roll   right into that treatability study in the design  phase very quickly with tentative plans for   you know construction to start around early  next year and with that it'll be about   and and these are tentative right now but  about a one year construction time frame   and then that will be when the  operation will begin and we'll start   collecting the actual samples and data from  that and so yes the the pumping and treating   portion of that will commence then so looking  at early 2023 for the actual operation to start   okay so the air force press release says it can  pump 600 gallons a minute to remove pfos and pfoa   what happens to that water once it's been  treated for those two specific types of pur   and polyfluoroalkyl substances and then  what happens to the pfas and the pifoa   that's taken out of the water so right now  the treated water will be re-injected back   into the aquifer so we'll take it out treat  it and then replenish it back into the aquifer   right now as far as the disposal of uh used  filtration equipment that will depend on   where we're at in the regulatory process down  the road because things are changing so as   new guidelines come out that will affect how we  handle that waste that's generated at that time so   whatever the current regulations are is what the  air force will strictly follow so if you find out   that this pump and tree system works or one of  these particular systems works better than others   is this something that you can tie into the larger  water system tie into the city of clovis's water   system kind of what's the future look like here uh  with this i mean we're right now just looking at   the the current pilot study with the eco so we can  get an interim action and with this interim action   it's looking at the for the most part it's to  mitigate any further off-base migration of people   so those further interactions with potential of  clovis and stuff i can't say for sure but we are   partnering in with our local community doing our  public meetings so we open all public groups to   come out there and bring comments and concerns  and questions and participate in that manner   so you and i have talked in the past about a  remedial investigation contract that was awarded   i think last summer in august 2020. can you give  me an update on where that is if that work has   started yet and what that remedial investigation  is and how it ties into this pilot project   absolutely uh so with the remedial investigation  the last time we talked was we're going through   the process of developing that work plan  and that'll have to go out for a 30-day   regulatory review we'll get that back and we'll  incorporate those comments into it and then we   can finalize that and actually go commence field  work right now the the field work was slated to   start in october of this year uh right now we  are actually working to get that regulatory   30-day comment period going now so we're a little  ahead of the curve so it just depends on how many   comments we get and what it takes to incorporate  those into the work plan and then finalize it   because once we get that finalized we can  actually start work as soon as possible um   we've been closely working with our contractor to  make sure that once we have that finalized we can   start work as soon as possible and the first stage  that we're planning will be collecting off-base   ground water samples and soil samples from the  local outside area to help start delineating that   pfos people impact off base so there's a long  lead time between the awarding of that contract   and the development of a work plan and the  implementation of the field work the pilot project   contract seemed to come together a lot more  quickly can you talk about why that is and how   how that sort of thing happens so it's it's  a different process with the ri it was going   through our normal mechanisms for acquisition and  with the work plan it is a lot more in-depth and   as we go through this other one with the eco and  pilot study there will be a work plan but they're   doing they have have some upfront work that's  already done for the sampling portions of their   work plan so they can do their bench scale testing  and studying and analysis so as that's going   they'll be developing their work plan in  tandem whereas with the remedial investigation   there's no work that could be done up front  this work plan needs to be fully developed   and finalized embedded so we are pushing that  as quickly as possible and as i said hopefully   we're shooting to be out ahead of schedule  so that that is our goal to keep pushing   as quickly as possible and with your other  question that you asked is how will these two   interact as they get out into the field and start  collecting data from the remedial investigation   all of that data will be sent over to the eco  contractors and that will actually go into   formally you know fully developing those potential  interim actions okay so the air force and aecom   have done these sort of pilot projects elsewhere  like wright-patterson air force base what have you   already learned about the process of pumping and  treating these two pfos and pfoa and why do these   different methods need to keep being  tested in different pilot projects   for us here at cannon air force base this  pilot study is important because each area   that you go to has different chemistry in their  water so as some are familiar in closed mexico   and the surrounding areas we do have very  hard water and so that has to be taken in   consideration in your design and how you build it  because when we do a full scale system on this we   want to make sure that we build something that is  going to last and we don't want to have to go in   there and keep replacing it and we don't want to  potentially have what is called breakthrough so   you want to build the system in a way that it has  long-term effective usefulness on it and so that's   where these pilot studies come in handy to be able  to come in here and with this not only will it   also feed information to give us a a better eca  but we'll have the basic infrastructure there   so at the end of this and eco when it's  done we'll be able to go to a full-scale   setup in most of the infrastructures there already  a lot of times when it comes to an interim action   you may only do anika so that eco process may  take a year or two and then you get to start   the process of putting that interim corrective  measure in place with this we're ahead of the   curve by having the pilot study in there and if  it does show us that that full scale is the best   option we've got that infrastructure there we  can expand on it and continue operation as it is   but expand it to the full scale operations so  what would you like people living on the base   and near the base to understand about this  project and clean up efforts going forward   well i think the biggest thing that i would  like them to understand is and in our last   public meeting we've said it that we do listen we  would like you all to become you know come to our   public meetings participate we are listening we  hear your concerns we understand that everybody's   concerned is clean water in and around the areas  they want us to take action and this is what   we're doing we've pushed hard and strive to push  this investigation forward as rapidly as possible   and have looked for different methods that we  can implement to meet the community's needs and   concerns and with this eco project and pilot  project we believe that that's really meeting   the need and that first step towards a  full-scale interim corrective measure   and you have a public meeting coming up  soon can you tell our audience about that   yes that'll be june 14th it'll be via zoom and  it will be 5 o'clock p.m mountain standard time   till 6 30 and we have put out a press release  on that and then on our pa website under the   environmental tab contains the information  to attend that and everyone is welcome to   join and attend and then if you are not able  to attend that we do record these sessions   and make it available at the same location all  right chris thank you so much for joining me   on new mexico infocus i look forward to continuing  the conversation thank you thank you for having me