What are they drilling for?

By Helen Davis
Cibola County Bureau

GRANTS — Drilling rigs and tight-lipped crews are raising questions around Grants.

This week, drilling crews have been at work on shallow wells near Mesa View Elementary School as part of an ongoing Super Fund project to clean up contamination to groundwater.

The Environmental Protection Agency began the project several years ago to trace underground movements of chlorinated solvent and other pollutants from dry cleaning facilities and an old telephone yard, said John Rhoderick of the Environment Department office in Grants. In the past year and a half, the EPA stepped up the drilling around town.

Contaminates in the water form what engineers call a plume, or concentration of chemicals, that travels underground. By drilling shallow wells along the anticipated path of the plume, researchers can monitor the direction and speed of the chemicals.

Rhoderick said that once the location of the plume is established, wells would be used to draw contaminated water that can be pumped out and evaporated to remove the hazard.

The chemicals can turn up in the air, as well, said Rhoderick. There is no risk from chemicals in open air, but Rhoderick said they could present a problem if they seep into homes. One aspect of the project is to identify where airborne chemicals will be present. Rhoderick said they have not found any contaminated homes in the Mesa View area. Contaminates found in homes can be filtered out.

A spokesman at the elementary school said the Mesa View was told of the drilling before it began and has so far not received any questions or comments from parents.