One of our biggest stories of 2013 was “The Environmental Disaster You’ve Never Heard Of: Albuquerque’s Kirtland Air Force Base jet fuel spill” (v.22, i.48). In it, author David Correia lays out a mountain of evidence about a fuel spill right here in ABQ that’s twice the size of the Exxon Valdez disaster. Correia recently appeared on KUNM’s The Spitz Report to discuss his Alibi article, just how big the ongoing hemorrhage of jet fuel has been, the impact on the aquifer and what’s most frustrating about Kirtland’s response. As he explains to host Stephen Spitz,

“They were leaking jet fuel and aviation gas. ... Kirtland Air Force Base agreed to an estimate of 8 million gallons a few years ago; the New Mexico Environmental Department suggested it could be as high as 24 million gallons, so it’s somewhere in there, in that range. … But even if it’s a conservative estimate, it still makes this the largest underground toxic release in US history. That’s uncontested.”

If you missed our in-depth look at this shocking environmental catastrophe in Burque’s own backyard, catch it here, as well as the response from an Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority board member in our Letters section. Listen to Correia’s informed and informative full broadcast on KUNM here.