Fruit Avenue Plume

Site Description

The Fruit Avenue is located predominantly in the central business district of the city of Albuquerque, New Mexico. The site of a dry cleaning business from 1940 - 1970, the groundwater is contaminated with trichloroethylene (TCE). Approximately 187,000 people receive their drinking water from wells within a four-mile radius of site, and two hospital wells (no longer in service) and two city of Albuquerque wells are within 1 3/4 miles of the site.

Current Site Status and Cleanup Actions to Date

• The site was added to the EPA s National Priority List (NPL) in October 1999, and the studies determining the extent of the contamination were completed in March 2001. That June, EPA proposed to cleanup the site using a variety of methods including soil vapor extraction and ground water extraction with air stripping (PDF 528KB, 2 pages) and activated carbon filtration.
• EPA selected the final cleanup plan in September 2001. In June 2003, EPA completed the design of the cleanup plan. Upon completion of the cleanup work, the groundwater will be within acceptable federal drinking water standards.
• EPA and the New Mexico Environment Department have participated in numerous open houses throughout the Superfund process.
• EPA has provided a Technical Assistance Grant (TAG) to the Downtown Action Team, a group of downtown small business leaders in May 2002.
• EPA will continue to ensure that the area water supply meets the federal drinking water standards, using data generated from the city of Albuquerque public water supply monitoring program.
• EPA continues to monitor the site to ensure there is no immediate threat to human health or the environment pending the start of long-term cleanup work.

Current Funding Status

• EPA has spent approximately $1,250,000 on investigation and design work at the site.
• Region 6 will receive $4,000,000 to begin construction of the remedy in Fiscal Year 2003; an additional $1,800,000 will be available in 2004 to complete the remedy.

For more information on this site, please read the Fact Sheet (PDF 753KB, 6 pages) on the Region 6 Superfund Web site.

Key Accomplishments