Hazardous Substance Research Centers/South & Southwest

Site description
The Nine-Mile Hill Landfill is a closed municipal solid waste landfill, which was in use from 1962 until 1979. The landfill is located approximately nine miles west of the City of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Approximately half of the fifty-acre site was used as a municipal solid waste landfill, with the other half was partly used for the aeration of petroleum contaminated soils and partly used for gravel extraction for road construction.

In 1999, a passive soil gas survey using Gore-Sorbers was completed on the site. Mass numbers in the parts per billion range were detected for TCE, PCE, BTEX and Chloroform. The New Mexico Environment Department, through its Voluntary Remediation Program, is requesting that Bernalillo County complete soil sampling in the locations at which high mass numbers of the mentioned contaminants were found and conduct an investigation to determine the presence of methane. If methane is found it is likely that a monitoring program will need to be completed.

Summary of assistance
The South & Southwest TAB program staff outreach specialists are working with the New Mexico Engineering Research Institute (NMERI) to measure levels of methane in the Nine-Mile Hill Landfill site and determine the kind of clean-up action, if any, that is needed.

TAB has helped to guide Bernalillo County through this compliance process by providing technical information to local leaders. This work has involved a limited environmental site assessment, a review of existing technical documentation, meetings with community leaders to discuss technical issues, and collaboration with the NMERI, which is characterizing the site's contaminant levels.

NMERI arranged for the City of Albuquerque's Solid Waste Department staff to perform an on-site assessment for the presence of methane. This investigation detected methane at only two of fifteen locations in the landfill. A surveyor is now preparing a more current and updated site survey map that will be included in the documentation for the Voluntary Remediation Program. Ultimately, TAB and NMERI expect that the results of the methane testing will provide data applicable to the selection of methane remediation options, remediation costs, and the potential for redevelopment of the site.