Air Force Manual 85-16 required annual and five-year inspections of the Bulk Fuels Facility . The inspections were not performed for three decades . In 1985 , a waiver was issued to not perform pipeline pressure testing . In 1992 , leaking was discovered at the fuels facility pump house Bldg. 1033 . In 1994 , two waivers were issued : one for the annual pipeline testing and another for pressure testing . In 1999 , another jet fuel leak was discovered from a broken 16-inch pipe . It was later learned that the pipe had been leaking fuel undetected since 1950 . The Air Force initially estimated that pipe leaked roughly between of jet fuel in that 49-year span . However , state environmental officials believe the number may be as high as , which could make the spill more than twice the size of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound , Alaska . In 2007 , 18 inches of fuel floated over the water table when a well was dug . The escaped jet fuel is submerged 500 ft beneath the ground in the drinking water aquifer . As of 2010 , a 6000 ft long plume of contaminants , the most dangerous chemical being ethylene dibromide ( EDB ) moved within 4000 ft towards the municipal wells that supply the city 's drinking water . EDB causes liver and kidney disease and is a suspected human carcinogen
Exxon Valdez oil spill
Exxon Valdez oil spill
Kirtland Air Force Base