Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
First Comes Drilling, Then Cleaning Soil & Groundwater
DARIA ANDERSON- FADEN / THE OBSERVER On Monday morning, Panhandle Geotechnical Environmental began drilling one of more than 30 wells around Highway 71 – including this one downtown – to begin the final process of extracting the petroleum from the soil and groundwater.
Panhandle Geotechnical and Environmental began working at the stoplight area in Kimball on Monday morning. According to Mayor Keith Prunty, PGE has contracted with the state to drill about 30 wells in the immediate area to remove petroleum that was discovered in the soil and groundwater when underground petroleum tanks were removed about 30 years ago.
Prunty said it will take about six weeks to drill all the wells and then four years, at least, to remove the petroleum from the soil and groundwater.
Nancy Mann from the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy reported that two systems to clean up the groundwater and soil will be installed this week by Geotechnical Environmental from Scottsbluff. One system will be installed south of Highway 71 and another system will be located north of Highway 71. The sites are known as George's Amoco and Kimball Texaco.
All the monitoring wells will be drilled and in the spring the installation process will be completed and the technical process of "vacuuming" the petroleum out of the soil and groundwater will begin.
The NDEE said that they are working through what are known as orphan sites, meaning there is no responsible party. The state of Nebraska increased the gas tax and therefore funding was established to clean up orphan sites throughout the state. Both sites in Kimball are known as orphan sites.