Rep. Stansbury asks DoD, DOE and Army Corps to accelerate demining and jet‑fuel cleanup near Kirtland, citing tribal risks and city water threat

Representative Melanie Stansbury, whose district includes Kirtland Air Force Base and Sandia National Laboratories, asked the House Armed Services Committee to press the Department of Defense to coordinate with the Department of Energy and tribes to remove unexploded ordnance and to accelerate remediation of a jet‑fuel plume she said threatens Albuquerque’s groundwater.

Stansbury described decades of testing dating to the Manhattan Project and World War II on base and adjacent lands, and said weather events have exposed munitions on tribal lands south of Kirtland. She asked the committee to include language in the FY26 NDAA to require DoD coordination with the Department of Energy, the National Nuclear Security Administration and tribal governments to clear those materials, and to continue funding through NALIMP (the Army Corps program used to contract with tribes for removal work).

Separately, Stansbury said Kirtland has had a jet fuel leak for roughly 26 years. She told the committee the slow pace of cleanup is allowing a plume to threaten the aquifer that supplies Albuquerque’s drinking water and affects readiness because base families depend on that supply. She said her office is in “constant contact” with base command but described challenges with cleanup pace and asked for assistance to accelerate remediation timelines.

Committee members asked whether she had inquired directly of the service; Stansbury said she remains in contact with base leadership and local officials but that mission priorities and resource constraints sometimes slow cleanup progress. No votes or formal committee directions were recorded on this topic during the member‑day hearing.