ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Environmentalists call it the largest threat to a city’s drinking water supply in history, as much as 24 million gallons of jet fuel – or twice the size of the Exxon Valdez oil spill – seeping into an underground aquifer and steadily toward this drought-stricken city’s largest and most pristine water wells.

But more than 12 years after the toxin-laden plume from a 40-year underground pipe leak was discovered at Kirtland Air Force Base, estimates of its size and its threat to the water supply of New Mexico’s largest city keep growing, less than half a million gallons have been pumped out of the ground, the Air Force is two years away from finalizing a cleanup plan and local officials are still arguing about whether the spill is something they need to get involved with.