SAVE THE DATE !
RUNOFF, RISK, AND COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT- YOUR ROLE IN CLEANUP AT LANL - 7/26 & 7/27

The conference will cover the new permit for 405 sites with the potential to release pollutants in stormwater which flows through the canyons to the Rio Grande; the hazardous waste permit with a focus on Area G, the 63 acre dump for low-level radioactive waste and hazardous and toxic waste, and future plans to operate it until 2044; and impacts to our health.  Speakers will include representatives from the Communities for Clean Water and Las Mujeres Hablan, Pueblo representatives, Dr. Camilla Bustamante (keynote), Dr. Michael Barcelona (groundwater), and Dr. Maureen Merritt (worker and community health) and Dr. Virginia Salas (toxicology).   

HISTORY OF CLEAN WATER ACTIONS AT LANL:
On February 7th, 2008, Amigos Bravos, Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety, Don Gabino Andrade Community Acequia Association, Embudo Valley Environmental Monitoring Group, New Mexico Acequia Association, Partnership for Earth Spirituality, Río Grande Restoration, SouthWest Organizing Project, Gilbert Sanchez, Kathy Sanchez, and Tewa Women United filed a lawsuit against Los Alamos National Laboratory for violations of the Clean Water Act.

To download the full complaint click here.

In March 2009, Amigos Bravos and its partners filed an appeal of the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Individual Stormwater Permit for LANL. We participated throughout the permit application process, but believe the final ISP fails to meet Clean Water Act (CWA) requirements; it would give LANL up to 7 years to meet permit requirements, even though they have already failed to comply with permits for almost two decades.

In August 2009, Amigos Bravos and its partners entered into settlement negotiations with LANL over both the lawsuit and the appeal of the Individual Stormwater Permit.

Background

LANL has a 66 year legacy of toxic and radionuclide discharges and dumping in the canyons below the lab, as well as over 2,000 solid waste dumps on site. Radioactive liquid wastes were unknown on the Pajarito Plateau before Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) began operations in 1943. LANL’s initial management decision was to discharge these untreated wastes into Los Alamos and Pueblo Canyons, despite warnings that such discharges would accumulate and lead to highly contaminated conditions in the canyons and, conceivably, in the Río Grande.

Sixty-six years later, LANL is still discharging liquid wastes into canyons below the lab – on December 23 rd 2005, LANL reported that chromium was detected in the regional aquifer supplying Los Alamos County with drinking water and that discharges into Mortandad Canyon were a possible source.

Based on four sampling trips along the Río Grande and in canyons below LANL, third-party analyses of the hydrology of the Pajarito Plateau and LANL’s well-drilling program, NMED sampling and analyses, and recent LANL revelations, LANL Water Watch is focusing on five core issues regarding LANL impacts on water:

• Chromium (the same toxic pollutant as shown in the Erin Brockovitch movie) detected in the Los Alamos regional aquifer;
• PCBs detected in extraordinarily high concentrations in soil samples from LANL and also found in fish in the Río Chama and Río Grande watersheds resulting in the first ever fish advisory for the Río Grande;
• Perchlorate (a toxic pollutant used in explosives) detected in one drinking well by Los Alamos County leading to its closure;
• Area G , where LANL has always and continues to bury low-level radioactive waste in unlined pits, shafts and trenches and which LANL is proposing to expand;
• Environmental Cleanup Budget Cuts proposed for FY07 that would reduce cleanup funding at LANL by 36%, jeopardizing LANL’s Cleanup Consent Order with the New Mexico Environment Department.

Click Here to Download the LANL Discharge Report (4.8 MB pdf)

Click Here to watch the NM SEES video.