Robert H. Gilkeson, a ground water expert and geological scientist formerly employed by Los Alamos National Laboratories, said the wells installed at a Cold War-era waste site located at Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico, and are not in compliance with federal and state regulations. The waste site, known as the Mixed Waste Landfill, contains an estimated 100,000 cubic ft. of radioactive and hazardous waste disposed of in unlined pits and trenches over a 30-year period. The dump is located adjacent to the Mesa del Sol, a residential development with plans to drill a series of wells to supply drinking water for future residents.  

Gilkeson said the wells installed at the Mixed Waste Landfill are constructed in a way that can actually "hide" contaminants - instead of detect contaminants that may have already reached the ground water. He also called Sandia's sampling procedures "deficient" in that they do not provide an accurate assessment of the presence and degree of contamination. Gilkeson concluded that Sandia's proposed monitoring program for the dump would not guarantee protection of the ground water at the present time or over the long-term.

Gilkeson's recommendations came to light after the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) convened a public meeting last month to discuss technical issues related to Sandia's long-term plan for the dump. Instead of cleaning up the waste the NMED has issued a permit to Sandia to cover the dump with 3 ft. of dirt -despite Sandia's predictions that a cancer-causing solvent known as PCE will seep into Albuquerque's drinking water by the year 2010.

Gilkeson cited similar problems with the network of monitoring wells installed at waste sites at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). Recent reports by the Department of Energy (DOE) Inspector General and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) support Gilkeson's concerns for the monitoring wells at LANL. Gilkeson has since filed two allegations with the EPA Inspector General requesting that the EPA intervene at both Sandia and LANL to investigate the monitoring wells and sampling procedures.

Other deficiencies in Sandia's long-term plan for the dump were cited by Paul Robinson, Research Director for the Southwest Research and Information Center, submitted to the state on behalf of Citizen Action New Mexico. In addition to supporting Gilkeson's recommendations, Robinson asked the NMED to defer placing the dirt cover on the dump until Sandia installs new monitoring wells, institutes a more comprehensive sampling program for the entire range of contaminants released at the dump, and replaces old sampling data with new data to verify predictions that PCE will reach the ground water when Sandia says it will.   

The deficiencies found in the monitoring wells and sampling procedures for waste sites at both Sandia and LANL raise serious questions about the state's and the labs' ability to adequately protect the water resources of New Mexico.