N E W S R E L E A S E
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Date: April 10, 2008
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Dave McCoy, Director
Citizen Action New Mexico: (505) 262-1862
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Citizen Group Demands Equal Protection From Toxic Waste Dumps at Sandia and Los Alamos Laboratories
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Citizen Action, a public interest group and Registered Geologist Robert Gilkeson are requesting in a letter to NMED that the soil cover remedy, soil gas monitoring wells and the ground water monitoring wells be reevaluated for the Mixed Waste Landfill at Sandia National Laboratories. The request is based on statements by the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) about the lack of protection that would be provided by a soil cover [1] and faulty soil gas monitoring wells at a much smaller Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) mixed waste dump known as Area H. Regarding Sandia’s Mixed Waste Landfill, Secretary Ron Curry stated in 2005, “We feel that this remedy [a soil cover] is the best, most responsible way to protect the health of workers today and the citizen of Albuquerque in the future.”
However, NMED does not find a soil cover to be sufficient to protect groundwater at the much smaller Area H mixed waste dump at Los Alamos National Laboratory. For the Area H dumpsite, NMED ordered complete encapsulation of shafts containing the wastes along with soil-vapor extraction to protect drinking water. NMED demanded quarterly sampling for solvents and tritium in soil gas and also quarterly monitoring of subsurface moisture content. None of that is being provided at the Sandia Mixed Waste Landfill which also had releases of tritium and solvents to the subsurface from the buried waste.
Citizen Action asks that the NMED provide remedies at least as protective for the MWL as those being now required at LANL.
An Environment Department Fact Sheet points out that the soil cover that is planned at the Area H mixed waste dump at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) cannot prevent release of toxic contaminants to the surface or the groundwater. The planned cover would not be effective against deep-rooting plants and burrowing animals intruding into the dump and creating conduits that could channel water through the radioactive and volatile organic compounds toward the groundwater.
Dave McCoy, Director for Citizen Action stated “NMED did not pay attention to these same concerns about bio-intrusion that were raised by retired LANL scientist T.E. Hakonson during the hearings on Sandia’s Mixed Waste Landfill soil cover. In his report, Hakonson said ‘SLN/NM has done little or nothing of substance on evaluating the long-term effect of bio-intrusion.’ Hakonson also described that the soil cover would increase the danger for the travel of soil vapor toward the groundwater.”
The NMED also informed Los Alamos in late February 2008 that according to the manufacturer the soil gas monitoring wells, called FLUTe wells, planned for use at the Los Alamos Area H have problems detecting volatile organic solvents at depths greater than 50 feet.[2] The same FLUTe wells are planned for use at Sandia’s Mixed Waste Landfill for long-term monitoring to a depth of 400 feet.
Mr. Gilkeson states “The soil cover planned for Sandia’s Mixed Waste Landfill is nearly identical in all respects to the Los Alamos Area H dump and will not prevent release of the 50 times greater amount of contaminants that exist at the Sandia dump site. The transport of volatile organic solvents to groundwater will be directly below the Mixed Waste dump along pathways that are not monitored. NMED has not ordered any monitoring wells to be placed at the hot spots below the dump. The FLUTe wells will be outside the dump’s boundaries and will not function due to the far away locations and to defects admitted by the manufacturer.”
Gilkeson referred to the National Academy of Sciences report on the deficiencies for groundwater monitoring at Los Alamos: “Any monitoring activity faces a conundrum: If little or no contamination is found, does this mean that there is in fact little or no contamination, or that the monitoring itself is flawed?” Mr. Gilkeson has previously pointed out that the groundwater monitoring wells installed at the Mixed Waste Landfill are constructed in a way that can actually “hide” contaminants and do not monitor the groundwater at the locations required by law.
Sandia’s Mixed Waste Landfill, was estimated by the Environmental Protection Agency to contain 720,000 cubic ft. of radioactive and hazardous waste disposed of in unlined pits and trenches over a 30-year period. The Area H site at LANL contains only 14,000 cubic feet of similar waste.
Dr. Nuttall, a professor of chemical and nuclear engineering at UNM interviewed in 2004 [3], said the same thing is happening in the Mixed Waste Landfill with its radioactive waste that occurred with the leakage from the Chemical Waste Landfill at Sandia. "Gravity is always working. It's moving toward the groundwater. Sooner or later it's [the contamination] going to get through. If someone says it's never going to get there, they're wrong."
McCoy said further, “NMED is talking out of both sides of its mouth about a soil cover being protective for the Sandia Mixed Waste Landfill but not for the same type of smaller dump at Los Alamos. NMED should begin to act even handedly in protecting the Albuqerque community from Sandia’s many toxic dumps. The careless decision for Sandia’s Mixed Waste Landfill needs to be reconsidered and reopened in light of the many deficiencies in the soil cover and soil gas monitoring wells realized for a much smaller dump at LANL. The LANL dump lies twice as far above the ground water as the Mixed Waste dump at Sandia.”
For more information contact Citizen Action New Mexico: (505) 262-1862. Citizen Action is a project of the New Mexico Community Foundation.
[1] http://www.nmenv.state.nm.us/hwb/documents/Fact_Sheet_MDA_H_11-5-2007.pdf
[2] http://www.nmenv.state.nm.us/hwb/documents/Status_Letter_RemedySelection_MDA_H.pdf
[3] http://www.alibi.com/index.php?scn=feature&di=2004-09-23
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