Sandia Labs has begun construction of a dirt and vegetation cover for their toxic waste dump at Kirtland AFB without approval from the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED). Sandia’s action also flies in the face of an ongoing court challenge by Citizen Action New Mexico. The MWL contains hundreds of thousands of cubic feet of hazardous and radioactive wastes with the potential for contamination of Albuquerque’s air and water.

On Nov. 20, 2006, NMED disapproved Sandia’s proposed action by issuing a “Notice of Disapproval” for the dirt cover. The Notice of Disapproval targets Sandia’s landfill-cover construction-plans and the quality of performance modeling necessary to assure long-term safety. NMED specifically requires new soil-gas data to help resolve the issue of any “rupturing of containers” that might have occurred since the mid 1990s and any “leaking of their contents.”

Dave McCoy, Director of Citizen Action, stated “NMED should take swift action to condemn, halt, and fine Sandia for this illegal action. Sandia/DOE are proceeding precipitously and in violation of the NMED Notice of Disapproval. Sandia is trying to foreclose the proposed remedy of excavation of toxic wastes as sought in a court proceeding to which Sandia is a party.”

McCoy further noted that, “Sandia’s action destroys the ability to get accurate information about poisonous gases at the dump including, radon, tritium, and volatile organic compounds. Compaction of the sub grade layer may have destroyed containers of these poisons causing their release into the community’s air and water. By going ahead with the cover construction, Sandia is interfering with the knowledge of the dump’s dangerous wastes and increasing the danger to the community.” Citizen Action recently filed a request with NMED asking for a thorough study of surface soil-gas emissions in place of an earlier study based on sparse sampling.

The Sandia action comes at a time when the decision to install the dirt cover is under attack by Citizen Action in the New Mexico Court of Appeals. The lawsuit challenges the decision of the Director of NMED to issue a final order approving the remedy of the dirt cover. Citizen Action is seeking excavation and removal of the dangerous contaminants that are located over the aquifer that supplies drinking water for the City of Albuquerque. McCoy further stated, “The installation of the sub-grade will increase the costs to excavate the hazardous and radioactive wastes. Without excavation, Sandia’s waste dump will remain toxic for more than 100,000 years.”