Groups Sue Los Alamos National Lab for Clean Water Act Violations

From Amigos Bravos:
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

On May 23, 2006, Amigos Bravos and its partners filed a 60-Day Notice of Intent to Sue the management of Los Alamos National Laboratory for violations of the Clean Water Act.

LANL has a 63 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-three years later, LANL is still discharging liquid wastes into canyons below the lab – on December 23rd, 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.

<