26 Defective Groundwater Monitoring Wells Discovered at Sandia Labs

From Citizen Action:
Citizen Action, a public interest group, has obtained a list of 26 groundwater monitoring wells throughout Sandia National Laboratories that require plugging and abandonment with installation of replacement wells. The list was obtained by Citizen Action after making a public records request to the New Mexico Environment Department. 

Citizen Action and Robert H. Gilkeson, a ground water expert and geological scientist formerly employed by Los Alamos National Laboratories as lead consultant, filed complaints with the Department of Energy, the Environment Department and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that the wells installed at Cold War-era waste sites located at Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico, are not in compliance with federal and state regulations. Following the complaints of Citizen Action and Gilkeson, NMED has produced a report that describes the need for the replacement of wells at waste sites such as the Mixed Waste Landfill, the Chemical Waste Landfill, the Tijeras Arroyo groundwater and Technical Area V. The NMED report identifies the problems with the existing monitoring wells to include:

• corroded stainless steel wells screens,
• low water levels,
• high concentrations of nickel and chromium,
• well screens cross contaminating different strata,
• well screens that have filled with sediment,
• well screens that are too deep to monitor the aquifer,
• wells that were never properly designed or developed for groundwater monitoring,
• wells that represent a conduit to the groundwater for solvents,
• improper sampling methods

All of these problems were identified in the complaints of Citizen Action and Mr. Gilkeson.  Several of the monitoring wells were supposed to have served the purpose of monitoring for contamination after the closure of the various sites.  Several of the wells supposedly had projected well lives left of up to 15 years but have failed for numerous reasons. 

Citizen Action and hydrologist Gilkeson have stated repeatedly that the wells installed at the Mixed Waste Landfill are constructed in a way that can actually “hide” contaminants and that the well monitoring network has never been capable of furnishing reliable monitoring data. The Mixed Waste Landfill contains an estimated 720,000 cubic ft. of radioactive and hazardous waste disposed of in unlined pits and trenches over a 30-year period.

Gilkeson stated that “NMED is on the right track with requiring replacement of four of the monitoring wells at the Mixed Waste Landfill. But, three more of the wells at the legacy waste dump also require replacement because they are in the wrong location, contaminated with drilling muds, or too deep to monitor at the water table for contamination beneath an unlined trench where 270,000 gallons of radioactive wastewater was disposed of.  There were never any monitoring wells at the Mixed Waste dump that were able to detect contaminants that may have already reached the ground water.  The MWL dump never had any monitoring wells that met requirements of state and federal law.” 

Gilkeson’s recommendations first came to light for Sandia beginning in May 2006.  In March of 2007 Citizen Action and Gilkeson requested that the US EPA conduct a review of the monitoring network at the Mixed Waste dump. 

According to Dave McCoy, Director of Citizen Action, “EPA entered into discussions with the Environment Department regarding our concerns and four new replacement wells were ordered.  However, the EPA Region 6 attempted to whitewash the extent of the problem and concluded there was no threat to the groundwater.  We are currently demanding and will receive an investigation of that EPA coverup.  The worthless groundwater monitoring data from these defective wells continues to be misrepresented by Sandia to allow the wastes to remain in place under a dirt cover.  There is no technical basis for the dirt cover.  The large number of defective wells in the NMED released report shows that the problem of detecting groundwater contamination at Sandia has not been in compliance with state and federal law.  The extent of groundwater contamination at Sandia is not properly understood to protect public and the environment.” 

NMED 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.  In fact the groundwater may already be contaminated with PCE and the defective monitoring network has hidden this knowledge.   NMED has refused the 3 ft of dirt as a remedy to protect a similar but much smaller dump at Los Alamos National Laboratory. 

Gilkeson said, “NMED should defer placing the dirt cover on the dump until reliable water quality data is collected from a new network of monitoring wells to investigate ground water contamination that may already exist.”   

Citizen Action is being sued by the Environment Department for its request for a TechLaw report regarding contamination that could reach groundwater from the Mixed Waste Landfill.  McCoy stated further, “Obtaining this list of defective wells at Sandia further underscores the importance of the public having full access to public records in this state.” 

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, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the National Academy of Sciences support Gilkeson’s concerns for the monitoring wells at LANL.  These reports give further weight to Gilkeson’s concerns for the monitoring wells at Sandia.

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.

The Mixed Waste 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. 

To read the some of the numerous documents by Citizen Action and Robert H. Gilkeson submitted to the NMED concerning well monitoring network problems and the long-term plan for the Mixed Waste Landfill see the Citizen Action website at:  www.radfreenm.org. Citizen Action is a project of the New Mexico Community Foundation.

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