Democracy for New Mexico

Tonight: SWM Meeting on Nuke Weapons in ABQ

From Charles Powell of Stop the War Machine:
Come learn about the largest concentration of nuclear weapons anywhere in the world, right here in Albuquerque. And the effort to get them dismantled. Wednesday evening, January 9th, at 7 PM in the Greenbriar Townhouse Co-op clubhouse meeting room, 1212 Nakomis Dr NE. (near Tramway, Constitution & Indian School) If you have questions please phone Charles at 271-9274.

Citizen Action Files Counter Lawsuit Against NM Environment Department for Secret Documents

From Citizen Action: Citizen Action, an Albuquerque-based public interest group, today filed a counter lawsuit in the New Mexico Court of Appeals against the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) charging that the state violated the Public Information Act and Open Meetings Act by failing to provide secret reports about Sandia Laboratories’ Mixed Waste Landfill. The landfill, a Cold War legacy waste dump containing 700,000 cu ft of radioactive and hazardous waste, is situated above Albuquerque’s sole source drinking water aquifer. 

"The New Mexico Environment Department has a habit of trying to quell dissent and debate, both inside and outside the Department," said Nancy Simmons, attorney for Citizen Action. "Now that the Attorney General has ordered them to provide heretofore secret documents to Citizen Action about what they're doing or not doing to clean up the hazardous and radioactive waste dump at Sandia Labs, the Department has turned around and sued Citizen Action. This is apparently in an effort to get my client to back down. It won't work. The citizens of New Mexico have an absolute right to observe their government in action. Citizen Action will go to court today to protect that right. The TechLaw reports they're protecting from public view were paid for by tax dollars; we all have a right to see what we bought."

The TechLaw reports were used by NMED to examine computer modeling showing that radioactive and hazardous wastes will leak into the groundwater at Sandia’s Mixed Waste Landfill. 

Robert Gilkeson, registered geologist, stated that “NMED and Sandia have known since 1991 that they do not have a well monitoring system at the dump capable of detecting contamination. All computer models predict contamination will hit the groundwater. Sandia and NMED have not gone the next step to install monitoring wells at the hot spots. Instead of validating the models with real data, NMED and Sandia are manipulating assumptions in complex computer models to cover up a wrongheaded decision to leave these long-lived wastes in place under a dirt cover.”

The Department of Energy (DOE) describes the low cost dirt cover as “Environmental Stewardship.”  However, a report by the National Academies of Science describes this stewardship as “providing unacceptable risks to people and the environment.” The report states:

“Stewardship (covering waste with dirt and instituting institutional controls) of waste sites will be difficult if not impossible to achieve.

“At many sites hazardous wastes will remain posing risks to people and the environment for hundreds or even thousands of years.

“No plan developed today is likely to remain protective for the duration of the hazards.”

Citizen Action’s Director, Dave McCoy, stated that “NMED apparently is unwilling to make decisions about the dump in the broad daylight of public scrutiny. With global warming and coming water shortages, DOE and NMED should protect Albuquerque’s groundwater by excavating the dump’s toxic wastes. They failed to order cleanup at Los Alamos and now there is plutonium in Santa Fe’s drinking water.  They should pay attention to the public demand to clean up the Sandia dump with its plutonium, instead of shooting the messenger.” 

Over the last year, Citizen Action filed agency complaints that the dump has monitoring wells that cannot detect contamination because they are out of place with damaged well screens in violation of federal law.  Citizen Action discovered that no capable wells or soil gas monitoring systems were in place to detect contamination during Sandia’s recent use of heavy compaction equipment over fragile waste containers in the dump.  Citizen Action found out from other information requests that: the installation of part of the soil cover proceeded without an approved plan; berms built to protect the soil cover construction were breached from storm water; the storm water pathway away from the dump is not analyzed and lab samples were lost.  Citizen Action along with a coalition of other Albuquerque based organizations and individuals filed a complaint with the Environmental Protection Agency that NMED is shutting the public out of its right to review and comment on documents and decisions about the dump and the long-term monitoring network plan.

For more information contact Citizen Action New Mexico: (505) 262-1862 or visit the Citizen Action website at www.radfreenm.org.

See our previous post about the law suit filed against Citizen Action by the NM Environment Department and this one about Citizen Action's previous Notice of Intent to sue the NMED and others for allowing the illegal operation of the Mixed Waste Landfill.

Los Alamos Study Group to Hold Weekly Public Meetings in ABQ and Santa Fe

From the Los Alamos Study Group:
The Los Alamos Study Group is beginning a series of weekly public breakfast seminar and discussion meetings in both Santa Fe and Albuquerque. There will be 21 meetings at each location over the coming six-month period. We’ll start this week and end the first week in April, plotting our direction for future meetings from there. We won’t have meetings during the weeks of Thanksgiving and Christmas.

The overall theme of these seminars will be “Dimensions of the Global Crisis: Responses and Renewal.”  Of course we will emphasize nuclear policy, New Mexico, and we ourselves as actors and participants.  This week's topic will be "Los Alamos in Crisis -- The Decline and Fall of a Nuclear Weapons Laboratory?" We hope to alternate each week between factual aspects of the unfolding crisis (which is a crisis for New Mexico in particular) on the one hand, and our political response to it on the other.

Everybody is invited.  We expect these discussions to be informative, lively, and inspiring, despite the hour. If you aren't awake when you arrive I trust you will be an hour and a half later. Topics will be announced beforehand. Besides core Study Group personnel there will be occasional guest speakers. 

The Albuquerque meetings will be held every Wednesday morning at the Mennonite Church, 1300 Girard NE. The first meeting was October 31. There will be no meetings on November  21 or December 26.

The Santa Fe meetings will be held every Thursday morning at the United Church of Santa Fe, 1804 Arroyo Chamiso. The first meeting will be November 1. There will be no meetings on November 22 or December 27.

Meetings will begin at 7:25 AM and end at 8:45 AM. (Please be prompt!) Coffee, tea, and a light breakfast will be provided. There is no cost –- provided there are enough donations to cover the modest expenses. We’ll pass the hat.

In addition to these meetings, if you would like someone from the Study Group to speak to your church, peace group, college class, or organization, please call or write. We have a small speakers’ bureau and in all likelihood we can probably respond favorably.

Website: https://www.lasg.org

NM Environment Dept. Sues Citizen Group to Keep Sandia Labs Waste Report Secret

From Citizen Action:
The New Mexico Environment Department on Friday filed a complaint (pdf) against the public interest group Citizen Action. The lawsuit asks the Santa Fe First District Court to keep the public from obtaining a document about nuclear and hazardous wastes at Sandia National Laboratories’ Mixed Waste Landfill. On Friday, the New Mexico Attorney General’s office also affirmed its earlier October decision that a 2006 TechLaw report “fit squarely within the definition of a public record… subject to inspection.” 

The TechLaw report was used by NMED to examine the possibility that radioactive and hazardous wastes could leak into the groundwater at Sandia’s Mixed Waste Landfill. The NMED claimed the report was merely a draft document. However, the report was received by NMED after its decision to place a soil cover over the dump’s wastes and leave them in place. NMED referenced the report in relation to citizen concerns about travel of the wastes from the dump to groundwater, but then refused to provide the TechLaw report to the public. Citizen Action then filed a complaint with the Attorney General’s office under the Public Records Act.

The nuclear weapon waste dump may contain over 700,000 cubic feet of radioactive and hazardous wastes that overlie Albuquerque’s drinking water supplies in unlined pits and trenches. Citizen Action argued to the Attorney General that there is a strong policy in favor of the public right to know whether the public is adequately protected from the dump’s dangers. NMED previously furnished TechLaw reports from 2000, but now asserts “executive privilege” to withhold the 2006 report as a draft document. 

Citizen Action has taken the position that the data from monitoring at the dump does not support the decision to leave the dangerous wastes in place and that the wastes should be excavated. 

Dave McCoy, Citizen Action Director, wonders what the government is hiding:

We appreciate the Attorney General championing openness in government. What is in this nuclear weapons era dump that the government doesn’t want us to know about? Environment Department Secretary Ron Curry states that he is committed to the ‘greatest amount of  transparency possible on operations at Los Alamos National Laboratories and the lab’s environmental impacts.’ Why is the Secretary operating in secret for the toxic cesspool of wastes at Sandia Labs that are above Albuquerque’s drinking water aquifer?  A mistaken decision for the soil cover was made that is now in coverup.

Comments by hydrologist Robert Gilkeson recently warned the NMED of the limitations of fate and transport models that lack adequate data for validation. See comments memo (pdf, p.3).

A court decision to grant the Environment Department executive privilege to withhold the document could set a precedent that would have a chilling effect on the public’s ability to monitor government agencies throughout New Mexico. 

For more information, contact Dave McCoy ats Citizen Action: (505) 262-1862 or dave@radfreenm.org.

Editor's Note: Also see the Albuquerque Journal editorial that criticizes the action of the NM Environment Department in regard to the report. For background, visit the Citizen Action website or review our previous post on issues surrounding the Sandia Mixed Waste Landfill.

Enchilada Dinner & Presentation on Environmental Impact of Sandia Labs Nuke Project

From CARD/Citizens for Alternatives to Radioactive Dumping: Attention nosy neighbors! Neighbors and citizens concerned about harmful environmental effects caused by nuclear projects at Sandia National Labs, are invited to attend an informational presentation and enchilada dinner: Thursday, October 11, 2007 from 6:00-8:30 PM at the Albuquerque Center for Peace and Justice, 202 Harvard SE. This informative community event is sponsored by Citizens for Alternatives to Radioactive Dumping (CARD), Citizens Action and Southwest Information Research Institute.

Local experts and scientists will give updates on the recent environmental issues and concerns in reference to Sandia Labs. A complete enchilada dinner, rice beans and salad will be served. Please come hungry for food and information on environmental issues. Donations will be gratefully accepted.

Contact: Lucille Cordova or Janet Greenwald/CARD-Citizens for Alternatives to Radioactive Dumping at 505-266-2663. Click for a flyer (doc) designed by Marlene Quintana a student at CNM and CARD's Youth Coordinator

Workshop on Proliferation of Nuke Weapons, Power and Waste Set for Oct. 6

From Faithful Security:
A Workshop on THE PROLIFERATION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS, POWER AND WASTE, sponsored by The New Mexico Conference of Churches and Faithful Security: The National Religious Partnership on the Nuclear Weapons Danger

Saturday, October 6, 2007, 9:00 AM to 3:30 PM: Monte Vista Christian Church, 3501 Campus Blvd. NE, ABQ (1 block north of Central and 2 blocks west of Carlisle). By attending you will:

• Learn how you can help move our state away from nuclear weapons production and toward a truly secure future.
• Join other New Mexicans to call for an end to our nation's reliance on these deadly weapons.
• Learn more about the impact of nuclear energy on global warming and increased waste dangers.
• Find out about new opportunities for local and national advocacy and the role you can play on shifting our priorities. With: 
  • David Culp, Legislative Representative for the Friends Committee on National Legislation in Washington, DC
  • Don Hancock, Southwest Research and Information Center
  • Joni Arends, Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety
  • Mark Peceny, Chair, Department of Political Science, University of New Mexico

Lunch and materials provided. ($5.00 donation suggested.) To register, contact Holly Beaumont at habeaumont@aol.com or call 505-660-5018. More information at www.faithfulsecurity.org

Workshop Schedule:

8:45      Registration and Refreshments

9:00      Welcome and Overview by Design Team         

            Jessica Wilbanks, Co-coordinator of Faithful Security

            Sharon Gross, Albuquerque Friends Meeting

            Holly Beaumont, Legislative Advocate, New Mexico Conference of Churches

9:30      Current Nuclear Weapons Landscape: Issues Confronting New Mexico and the Nation, David Culp, Legislative Representative Friends Committee on National Legislation (Washington, DC.)

10:30     Break

10:45    Environmental and Public Health Impact of Nuclear Weapons, Waste, and Power in New Mexico: Don Hancock, Southwest Research and Information Center; Joni Arends, Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety

12:00    Lunch and Discussion Groups

Overview of the theological implications of the U.S. nuclear weapons complex using the Faith Seeking Peace Curriculum from WAND: Women's Actions for New Direction

1:30      Peace building in the Face of Military Interventions, Civil Wars and WMD: Professor Mark Peceny, Chairman, Department of Political Science, University of New Mexico

2:30      Lobbying Workshop - State and National: David Culp and Holly Beaumont

3:30      Closing

Hiroshima Commemoration: August 3-4, Santa Fe & Los Alamos

Launching lanterns at Ashley Pond as sunset nears, 2005

From Pax Christi NM:
Please join Pax Christi New Mexico, Vets for Peace and Dragonfly Sanctuary for our Annual Hiroshima Commemoration on Friday and Saturday, August 3rd and 4th. In the spirit of love and respect for all life, join us to vigil, pray and witness for peace in Santa Fe and Los Alamos, New Mexico on the 62nd Anniversary of the nuclear bombing of HIROSHIMA, Japan. Click for flyer (PDF).

Santa Fe, Friday, August 3rd: Come hear Fr. Roy Bourgeois, founder of the School of the Americas Watch, speak at 7:30 PM at El Museo in Santa Fe about galvanizing a Peace Community. There will also be a Mass for Peace at 4 PM at Santa Maria de la Paz with Fr. John Dear.

Santa Fe and Los Alamos, Saturday, August 4th: From 9 AM to Noon, there will be a Non-Violence Training at Santa Maria de la Paz in Santa Fe. We are lucky to have Judy Bierbaum and her husband Keith running the training. Anyone who has taken a Non-Violence Training with Judy knows that it is a moving event in one's life. We are ALL in need of Non-Violence Training to counter the 24/7 barrage of violence that we are fed in OUR country.

Also, on Saturday August 4th at 2 PM, gather at Ashley Pond in Los Alamos for Pax Christi New Mexico's Sack Cloth and Ashes action. At 4 PM there'll be various speakers, musicians and poets including Fr. Roy and Santa Fe Mayor David Coss. At 7:30 PM the Lantern Floating Ceremony on Ashley Pond will begin. For updates, go to www.paxchristinewmexico.org. Questions? bud@siochainworld.org

Mother Media & Break the Grip: Attend NM Legislative Energy Policy Meetings Today & Tomorrow

From Mother Media and Break the Grip:
Action Alert: The Radioactive and Hazardous Materials Interim Committee meets today and tomorrow to discuss New Mexico Energy Policy in Room 309 of the Roundhouse. Please come to prevent nuclear, coal and PNM corporate monopoly interests from dominating the discussion. Read the agenda on the NM Legislature website. Mother Media and Break the Grip will be there starting at 9 AM today, Thursday, July 12.

Although we may not be able to cover the entire session, we especially recommend citizens attend the Nuclear Energy Institute's presentation at 3 PM today where we suspect they may unveil proposed siting locations for new nuclear power plants either in New Mexico or the Four Corners area. Senator Domenici has apparently proposed as many as thirteen different sites in New Mexico for nuclear power plant development.

Art Hull, the PNM lobbyist under investigation by the Attorney General for working out of the Governor's office during the last Legislative Session, will be presenting PNM's strategy for New Mexico at 9 AM Friday, July 13th. Mr. Hull deserves to hear from New Mexicans in person concerned about his influence over State government and PNM's aggressive push for nuclear and coal central plant infrastructure.

Over the last weeks, Mother Media and BreaktheGrip.org have done intensive research on New Mexico's energy policy direction. Major nuclear players like Jeff Sterba and Jim Ferland of Westinghouse and PNM now literally run the state, using lobbyists like Art Hull to operate out of the governor's office.

Understandably, therefore, concern that New Mexico's existing nuclear and uranium resources will make it the one stop shop for nuclear power on the Western grid have increased to panic levels. Cynically leveraging popular concern about global warming and climate change, nuclear power corporations believe they have found their opportunity to move from supplemental power supplier to major player, elbowing out renewable energy, distributed generation and efficiency through manipulation of the Legislature and the Public Regulation Commission.

The Eunice enrichment facility, the proposed reprocessing facility in Roswell/Hobbs, new uranium mining activities and the recent proposal by Richardson allies Henry Kissinger and George Schultz to downblend old warheads like those at Kirtland Air Force base for use in nuclear power plants make New Mexico ground zero for America's nuclear energy program.

Throughout the world, major innovations in power distribution now integrate the intermittent and decentralized power from solar, wind, biomass and co-generation (heat and electricity). State of the art electricity grids have moved away from centralized power plants to distributed, multipoint generation systems. One by one, European countries have shut down central power plants while successfully integrating huge amounts of renewable energy. Overall system cost has been dramatically reduced by locating energy sources close to high demand and providing high "infeed rates" to renewable energy and other innovative clean energy suppliers.

By reducing or eliminating the need for long power lines and the associated system balancing infrastructure, European and Chinese utilities have reduced overall system cost - and ratepayer bills - by up to 60%. PNM's outdated central nuclear and coal plant system would be illegal in some European countries because it is so backward, inefficient and costly to operate.

It takes time and energy to cover these committe hearings. Please help Mother Media intervene on behalf of New Mexico's citizens and environment by buying an ad in our newsletter or in The Sun News. Send us your text and graphics, then use our PayPal link or send a check to:

Leland Lehrman
163 Old Lamy Trail
Lamy, NM 87540   

Leland Lehrman can be reached at (505) 982-3609 or (505) 473-4458 and by email at leland.lehrman@gmail.com.

Guest Blog: Ben Luce on Why He Launched "Break The Grip!"

This is a guest blog by environmental activist Ben Luce of Break the Grip!:

For the past ten years I have tried as hard as I could to work through our existing political system, as a mostly polite and "professional" environmental advocate, to bring about policies that support renewable energy development and energy efficiency. I collaborated with the Richardson Administration and the utilities, to the extent that this was possible, to "move the ball forward" as people say. Mind you, this was not an easy process, I sometimes sparred publicly with the Administration and the utilities, and often sparred with them behind the scenes, but I mainly pursued the usual channels of lobbying politely, participating in PRC cases, etc.

We did make some progress, to be sure, getting things such as solar tax credits and stronger solar rights through, and the initial renewable energy standard and some other things. I am still very happy and proud about those things.

But I did fight many quiet wars, things were often delayed or compromised to a great extent, and I was always bothered by the pervasive and blatant undue corporate influence that I saw around me at the Legislature in general.

Then, in the recent Legislative Session, I experienced undue corporate influence to the extreme: The Richardson Administration, to my great sadness and dismay, basically teamed up with PNM to exclude citizen advocacy at all costs and try to gut the effectiveness of the new renewable energy standard, of course while making it look good for Richardson. They also tried to strip out crucial renewable energy provisions from the Renewable Energy Transmission Authority (already an extremely scary piece of legislation), and force a clean coal incentive down our throats. The Administration even had a PNM lobbyist working inside and officially representing the Administration (Art Hull), who was assigned to work on the Transmission Authority. Similarly, the clean coal incentive was forced us by a coal-industry connected LANL person named Charryl Berger, who was "on loan" to the Legislature.

Moreover, I sadly watched as the Democratic Leadership put a PNM lobbyist forward and bully citizen advocates to pass a PNM originated bill that rolls back protections for low-income people, and also try to force a $60 million tax incentive through for the Desert Rock Power Plant.

All of this obscene abuse of power was finally too much for me. After mulling it all over, and writing down my experiences over the past ten years (and storing this for safe keeping with others), I finally decided to go public about what actually happened. More than that, instead of just issuing an angry "rant" (as the Administration characterized my first press conference), I decided to launch, with other concerned citizens, a new campaign called "Break The Grip!". This will hopefully be a persistent citizens' campaign to systematically expose as much of the corporate political monopoly over New Mexico as possible, and call for a wide range of reforms.

I spent a few weeks developing the web site , which now contains much detail about the past relative to my own experiences, and we launched the campaign on Tuesday, June 19th (Tuesday being associated with the Greek God of War).

Since that time, AP coverage of the event has spread widely, including nationally, so I think we've made some impact.

We've also received tremendous support from the public: It seems that many people feel the way I do.

But we will need lots of help from the public on keeping the buzz going. We already used up a lot of publicity capital in our first press conference, so we need people to write letters-to-the-editor, join our network , etc. Don't let these guys hear the end of it!

The forces that be are already fighting back: A Richardson appointee named Gregory Green already crashed my press conference on behalf of the Administration and attempted to blunt our coverage by playing dumb about what happened during the session (he was a lobbyist for my former organization during the session), and apparently conveniently managed not to mention that he is currently a Richardson Appointee to the powerful Environmental Improvement Board. This is the kind of unethical response that needs to be countered. Who knows what else they will try? I've certainly written my fair share of embarrassing emails in the past, and I expect to start seeing them turning up in public. Do I care? Sure, things will likely be painful for me. But I'm persona non grata now anyway (at least among the corrupt! I've gotten lots of support from people on the inside too).

So, please help us rid our state of the obscene grip of corporations over our political system here in this state. Now is the time. Visit , read through the materials there, join the network, and await news of further opportunities to participate. We intend to take this campaign to the doorsteps of the powerful, and not back down.

Thanks and best wishes,
Ben Luce

Editor's Notes: This is a guest blog by Ben Luce, the former Chair and Policy Director of the New Mexico Coalition for Clean Affordable Energy (CCAE). Guest blogs provide our readers with an opportunity to express their opinions on political issues, and they may or may not represent our views. If you'd like to submit a post for consideration as a guest blog, contact me by clicking on the Email Me link at the upper right-hand corner of our main page.

Click to read a previous post on the formation of Break the Grip!

Crying Wolf on Lab Funding Cuts?

I know everyone in New Mexico is supposed to be hysterical because of the U.S. House cuts to the budgets of Los Alamos and Sandia Labs totaling about $400 million. But as far as I can tell, I don't see how such cuts would result in up to 2000 layoffs at Los Alamos and 900 at Sandia, as is being bandied about. Googling around, I found that the cuts are mostly directed at reducing spending on security enhancements, computer hardware upgrades, a new chem building and funding for the controversial and much criticized Reliable Replacement Warhead and plutonium pit manufacturing programs.How do these cuts translate into that many lost jobs?

Moreover, If we look at this issue carefully, I think what the cuts really portend is a growing movement in Washington (and the nation) on both sides of the aisle to to deemphasize Cold War-era type nuke weapon spending and put more money into modern-day security in the form of clean and renewable energy technologies. If the labs -- and Domenici, Pearce and Wilson -- don't wake up and start moving quickly into the new era of global warming threat reduction and diminishing fossil fuel use, they'll have only themselves to blame.

Udall's Role
Rep. Tom Udall tried unsuccessfully to reinstate $192 million of the budget cuts, but not for the plutonium pit and Reliable Replacement Warhead programs. Instead he requested more funds for the Los Alamos high-speed supercomputer system and the stockpile stewardship programs that test the reliability of already existing bomb components without using underground blasts. Udall's amendment failed by a vote of 121-312. Sen. Domenici and Reps. Wilson and Pearce have been trying to blame the cuts entirely on Democrats -- and especially on Udall. However, 103 Republican members of Congress voted against Udall's attempt to restore lab funds:

Democrats; 24 Aye; 209 Nay; 2 Not Voting
Republicans: 97 Aye; 103 Nay; 2 Not Voting

Back to the Future
As Eric Griego writes in his latest Albuquerque Tribune column:

... could the cuts really be an opportunity? Could the proposed cuts to the labs be the impetus so desperately needed to finally change the mission of both labs to one focused on renewable energy development instead of protecting and developing nuclear weapons?

Conservationists and those who oppose continued nuclear weapons development have tried for years to redirect the mission of the state's two national labs in the direction of renewable energy. Sandia has taken on more renewable energy work over the past several years, but Los Alamos has actually deepened its nuclear mission.

Rep. Udall has been the target of a lot of often mean-spirited bashing because of the cuts, but I applaud him for refusing to attempt to reinstate the funding for the RRW and plutonium pits. It's high time we bring the core missions of our national labs into the 21st century, where renewable energy and mitigating global warming will be the key areas where we need our best scientific minds to concentrate their research. We're moving into an era of rapid and profound change, with many similiarites to the years when horse power was being replaced by the combustion engine.

At some point, you either have to face the new realities and make the switchover, or you'll pay the consequences for hanging onto a no longer relevant mindset. We'll be needing fresh ideas and a change in focus from our national labs if they are to survive and thrive in the new techology environment. Many believe the world as we know it hangs in the balance. Yes, an inconvenient truth. I had to say it.