Ash has been more of an issue for Santa Fe’s drinking water recently than any contamination running off from Los Alamos National Laboratory, according to testimony before the legislative interim Radioactive and Hazardous Materials Committee on Monday.
The Buckman Direct Diversion Project, which takes water from the Rio Grande and treats it for city residents’ use, was shut down over the weekend because a large amount of ash from fire-damaged Santa Clara Canyon was detected in the water, according to BDD Facility Manager Bob Mulvey.
It did not contain any material from the lab, he added.
There is some concern that, in the wake of the Las Conchas Fire, storms could create runoff through the canyons around Los Alamos that would pick up radioactive contamination from lab waste left there over the decades.
Pete Maggiore, deputy assistant manager for the National Nuclear Security Administration environmental projects office, told the committee “stormwater runoff effects are a top priority” for LANL. Las Conchas burned hot enough in mountains above Los Alamos to make the soil there hydrophobic, meaning water won’t be absorbed and could turn quickly into a flood during a heavy rain.
Water can flow from Los Alamos through canyons into the Rio Grande, where it’s sucked into the Buckman plant. Three gauges between LANL and the river can notify an operator at the plant of floodwater. That operator can shut off the plant’s water intake and also have samples taken from running water for future analysis.
The system is intended to prevent contamination from the laboratory from getting into the water supply.
All three of those gauges are functioning, Maggiore said.
But, with monsoon rains scarce, there hasn’t been enough water flowing to set those gauges off, according to Mulvey.
According to Maggiore, LANL has sent crews into the canyons running out of lab property to install diversion barriers meant to slow water flow and decrease the potential of stirring up contaminants in the soil. They’ve also removed drums of debris stored in canyons, where the soil was being tested, he said.
“We’re making sure the infrastructure in the canyons to slow water and lessen the impacts of erosion are operational,” Maggiore said.
Some members of the public spoke out against the lab at Monday’s meeting, including Joni Arends, executive director of Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety. Arends said the Environmental Protection Agency has identified 30 locations, in two canyons where water flows out of Los Alamos, as “high priority,” meaning their waste is contaminated and could be potentially hazardous.
“That waste needs to be removed now,” she said.
But LANL spokesman Fred deSousa said each of those high-priority sites is either being cleaned out or investigated by the laboratory as part of its ongoing, stimulus-funded cleanup effort. Most of those high-priority sites aren’t along canyon bottoms, deSousa said.
As for the ash detected in the Buckman flow this weekend, the plant’s filtration system is designed to separate sediments into a sludge that is trucked away, but Mulvey said it’s unknown whether the ash would also be removed. He said the intake remains off while operators wait for the river to “run cleaner.”
Samples have been taken to determine whether ash can be filtered from the water, Mulvey added.
-- Email the reporter at pparker@abqjournal.com.
