Democracy for New Mexico

4/23 & 4/26: Public Hearing in Los Alamos and Albuquerque for Los Alamos National Lab Hazardous Waste Permit

From Dave McCoy, Director, Citizen Action New Mexico:
There will be a public hearing held in both Albuquerque and Los Alamos for the Los Alamos National Laboratory Hazardous Waste permit. The hearing will take place on Friday, April 23, from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM at UNM Los Alamos, Student Services Building, Lecture Hall Room 230 (Building 2), located at 4000 University, and on Monday, April 26, from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM at the Smith-Brasher Lecture Hall, SB 100, located at 717 University SE at the CNM Main Campus in Albuquerque. There will be public comment periods at both locations from 2:00 to 4:00 PM and 6:00 to 9:00 PM. (For the evening session the Hearing Officer will stay and listen to all public comments until they are done.)

Your comment is urgently needed.

The Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) Resource Conservation and Recovery Plan (RCRA) Part B Draft Permit is required to provide protection of the public and environment from dangerous wastes at LANL. Some 21,000,000 cubic feet of hazardous, mixed hazardous and radioactive waste from nuclear weapons production have been buried at LANL legacy waste dumps across LANL mesas.

LANL wants to continue to conduct Open Burning that has released dioxins into the air. The Environment Department wants to deny that portion of the permit.

The pathway for contamination is also through the vadose zone to the regional aquifer. A second set of the waste inventory is the large uncharacterized volume of liquid wastes released from outfalls discharging into canyon settings causing surface contamination and remobilized by wind and water providing contamination to the stream bottoms for transport to the Rio Grande. A third source of contamination is in shallow soils randomly remobilized by surface run-off and wind erosion.

Seepage ponds, sometimes called evaporation ponds, were used as outfalls and overflowed directly into the canyons. The dangerous contamination at LANL buried in unlined pits and trenches and on the soil surface is provided a pathway down canyons by fires, groundwater and surface water runoff that enters municipal drinking water wells for the cities of Los Alamos and Santa Fe. LANL contamination flows into the Rio Grande River that provides drinking water to downstream New Mexico municipalities and residents.

If you don’t want to prepare testimony, you can read into the hearing record parts of the 3,700 pages of technical reports that the Environment Department kept secret from the public for ten years about Los Alamos Laboratory. The reports will be at a table.

Comments may also be made in writing to the New Mexico Environment Department at:

New Mexico Environment Department
Hazardous Waste Bureau
2905 Rodeo Park Drive East, Building 1
Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505-6303

See you there! Please forward this information to others.

New Mexico Environment Department Obeys Court Order to Release Secret TechLaw Report to Citizen Action

The New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) decided to drop its appeal of the lawsuit it lost against Citizen Action New Mexico, an Albuquerque-based public interest group. NMED sued Citizen Action seeking to withhold a secret 2006 technical report written by TechLaw, Inc. The TechLaw report reviewed a computer model that was written by Sandia Laboratories to assure the public that poisonous wastes from the Mixed Waste Landfill (MWL) would not contaminate Albuquerque’s drinking water, according to a statement released by Citizen Action. The group received the TechLaw report on Tuesday.

Attorney Nancy Simmons stated, “What was the point of the Environment Department to spend a huge amount of taxpayer dollars, more money than dozens of New Mexico taxpayers combined make in a year, to generate and hide this report from the public and to sue my client in court to block its release? Now my client has discovered that the Department has literally hundreds of other technical reports that they're also refusing to release.”

The TechLaw report presents serious doubts as to the reliability of the Sandia computer model used to predict contaminant movement beneath the MWL dump. Dave McCoy, Director of Citizen Action states, “NMED secrecy put Citizen Action and the public at a disadvantage in proceedings held to determine if it would be safe to leave the dump’s cancer-causing, long-lived radionuclides, solvents and heavy metals under a dirt cover in unlined pits and trenches. NMED ran interference to avoid public scrutiny until Sandia Labs could complete installation of the dirt cover rather than excavate the dump’s 720,000 cubic feet of radioactive and hazardous wastes above Albuquerque’s drinking water.”

The TechLaw report describes the Sandia computer model as a “Black Box.” TechLaw said, “We caution NMED against its acceptance.” TechLaw cites the lack of adequate information to assess whether the model could actually perform satisfactorily. Software quality assurance was absent. A special TechLaw concern is that the computer model is not accurate to identify the danger of the mobile contaminants like tritium and the cancer-causing solvent PCE to contaminate groundwater. The Sandia record of disposal shows a large inventory of solvents including PCE and the radionuclide Tritium buried in the dump. The computer model does not recognize that Tritium and many solvents have already been released from the dump and thus did not identify the danger for solvents including PCE and Tritium to contaminate the groundwater.

The computer model predicts that tritium would not contaminate the groundwater in a thousand years. Registered Geologist and hydrogeologist, Robert Gilkeson, said that, “As real time proof that the Sandia computer model is worthless, Tritium is already found in a groundwater monitoring well MW4 that was installed deep below the dump. In addition, there is a plume of nickel contamination in the groundwater below the dump that is growing in size. The groundwater may also be contaminated with PCE and other solvents but the monitoring wells and sampling methods have many features to hide the detection of the solvent contamination. The National Academy of Sciences has rejected the Department of Energy’s use of computer models that are not supported by accurate data. There has never been a reliable network of monitoring wells at the MWL dump to provide accurate data to a computer model.”

Gilkeson added that “TechLaw’s recommendation to improve the design of the dirt cover were not paid attention to. TechLaw also identified that the placement of neutron probes beneath the unlined pits and trenches of the dump has no value for monitoring the movement of water through the dirt cover that is above the dump. The NMED did not make the important changes to the methods used to monitor the performance of the cover that were identified as necessary by TechLaw.” The NMED did not inform the stakeholders of TechLaw’s concerns for the design of the cover and the inappropriate methods used to monitor the integrity of the cover.

TechLaw raises the significant issue that the dirt cover cannot be shown to provide long term protection of the public as required by Department of Energy Order 435.1. The report stated, “[I]t appears unlikely that the United States federal government can or will be able to maintain the integrity of the cover for the entire 1000 year performance period.”

TechLaw pointed out that the storm water run-on and run-off controls are inadequate for protecting against damage to the cover for that period of time. Plutonium wastes in the dump can remain dangerous for 250,000 years.

Citizen Action received Freedom of Information documents showing that large portions of the protective berms placed around the MWL dump washed away in major storm activity in 2007. The storm water collected in pools above the buried wastes and the water was a driver to move contamination toward groundwater.

Background of the lawsuit In October 2008, New Mexico 1st District Court Judge Daniel Sanchez rejected the NMED argument that the TechLaw report involved NMED “thought processes” and could not be examined under the Public Records Act. The Court refused to allow the NMED expansive interpretation of “executive privilege” for withholding the report. Before the NMED lawsuit, Citizen Action requested an opinion from the New Mexico Attorney General. The Attorney General twice issued written decisions that the TechLaw report was subject to being furnished under the Public Records Act and also intervened after NMED filed the lawsuit against Citizen Action.

The 1st District Court decision stated that, “Public business is the public’s business. The people have the right to know. Freedom of information about public records and proceedings is their just heritage. Citizens must have the legal right to investigate the conduct of their affairs.”

A year of appellate delay by NMED ensued after Citizen Action won its counter lawsuit. Citizen Action charged that the state violated the Public Records Act by failing to provide the TechLaw document to Citizen Action. Citizen Action could not obtain the TechLaw document pending the Department’s appeal.

The Appellate Court twice sent notice to NMED of its intention to dismiss their appeal because NMED improperly filed its appeal. NMED explained that the District Court Clerk somehow misplaced the paper work. The Court of Appeals gave NMED 60 days to proceed to an evidentiary hearing in District Court about the excuse. The Court’s deadline passed on September 22, 2009 with no action taken by the NMED attorney. Citizen Action then filed a motion to dismiss the NMED appeal.

For more information contact Citizen Action New Mexico: (505) 262-1862 or visit the Citizen Action website. Citizen Action is a project of the New Mexico Community Foundation.

Public Interest Groups Win Changes to Long-Term Groundwater Monitoring at Sandia Lab’s Chemical Waste Landfill

Citizen Action New Mexico, an Albuquerque-based public interest group, along with other public participants, reached agreement with the New Mexico Environment Department, Sandia National Laboratories, and the Department of Energy for changes to a Closure Plan for the Chemical Waste Landfill (CWL). Citizen Action’s request for a public hearing on the Closure Plan was avoided by agreement on new terms for groundwater monitoring at the CWL, according to a statement released by the group.

The CWL at Sandia Labs received hazardous wastes from 1962 to 1986 and had to be excavated because a plume of Trichloroethylene (TCE) from the dump contaminated Albuquerque’s drinking water aquifer. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, TCE is “highly likely” to cause cancer in humans.

Citizen Action and Registered Geologist and hydrogeologist Robert Gilkeson recommended that the continuing plume of TCE at the CWL needs to be monitored with a capable groundwater monitoring network. The agreement calls for the installation of four new groundwater monitoring wells at the CWL and the use of low flow sampling methods. Three new downgradient monitoring wells are to be placed as near as possible to the northern and western boundary of the CWL.

Citizen Action and Mr. Robert Gilkeson, in requesting a public hearing on the CWL closure plan, commented that the existing downgradient monitoring wells were too distant from the CWL boundary to comply with federal well monitoring requirements.

A new upgradient background monitoring well will be installed at the CWL to replace the old background monitoring well that had a corroded carbon steel well screen. Carbon steel well screens have well known properties to mask the detection of contamination. Other monitoring wells at the CWL were also drilled using mud rotary drilling methods that hide contaminants of concern. NMED put out orders in 2007 that new wells shall not be drilled with mud rotary methods because the muds have properties to prevent the detection of contamination.

Mr. Gilkeson stated, “The efforts by the public were successful to enforce the monitoring requirements of the state and federal hazardous waste laws. The type of monitoring network and the sampling methods to be put into place at the CWL need to be established at many other locations at Sandia Labs, Kirtland Air Force Base and Los Alamos National Laboratory. We are well aware of the need for early detection of poisons that can contaminate the drinking water aquifer.”

Dave McCoy, Director for Citizen Action, stresses that, “The Mixed Waste Landfill at Sandia Labs received many of the same types of chemicals that were put into the CWL plus radionuclides such as Plutonium-239 and Americium-241. There are 720,000 cu. ft. of radioactive and hazardous waste in the shallow unlined pits and trenches of the MWL. No excuse exists for not excavating this much larger amount of contamination that is leaking to Albuquerque’s drinking water aquifer.”

Citizen Action and other public comments for the Chemical Waste Landfill can be viewed on the comment page at the NMED website.

NM Environment Dept. Approves Defective Groundwater Monitoring Wells at Sandia's Mixed Waste Landfill

From Citizen Action New Mexico: Three new expensive monitoring wells installed at Sandia National Laboratories’ Mixed Waste Landfill for long-term monitoring are defective, according to Registered Geologist Robert Gilkeson, a ground water expert and geological scientist formerly employed by Los Alamos National Laboratories as lead consultant. The Mixed Waste Landfill contains an estimated 720,000 cubic ft. of radioactive and hazardous waste disposed of in unlined pits and trenches from 1959 to 1988. The waste lies above Albuquerque’s sole source drinking water aquifer.

According to Mr. Gilkeson, “The misplaced screens in the new monitoring wells have very low water levels right now that make them unsuitable for long-term monitoring because the wells will go dry in five to seven years.”

Sandia’s records document that the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) knowingly ordered the wells to be installed too deep with insufficient water standing in the wells for long-term monitoring.

To allow the new wells to provide water for more than twenty years, the well screens were made thirty feet long. However, the water level in the three wells is less than 8 feet. According to Sandia scientists, “At least 4 ft of standing water is required above the bottom of the well screen to properly purge and sample a well.”[i] The water table at the Mixed Waste Landfill is dropping approximately 0.5 to 1.5 ft per year because of municipal well draw down.

Mr. Gilkeson said, “The NMED ordered long screens in the three wells that allow contamination at the top of the aquifer to travel down in the open wells. This can contaminate the deep productive aquifer strata that produces the water tapped by city wells. This cross-contamination is prohibited by both state and federal law.”

Citizen Action Director Dave McCoy, an attorney, stated in a news release that “Under the Environment Department’s orders and federal law, the public was entitled to be formally heard and responded to before the Department made its final approval of these defective monitoring wells. The Department has probably wasted over a million dollars of taxpayer funds and left the Mixed Waste Landfill without any capability for early detection of contamination of the drinking water supply.”

Mr. Gilkeson said further, “In the past, the public was never informed that all of the groundwater monitoring data was defective. Now new monitoring wells are installed that will continue to provide invalid data. The remedy decision for a dirt cover to be placed above toxic wastes in unlined pits and trenches at the Mixed Waste Landfill has no scientific justification and should be delayed.”

Citizen Action and Mr. Gilkeson filed a complaint in 2007 with the Environmental Protection Agency that the Environment Department (NMED) was allowing the continuing use of defective monitoring wells that were built in the early 1990s. The complaint said that the unreliable data from those defective monitoring wells was used to make the decision to allow over 700,000 cubic feet of radioactive and hazardous waste to remain above Albuquerque’s drinking water aquifer.

The complaint by Citizen Action and Mr. Gilkeson to the EPA resulted in NMED requiring Sandia to install four new monitoring wells, three of which are defective and useless. The new monitoring wells are supposed to, but cannot, provide reliable data for early detection of contamination from the MWL dump.

In 2008, Citizen Action, a public interest group, used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain a list of 26 other Sandia defective groundwater monitoring wells, out of a network of 50 wells, that require installation of replacement wells.

NMED has paid no attention to the requests by Citizen Action and Mr. Gilkeson for public reviews of mistakes in the planning for the new well monitoring network at the Mixed Waste dump and dozens of other Sandia toxic waste sites. NMED is also keeping hundreds of technical documents secret from Citizen Action and the public.

Citizen Action and hydrogeologist 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. This statement also applies to the new defective wells.

The NMED recently concluded that the identical type of soil cover intended for use at the Mixed Waste Landfill is not protective of groundwater at Los Alamos National Laboratory’s MDA H dump that has only 2 percent of the waste buried at the MWL dump.”

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.

Citizen Action is a project of the New Mexico Community Foundation.

[i] Goering, et al., 2002, page 25

Edward Grothus 1923-2009

Ed Grothus at The Black Hole August 2005

Many of you know political activist and artist Barbara Grothus, and folks all over the world knew her illustrious dad Ed Grothus, who passed away this week. We were lucky enough to have gotten a meandering tour with Ed of his famous "Black Hole" in Los Alamos several years back while we were in Los Alamos for peace events commemorating the 60th anniversary of the atomic bomb blast in Hiroshima. Our visit with Ed was fascinating and moving. "Atomic Ed" will be missed by many, but his peaceful legacy will definitely live on. Here's a reminiscence of a life well lived that was put together by the Grothus family. Our condolences to all of Ed's friends and family.

Edward Bernard Grothus, of Los Alamos, died of cancer at home, at peace and surrounded by love on February 12, 2009. He was born June 28, 1923 in Clinton, Iowa. His family moved permanently to Davenport, Iowa in 1930.

Ed Grothus with "stuff" outside The Black Hole

Following graduation from high school, he traveled extensively by ship and motorcycle. He attended the University of Iowa where he (most importantly) learned to play bridge and made lifelong friends. He eventually followed his father’s trade as a machinist, the trade that brought him to Los Alamos in 1949. “Working at the Lab,” he said, “gave me an education that I could get nowhere else.” He met Margaret Jane Turnquist playing bridge in Los Alamos. They were married in 1951. In 1952 he began working at the Lab’s R-Site where he was a link in the process for making "better" atomic bombs. By 1968, he had become an antiwar activist and was an alternate delegate for candidate Eugene McCarthy at the notorious Democratic Convention in Chicago. He left LASL in 1969 when his conscience could no longer tolerate his role in nuclear bomb development. Since then, because of his singularity in speaking out against the nuclear mission of the Laboratory, he became the most interviewed and photographed person in Los Alamos.

Ed Grothus dressed as Peace Cardinal at Los Alamos Peace Rally

Ed was a hardworking and successful entrepreneur who invested in “things.” A child of the depression who extolled thrift and hated waste, he established the Los Alamos Sales Company in 1951 to buy and resell things -- mainly surplus equipment from the Los Alamos Laboratory. For many years the company operated as a catalog business, selling to universities world-wide. He typed and mimeographed pages that were assembled into catalogs by his children who also assisted with mailing, packing, and shipping.

Ed in front of Black Hole surplus-store-museum-studio-peace-shrine

Ed took an active interest in the community. When the government began to plan a subdivision for individual owners to develop, Ed got involved. He helped name the streets on Barranca Mesa and purchased the lot on which he built the first adobe home in Los Alamos. He took great pride in his plans and designs for the house, seeking to make it as durable, functional and maintenance free as possible. Nearly 60 years later, the house remains a testament to his attention to detail. Ed was a founding member of the do-it-yourself home builders association known as “The Nailbenders.” Later, in a new area known as Pajarito Acres, he was the first to build a home with the intention that it would be a rental property. When government houses came onto the market, he bought and sold those too, and upon his exit from the Laboratory, he and Margaret used proceeds to purchase The Shalako Shop which they operated for thirty years.

Ed's Omega Peace Institute in Los Alamos

In 1973, he purchased the Grace Lutheran Church property which he first called “The Omega Peace Institute” and later named “The First Church of High Technology.” In 1976, he acquired the adjacent “Mesa Market” property, which remained a grocery store for two years. When the grocery operation ceased, the Los Alamos Sales Company began moving things into the building. In recent years, the operation became known as “The Black Hole,” because “everything went in, and not even light could get out.” The business is well-known to set-decorators, artists, inventors and tinkerers, and tourists from around the world. He worked at the business six days a week until his illness forced him to slow down in late 2008. He never stopped thinking about the business despite his physical absence from it.

Sunflower peace display, 60th Hiroshima anniversary, Los Alamos

Ed refused to abandon The Black Hole during the forced evacuation of Los Alamos in 2000 when the government-set fire devastated the mountain landscape and burned more than 400 residences. The fire burned up to the foundation of the Black Hole, but Ed’s vigilance kept the fire from consuming it. He was arrested after the fire passed and was sentenced to community service for “refusing to obey a police order.” He had predicted such a disastrous immolation and had encouraged the County to build a perimeter road as a fire barrier. He strongly fought the use of salt on snowy streets because of its killing effect on trees and the subsequent erosion of soil and further environmental degradation.

Grothus was most known for his antiwar and antinuclear activism. He was a frequent writer of “Letters to the Editor” and in 1966 wrote “An Ode to a Leader, Misleading,” dedicated to President Johnson. In it he wrote “. . .search and destroy, ignoble duty . . .” His motto became “Semper Fabricate, Numquam Consumite" or “Always Build, Never Destroy.” As an early Obama supporter, Ed was pleased to note in his inaugural address that President Obama said, “. . . people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy.” Despite his antiwar and antinuclear stance, he never called for the closure of the Laboratory. He said the Lab should stop making things useful only for killing, but he supported a mission for scientists to more efficiently harvest the energy of the sun, the infinite power source.

Preparing and launching peace lanterns, Ashley Pond, Los Alamos

Grothus designed and commissioned two granite obelisks to mark the explosion of the first atomic bomb. The obelisks were quarried and carved in China, then shipped to Los Alamos in December 2007. The obelisks are white granite and are designed to sit on black bases, “doomsday stones,” engraved with text in 15 languages that describe the “most significant man-made event in human history.” Important to him among the messages engraved in the stone was, “No one is secure unless everyone is secure.” When erected, each monument will weigh over 39 tons and stand nearly 40 feet tall. At the time of his death, Grothus remained optimistic that the obelisks would find a home.

He was featured in numerous international magazine and newspaper articles and stories on national radio and television. He has appeared in various historical books, as a character in novels and, thanks to a variety of international artists, in theaters, galleries and music productions. He also has a significant presence on the internet. He was the subject of two documentaries including “Atomic Ed and the Black Hole,” by filmmaker, Ellen Spiro, broadcast on HBO. He was also the subject of investigations by the FBI and Secret Service on several occasions.

Near Los Alamos, NM

In 2006 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Indigenous World Uranium Summit for his work to promote a Nuclear-Free Future. In 2007, he was humbled to be the first non-Native American to receive the prestigious Alan Houser Memorial Award from the Houser family at the annual Governor’s Awards in the Arts for the State of New Mexico.

He was proud of his family with whom he enjoyed traveling, working, exchanging thoughts and opinions and sharing challenges and successes. Ed’s deafness, “my only problem,” was a cruel burden, not just for him. A voracious reader and life-long learner, his intellectual curiosity and interest in ideas, “things” and world events remained strong even as cancer consumed all his energy. “Dying,” he said, “is not very exciting.”

Los Alamos sky

The eldest of eight, he was predeceased by his parents, Edward Theodore Grothus and Regina Hebinck Grothus, his son Theodore, his grandson Preston Edward Burns, and his brother Joseph Grothus. He is survived by Margaret, his wife of 57 years, his children Barbara Grothus of Albuquerque, NM; Tom Grothus (Wendy Slotboom) of Seattle, WA; Susan Burns of Albuquerque, NM; and Mike Grothus (Heidi) and their children, Casey and Michelle Grothus of Niwot, CO. He is also survived by three sisters, three brothers, and their extended families. Loved and admired by many, despised by a few, he will not soon be forgotten.

Ed Grothus and one of his ever-present bolos, 2006

Friends are visiting DeVargas Funeral Home at 623 N. Railroad Avenue in Espanola, NM from 1:00 to 5:00 on Sunday, February 15. There will be a private interment at Guaje Pines Cemetery. A public memorial service will be scheduled soon.

Peace begins in the heart. Life is short. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that you remember Ed by spending precious time with your loved ones.

Here's a video of Ed from last year that includes footage of his obelisks. And here's an article memorializing Ed from the Los Alamos Monitor.

Click on photos for larger images. Last photo by Telstar Logisitics. Check out more of their excellent photos of Ed and The Black Hole here. All other photos by M.E. Broderick, taken the weekend of August 6, 2005 during peace events in Los Alamos commemorating the 60th anniversary of the atomic bomb blast at Hiroshima. See her set here.

Technorati tags: Ed Grothus Los Alamos New Mexico nuclear LANL Black Hole

Privatized Water Profits the Real Goal of Pickens' Wind Energy Plan?

T. Boone Pickens -- who funded much of the swiftboating of Kerry in 2004 -- was at the Albuquerque Convention Center today talking about his energy plan, again. But as the plan attracts more scrutiny, Pickens' true motivations for pushing it are being questioned by some. According to an article in the Local Energy News:

Critics say Pickens’ energy plan is providing cover for another plan being developed by the oil baron: Pickens is hoping to pump billions of gallons of water from an aquifer beneath the Texas Panhandle and ship it to Dallas and other major cities as drinking water. The power line corridors for his wind project, to be created by seizing private property through eminent domain, would also serve the $1.5 billion water project. Other critics of his plan question the wisdom of switching our driving addiction from oil dependence to natural gas. The production of natural gas in the U.S. has been declining since 1971.

Be sure to follow the links -- it's a fascinating story of Pickens' no-holds-barred pursuit of profits.

Although cleaner burning than oil, natural gas still produces significant amounts of greenhouse gases when burned. Natural gas prices have also been rising steadily of late and, if Pickens' plan were adopted, they'd no doubt skyrocket just as oil prices have done. Pickens also is a strong supporter of increasing our nuclear power capabilities, despite the fact that it's the most expensive form of energy production by far, and there's no foolproof way to dispose of the waste.

Why Not Decentralize?
I wish more thought would go into decentralizing energy production so those massive transmission lines and long-distance transmission corridors wouldn't be necessary. I don't see why each home or building -- or perhaps square-mile-sized districts -- couldn't be subsidized to create their own energy onsite using a variety of means. Of course this would cut out profits by the corporations that primarily serve as middlemen between energy producers and energy users. This bunch operates in much the same way as do health insurance companies, skimming off significant amounts of money by standing between providers and users and demanding hefty profits for their "gate-keeping" services. Why do we need them?

Ben R. Lujan Weighs In
By the way, here's what Ben R. Lujan, the Dem Congressional candidate in NM-03, had to say about Pickens' plan in a statement released today. As always, he makes a lot of sense:

"Today, T. Boone Pickens is visiting New Mexico to discuss his plan for energy independence. While our solutions differ, we both agree that our country must end our dependence on foreign oil by changing the way we generate energy.

"The United States imports 70 percent of our oil, much of which comes from unstable and hostile regimes. We must become energy independent and produce clean, renewable energy in the United States.

"Our energy crisis requires a comprehensive approach. We should pass 'Use it or Lose it' legislation to require oil companies to use the 68 million available leased acres to increase domestic production, increase fuel efficiency in our automobiles and crack down on speculators and market manipulation.

"Most importantly, our country must aggressively pursue renewable energy production. We must shift the billions of dollars in tax breaks for oil companies to renewable energy development, including solar and wind. I'll work to extend the Production Tax Credit to encourage economic growth and job creation in the renewable energy industry by promoting stability. We can create new jobs in New Mexico by using our abundant natural resources to lead the way on solar and wind production. Our national laboratories can conduct research and develop solutions to storing and transmitting renewable energy.

"I'm glad that T. Boone Pickens is talking about solutions to our energy crisis and recognizing New Mexico's role in the future of energy generation."

Technorati Tags: T. Boone Pickins Albuquerque New Mexico water natural gas wind turbines Texas Ben Ray Lujan NM-03

Tom Udall Votes Against NM National Lab Cuts

Rep. Tom Uall (NM-03) was the sole nay vote yesterday against a House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water FY09 budget proposal that includes spending cuts related to nuclear weapons for New Mexico's two national labs.

Provisions in the bill would reportedly eliminate about $145.3 million in funding for a billion dollar plutonium pit production program at Los Alamos National Labs and effectively shut down the so-called Reliable Replacement Warhead project. It also cuts about $100 million in construction funds -- mostly for LANL's Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement (CMRR) project, which is already being built. The new CMMR building is designed to replace several aging strucures involved in nuclear materials research. The measure would also reduce spending related to nuclear weapons at Sandia National Labs in Albuquerque.

Udall released a statement explaining his vote and stressing that he believes the labs need to look to the future and expand their mission beyond a Cold War focus. Excerpt:

“For more than a year, I have worked extensively with our labs to encourage growth in new areas of research as a way to ensure their long-term viability and to move towards the future. In addition to their indispensible role maintaining our essential nuclear arsenal, I believe the labs’ work should grow in the areas of nuclear nonproliferation, homeland security, counterterrorism, intelligence analysis and expanded energy research. We also must provide adequate funding for the cleanup of hazardous legacy waste from the labs.

“By collaborating with the lab leadership and the NNSA, I believe my goals of diversifying the labs and growing them in new areas are beginning to be realized. But there are still obstacles in our path.

Talk about being between a rock and a hard place. Udall must balance what he clearly understands is necessary to ensure a future for the labs with protecting New Mexico jobs while the labs transition to a 21st century mission quite distinct from its now obsolete Cold War focus. He frames his vote against the cuts against this background:

“Today, the House Energy and Water Subcommittee’s Appropriations proposal was brought before the full committee for a vote. And although this legislation contains many good provisions, it does not provide a path to the future for our national laboratories, and I could not support it. This bill not only cuts critical programs that are essential to the strength of our labs and the security of our nation, it rescinds funding that LANL and Sandia have already been promised and have budgeted for the current fiscal year.

In other words, Udall indicates he's voting against the cuts because they aren't accompanied by adequate new spending for a change in mission for the labs, and because the bill rescinds promised funding that has shaped the labs' budgets in the current year.

Moving Into the Future
Ultimately, Udall's vote is meaningless, except in political terms. He was heavily outvoted on the committee and change is coming to the labs one way or the other. Lab supporters can either stubbornly resist the inevitable or see the handwriting on the wall and embrace a shift in direction. It's evident that a majority of the Congress views the current focus of our national labs on making more nuke weapons as wasteful and out of tune with 21st century concerns.

The message is clearly being sent that nuclear weapons activities should be put on hold until the U.S. develops a comprehensive new strategy for the coming decades. And it's also clear that that strategy will strongly emphasize nuclear non-proliferation, research on renewable energy production, nuke waste cleanup and intelligence analysis -- not a new generation of nuclear weapons.

I think it's unfortunate that Udall felt compelled to vote against the cuts, but I also believe the brunt of the blame for our current situation should go to Sen. Pete Domenici and his cohorts. Domenici, by focusing almost exclusively on "protecting" the labs' historical Cold War mission way beyond its usefulness and meaning in the real world, has effectively jeopardized the labs' ability to transition to a mission that makes sense in today's much changed geopolitical and energy climate.

The transition should have begun long ago, but because Domenici and others have stubbornly resisted change, the transition will be harder on New Mexicans and may even mean an abandonment of Sandia and LANL. Change or die. Unfortunately, Domenici and others who continue to cling to a Manhattan-Project-style mentality are actually increasing the odds that the labs will be judged to be expendable as we move forward into an era far removed from the Cold War.

Despite his vote yesterday, it's plain that Tom Udall gets it, and just as plain that Steve Pearce, his GOP rival in the U.S. Senate race, does not.

Read the coverage by the Albuquerque Journal and the Santa Fe New Mexican.

Technorati Tags: Tom Udall NM-03 NM-Sen Pete Domenici Los Alamos National Labs Sandia National Labs Los Alamos Albuquerque New Mexico nuclear weapons reliable replacement warhead nuclear nonproliferation

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.

Technorati Tags:Citizen Action, New Mexico, Albuquerque, Los Alamos, Los Alamos National Laboratories, Sandia National Laboratories, u.S. Environmental Protection Agency, New Mexico Environment Department, chemical waste, ground water

Guest Blog: Mikhail Gorbachev in Santa Fe

This is a guest blog by Stephen Fox, alternative newspaper managing editor and gallery owner of Santa Fe, who participated in yesterday's press conference in Santa Fe featuring the former President of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev. President Gorbachev also appeared at a fundraising dinner to benefit the Santa Fe Institute and Global Green USA, and spoke to a standing room only crowd at the Lensic Performing Arts Center.

On Monday I asked former USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev if, after November, he would please be so kind as to lead and advise the next USA President as to how to get out of our quagmire. This is Gorbachev's reply, through a translator:

“The Middle East is what the entire world is watching. If things go badly for the USA, things go badly for all of us. America must not abuse the trust it has from its allies, much of which has virtually stopped. I am glad to see in this election a resurgence of interest in international affairs. As I will say in my talk tonight, judging from the USA’s military budget, your nation seems to be at war with the world, and I sense that the American people don’t like this at all. The size of your weapons budget is larger than it was at the peak of the Cold War, and larger all of the rest of the nuclear nations put together. Why do you continue to build these weapons? This is amazing to me!

I think that [former Secretaries of State] George Schultz and Henry Kissinger, [former US Senator] Sam Nunn, and [former Secretary of Defense] William Perry have put together recently a very interesting plan in this regard, for which I appreciate their initiative.

With a background of conflict, military budgets in the USA continue to grow, and you produce more weapons. The next president must show courage and responsibility to resist increasing your arms expenditures. Most serious nations in the European Union are studying the proposal by Schultz and Kissinger, and the USA should heed this proposal.

You must bear in mind, that many nations find it difficult to trust America if it insists on maintaining its weapon superiority.

After January 1, 1986, when I proposed an abolition of Nuclear Weapons, there was an immediate reaction, that many didn’t trust me, because of the USSR’s massive ground forces and conventional weapons. I replied by making some large cuts in spending for conventional weapons, and eventually we signed a treaty in this context in Paris.

So I would put the same question to America and to Americans!”

*****

At the beginning of today’s Press Conference in Santa Fe, Gorbachev defended Putin’s concern over USA building extensive missile defense systems in Eastern Europe, but said that it was good that Bush and Putin took the time to recently meet, once before Bush leaves office.

He also stated that the USA needs to “elect a President who gets along with the world, and doesn’t brandish a big stick and make threats.”

This is “up to the American people to persuade its leaders, and this burden can’t be shouldered by others.” After 15 years of “pushing” since leaving office in 1992, Gorbachev now believes that most world leaders and heads of state are “lagging,” and that what we need next is “planetary glasnost.”

He is encouraged by the progress in Russia of the political party he started, the Union of Social Democrats, given that more than 100 nations have the same kind of party, the Social Democrats. He said the history of the USSR was a 70 year experiment with Communism in its extreme Bolshevik form, and that Russia had “paid the price” for doing so.

Gorbachev reminisced on Yeltsin being pressured by the International Monetary Fund and a few US Think Tanks which came to impose on Russia a free market approach, which did a lot of good. He called it the “Washington Consensus” that was really the opposite ideology and effect of Bolshevism.

*****

I have met and talked with several Nobel Peace Laureates, as well as several others I thought should have won that honorable prize. The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to 95 individuals and 20 organizations since 1901.

The Laureates I have exchanged extensive correspondence with include His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, and Kofi Annan. I have talked at great length with Jody Williams.  I asked Oscar Aria Sanchez, former-and-now-again President of Costa Rica, to help create a branch in Santa Fe of the United Nations University for Peace; Dag Hammarskjold’s nephew Knut was on the Board of Honorary Advisors of this conception, as was Gandhi’s grandson, Arun, and Einstein’s granddaughter, Evelyn. So was former USA Secretary of Interior, Stewart Udall.

As an organization making a huge difference in the world, Doctors without Borders is my highest inspiration daily in my work to get the neurotoxic and carcinogenic artificial sweetener, aspartame, off the market by rescinding its approval to be sold.

Mairead Corrigan of Ireland was the first Nobel Peace Laureate I talked with for several hours at the Second United Nations Special Session on Disarmament in 1978. I also had a very long conversation with Canada's Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, and I have always thought he deserved the Nobel Peace Prize. Certainly, George Mc Govern deserves something like a Nobel Peace Prize, for his lifetime of pacifism.

Yet somehow, today, former President Mikhail Gorbachev was the most compelling. I am certain that because I was asking on behalf of tens of millions of Americans and several billions people in hundreds of nations, that he really will help to advise and guide the next USA President to bring the USA out of the Middle East, and to end the war in Iraq.

There really is no choice.

This is a guest blog by Stephen Fox of Santa Fe. Guest blogs provide our readers a chance to express themselves on topics of interest to the political discourse here, and may or may not express the views of the DFNM blog. If you'd like to submit a post for consideration as a guest blog, contact me by clicking on the Email Me link on the upper left-hand corner of the page.

Technorati Tags: Mikhail Gorbachev Santa Fe New Mexico Middle East U.S. Military disarmament

Citizen Group Wins Federal Lawsuit Against NNSA for Unlawful Document Delays

From Citizen Action:
Citizen Action, a public interest group, received a victory in a federal lawsuit against the National Nuclear Security Agency/Albuquerque Operations Office (NNSA) for engaging “in a continuing pattern and practice of unlawful delay” in furnishing documents under the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). 

The decision by U.S. District Court Judge Robert C. Brack states that “In light of the Kafkaesque review process adopted by Defendant, it is not surprising that the delay in this case stretched many months beyond the statutorily-prescribed time frame.” The decision describes a “labyrinthine process for reviewing FOIA requests” that does not justify the delays even for “situations involving national security, sensational, or complex issues.” The decision orders an agreement to be made between DOE and Citizen Action within 30 days for “responding to pending requests and for processing future requests.”

Citizen Action Attorney Richard Mietz, Santa Fe stated, “This is a complete vindication of my client’s right to receive information under the FOIA in a timely manner.” 

This is the second time in a year that Mr. Mietz has successfully persuaded a federal judge that the Albuquerque NNSA office engages in a pattern and practice of unlawful delay when responding to citizen requests for information about the nation’s nuclear weapons facilities. 

The documents sought by Citizen Action seek a wide range of information about Sandia National Laboratories. Dating from requests going back to 2004, these include:

• Ten-Year Site Plans for future activities at Sandia National Laboratories
• High level radioactive waste and release of contamination from nuclear weapons production buried in a Cold War waste site known as the Mixed Waste Landfill and many illegal dumpsites referred to as “Yardholes” scattered about Sandia
• Environmental information about groundwater monitoring, air monitoring, earthquake faulting, radioactive contamination of plants and animals at Sandia

Citizen Action Director, Dave McCoy stated, “This decision should send a strong message to NNSA’s management that NNSA can no longer use delay to create secrecy about Sandia’s dangerous operations. This decision acknowledges that provision of information may be useless if it is not timely. The public needs to obtain information for commenting on Sandia’s current plans. There is a Sandia facility wide permit request pending approval. That would include: open air burning of high explosive wastes; production of neutron generator tubes that leak tritium without air monitoring; leaving radioactive and toxic waste contamination in place without monitoring groundwater over our drinking water, and; Sandia’s plans for future nuclear weapons related production that will generate hundreds of thousands of pounds of hazardous and radioactive waste.”

The decision also builds on and goes beyond an earlier federal FOIA decision in favor of Nuclear Watch in Santa Fe. The Citizen Action decision sets forth a requirement to avoid future violations and to timely furnish the documents from over ten outstanding Citizen Action FOIA requests. Judge Brack cited language from the Nuclear Watch case that “observed this process ‘makes a mockery of the 20-day target set by FOIA and violates congressional intent.’”   

Citizen Action continues to also battle with the New Mexico Environment Department lawsuit to obtain a 2006 TechLaw report about contamination at the MWL. The Environment Department is suing Citizen Action in state court to keep the report secret. McCoy said, “One can only question what the Environment Department hopes to achieve by suing a public interest organization instead of the polluter.” The New Mexico Supreme Court recently denied a request for a stay on the release of the TechLaw report to the Attorney General and Citizen Action’s attorney.