Daily on-site blessings of Northern New Mexico waters is the theme for the twenty-first Gathering for Mother Earth Waters, which will be held from Wednesday, September 20^th through Saturday, September 23^rd at sites in Abiquiu, Pilar, Nambe, and at the Pojoaque Pow Wow Grounds.  Tewa Women United and colleagues are organizing the events and invite you to join in the blessings.  Please bring a sack lunch, drinking water, a chair, shade, sunscreen, and follow the blue balloons to each site.  http://tewawomenunited.org/

On Wednesday, September 20^th, beginning at 10 am, participants will gather at the Northern Youth Project Garden in Abiquiu to Celebrate the Harvest.  http://www.northernyouthproject.org/  During lunch, there will be a discussion of traditional foods, water, and life, followed by music, dance, storytelling, and poetry.  For more information, contact northernyouthproject@gmail.com.

From 6 pm to 8 pm, there will be a moon ceremony at Tewa Women United, at 912 Fairview Lane, in Española.

On Thursday, September 21^st, beginning at 10 am, participants will gather at the Lone Juniper Campsite in Pilar for Peace Day.  https://www.blm.gov/visit/orilla-verde-recreation-area  There will be blessings of water and Avanyu, and a traditional seed exchange will be held.  During lunch, a talking circle about water health and healthy foods will be held.  For more information, contact addelinalucero@gmail.com

From 7:30 to 8:30 pm [CORRECTION:  From 5 to 7 pm], there will be a Journey with Water light show at the Española YMCA Teen Center at 808 Vietnam Veterans Memorial Park.  http://www.espanolanmchamber.com/list/member/espa%c3%b1ola-ymca-teen-center-espanola-529  For more information, please contact Autumn Gomez, of Tewa Women United, at 505 747-3259, extension 1202.

On Friday, September 22^nd, a celebration of the Autumnal Equinox will take place at Nambe Falls.  http://nambepueblo.org/?page_id=935  Beginning at 10 am there will be a welcoming, an opening, and discussion of Avanyu as Water is Life.  During lunch, there will be a discussion about sustainable practices.  For more information, contact Elder Kathy Sanchez, of Tewa Women United, at 505 747-3259, extension 1203.

From 6 to 8 pm there will be an Autumnal Equinox, Water, and P’oe Avanyu celebration at the Poeh Museum, in Pojoaque.  http://poehcenter.org/  For more information, please contact Karl Duncan, at 505-455-5040, extension 5054.

Finally, on Saturday, September 23^rd, the Gathering will be at the Pojoaque Pow Wow Grounds.  The Gathering site is 1.8 miles west of the Hwys 285/84 interchange in Pojoaque, on Hwy 502, near the Pojoaque High School.  Please look for the signs.  Beginning with a 6:30 am sunrise blessing, a water blessing and talking circle will follow.  At 11 am, Andrew Kimbrell, of the Center for Food Safety, will speak.  https://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/andrew-kimbrell  At 11:30 am, a light luncheon will be served.  For more information, please contact Elder Kathy Sanchez, at 505-747-3259, extension 1203.

Elder Sanchez, invited everyone to attend.  She said, “We are asking everyone to be present with their whole loving energies at our beloved waters.”

For more information about the Gathering, please visit http://tewawomenunited.org/  And here is the event flyer: http://tewawomenunited.org/gathering-for-mother-earth-summit/

The first day for nations to sign the historic Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons is Wednesday, September 20^th, when the General Assembly of the United Nations begins its 72nd session in New York City.  Nearly two-thirds of the 192 members of the U.N. adopted the treaty on July 7^th.  The schedule is available at http://www.icanw.org/campaign-news/sign-the-nuclear-ban-treaty/  At a time when threats of nuclear war are so high, your actions to support the Treaty will make a difference.  A number of colleague organizations have created actions you can take to urge your leaders to sign the treaty, participate in the 2018 United Nations High-Level Conference on Nuclear Disarmament, and do everything in their power to abolish nuclear weapons.

The treaty outlaws the development, testing, manufacture, acquisition, possession, transportation, or threat to use nuclear weapons, leading to their eventual elimination.  It stigmatizes these weapons of mass destruction in a manner similar to the international treaties that prohibit chemical weapons, biological weapons, anti-personnel landmines and cluster munitions.  http://www.undocs.org/en/a/conf.229/2017/L.3/Rev.1

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons states that the treaty “is a historic breakthrough in the efforts to eliminate nuclear weapons, and is a counter-measure to escalating tensions and increasing focus on nuclear weapons by the nuclear-armed states.  The treaty will set a powerful norm and impact behavior and policies even in states that initially do not join.”  http://www.icanw.org/campaign-news/sign-the-nuclear-ban-treaty/

The U.S. did not participate in the treaty negotiations.  Now is the time to make your voice heard.

First, the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom has a petition campaign to the U.S. President and Congress that urges signature and ratification of the treaty.  It is available at http://wilpfus.org/news/updates/wilpf-launches-petition-campaign-support-ban-treaty

Second, the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation has an open letter to the U.S. Congress urging action to prevent nuclear catastrophe.  You can sign electronically at https://www.wagingpeace.org/open-letter-congress/

Third, the United Nations will hold a High-Level Conference on Nuclear Disarmament in 2018.  Unfold Zero is urging people to send a letter, email or tweet to the President calling on the U.S. to sign the treaty, to participate in the 2018 High Level Conference on Nuclear Disarmament, and do everything in his power to abolish nuclear weapons everywhere.  A sample letter is available at http://www.unfoldzero.org/26-september-2015/#

Fourth, Tuesday, September 26^th is the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons.  Organize an event to show the documentary, “The Man Who Saved the World,” about when, at the height of the Cold War, Stanislav Petrov, a worker in a Soviet nuclear early warning center, prevented nuclear holocaust by going against protocol by not launching retaliatory nuclear weapons.  http://www.unfoldzero.org/26-september-2015/#  For more information, contact info@unfoldzero.org.  

Fifth, read the Guardian’s September 6^th article entitled, “No more nukes?  Why anti-nuclear protests need an urgent revival” at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/06/no-more-nukes-anti-nuclear-protests-cnd-greenham-common

Sixth, read LeRoy Moore’s opinion piece in the Boulder Daily Camera, entitled, “Is a nuclear war inevitable?”  https://leroymoore.wordpress.com/2017/09/  Moore, Ph.D., is a consultant with the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center in Boulder, Colorado.

Seventh, read the 2017 Reaching Critical Will “First Committee briefing book,” prepared for the UN General Assembly First Committee on Disarmament and International Studies.  It asks the question, “What can [the UN General Assembly] do to actually prevent violence by dealing, in a real way, with the weapons that are sustaining the wars?”  http://reachingcriticalwill.org/news/latest-news/11839-new-publication-first-committee-briefing-book-2017

And finally, talk with your friends and family.  Forward the Update to them.

The Department of Energy and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) hosted a public meeting about four major modifications to the New Mexico Environment Department hazardous waste permit that would delay comprehensive cleanup of the large unlined dumps carved into the volcanic tuff and decrease protection of the regional drinking water aquifer below the site.  PMR August 30 2017 Public Meeting Slides[1] Please note that the LANL Slide No. 16 does not accurately reflect the two public review and comment processes – this one initiated by DOE/LANL, and the next one, a regulatory process initiated by the New Mexico Environment Department.  Public comments about both are needed.  Activists argue that this permit process must be stopped because the Environment Department has not developed and implemented the required public participation policy as required by the January 2017 resolution agreement between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Environment Department.

The four modifications, which are often called a “Monster Mod,” proposes major and significant changes to the final LANL hazardous waste permit issued by the Environment Department in November 2010.  DOE and LANL filed lawsuits in both state and federal courts to block portions of the permit.  Seven years of negotiations ensued resulting in a complex Settlement Agreement which requires modifying the permit.  CCNS was a party to the litigation, but did not sign the Settlement Agreement.  http://nuclearactive.org/doelanl-host-august-30th-public-meeting-about-less-cleanup-less-groundwater-protection/

On a similar path, Citizens for Alternatives to Radioactive Dumping (CARD), based in Albuquerque, challenged the hazardous waste permit for a proposed hazardous waste dump east of Roswell, called Triassic Park.  The Environment Department and the Applicant did not translate key documents into Spanish for limited English proficient individuals so they could fully participate in the permit process, among other things.  To correct the discrimination they encountered, CARD filed a Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 complaint with EPA.  After many years of EPA inaction, CARD joined with similar groups that had filed Title VI complaints, to sue EPA.  In January, EPA and the Environment Department settled the Triassic Park complaint by signing an Informal Resolution Agreement.  The 15-page Agreement requires the Environment Department to develop and implement a public participation policy that includes requires outreach to impacted communities.  http://nuclearactive.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/EPA_FINALResolutionLetterandAgreement_TriassicPark_Complainant_011917.pdf

Which brings us back to the LANL Monster Mod.  Three members of the public attended the meeting, clearly demonstrating the lack of outreach to the impacted communities.  Key documents have not been translated for use in Northern New Mexico.

Janet Greenwald, a CARD co-coordinator, attended the meeting and spoke to the lack of compliance with the EPA Informal Resolution Agreement.  She said, “The Environment Department has not informed communities downwind of LANL about the current proposal to modify LANL’s state hazardous waste permit.  This is not right.  The omission violates the intent of the recent Resolution Agreement between the Environment Department and the Environmental Protection Agency in Dallas.  The public process must be stopped until the required community outreach is completed.”

The Department of Energy (DOE) and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) are proposing less groundwater protection and less cleanup of unlined dumps containing radioactive, hazardous, and toxic pollutants under a permit modification they recently submitted to the New Mexico Environment Department.  Modifying the hazardous waste permit, as proposed, would allow DOE and LANL to continue to dispose of low-level radioactive waste at Area G as other dumps are closed, despite assurances last fall that they would stop; and prevent regulation of the 54-year old Radioactive Liquid Waste Treatment Facility as a hazardous waste facility; among others.  http://nuclearactive.org/ccns-decries-lack-of-water-protection-in-nmed-and-lanl-agreement/

DOE and LANL are hosting a public meeting to discuss the permit modification on Wednesday, August 30^th from 5:30 to 7:30 pm at Fuller Lodge in Los Alamos.

The permit modification is the result of federal and state litigation between the federal and state government.  In December 2010, DOE and LANL sued the New Mexico Environment Department over requirements in the final hazardous waste permit.  The parties recently came to a settlement in which DOE and LANL were required to submit a permit modification that reflects the settlement agreement.  The Environment Department Hazardous Waste Permit is available at https://www.env.nm.gov/HWB/Permit.htm  and the 312-page permit modification request is available at http://permalink.lanl.gov/object/tr?what=info:lanl-repo/eprr/ESHID-602518  The Settlement Agreement begins on p. 21 of the permit modification.

The public will have the opportunity to provide public comments to the Environment Department by Friday, September 22^nd.  CCNS will prepare sample public comments for you to use, following the public meeting.

In 2010, CCNS also sued the Environment Department in state court because the final hazardous waste permit was not protective of groundwater and did not ensure the best cleanup of nearly 75 years of dumping, emitting and discharging pollution into the soil, air, and water, and by extension, into our bodies.  CCNS is a party to the hazardous waste permit litigation, but did not sign the settlement agreement.  The New Mexico Environmental Law Center represents CCNS.

Joni Arends, a co-founder and executive director of CCNS, said, “CCNS remains committed to critical cleanup of the unlined dumps that are leaking into our regional drinking water aquifer.  The settlement agreement and resulting permit modification support the myth that DOE and LANL know how to cleanup leaking dumps and protect regional drinking water supplies.  This is not the case.  DOE and its contractors have a long track record of failed cleanups at DOE sites across the country.”

Other threats to our health and safety from LANL, including fires, electrical problems, and near criticalities have been documented in the Center for Public Integrity’s five-part series called Nuclear Negligence.  https://apps.publicintegrity.org/nuclear-negligence/

Arends continued, “It’s time to get involved again.  To stay informed, please sign up on our website to receive the weekly Updates, and check out our Facebook page and Twitter feeds.”

The Santa Fe City Council will vote August 30 on a proposed ordinance that would strip away our rights to protect our health, safety, and property. It would enable the wireless industry to put cell tower transmitters on every block in front of people’s homes without their consent or their ability to object for any reason.
Bill No. 2017-22 would repeal most zoning regulations that now protect us. It would allow cell tower transmitters to be built
• on any street or sidewalk
• without a public hearing
• without notice to neighbors
• without notice to the public
• without an application
• without information regarding radio frequency radiation
• without proof of compliance with the FCC’s safety rules

Cities all over the country are opposing similar legislation. An Ohio law that repealed zoning regulations for wireless facilities throughout Ohio was challenged by 70 cities and was overturned by a court. A California bill that would do the same thing in California, S.B. 649, is being opposed by 216 cities, 34 counties, and 45 health, environmental, and consumer justice organizations.

Tell the Santa Fe City Council to VOTE NO
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 30, 2017, 7 PM
CITY HALL, 200 LINCOLN AVE.
info: 471-0129

Reverend Dr. William J. Barber, Jr., and the Poor People’s Campaign – A National Call for a Moral Revival, rocked the Central United Methodist Church on Tuesday night with singing, poetry, testimonials, and prayer to rekindle a prophetic moral vision for justice, social change and movement building.  With standing room only, the church was packed with more than 1,200 people, while many stood outside to listen

Speaking to the recent events in Charlottesville, Virginia, Rev. Barber highlighted the interrelatedness of the issues we are facing.  He said working in isolation no longer works and we must together build a just, sustainable and participatory society.  He reminded the audience that we pledge allegiance to “one nation under God with liberty and justice for all.”

Rev. Barber is a Protestant minister, based in North Carolina.  He is the President and Senior Lecturer of the Repairers of the Breach, and a NAACP board member.

The Poor People’s Campaign is a movement to address the challenges we are facing today, drawing on the wisdom of and moving beyond Dr. Martin Luther King’s campaign of 1967 and 1968.  That campaign’s tenants were to address systematic racism, poverty, militarism, and economic development. 

In March, 1968, Reis Tijerina, of the The Alianza Federal de Mercedes (Federal Alliance of Land Grants), attended a key meeting in Atlanta.  https://the1960sbloggcu.wordpress.com/2012/11/29/la-alianza-federal-de-mercedez/ In May, 1968, he joined the caravan from New Mexico to the Poor People’s March on the National Mall in Washington, DC.  People of all races gathered to demand economic justice.  The march was held on May 12^th, following the tragic assassination of Dr. King in early April.

Albuquerque was the campaign’s second stop on a 25-state revival tour, with an additional stop in Washington, DC.  Fifteen regional trainings will be held for 1,000 committed people from each revival tour state to use civil disobedience the way Rosa Parks did.  Her protest on the bus changed the race narrative.  The next stops on the tour are Topeka; Milwaukee; and Detroit.  To learn more and to sign the pledge, go to https://poorpeoplescampaign.org/

Testimonials focused on the four areas of the campaign were given by a diversity of speakers from New Mexico, including Samia Assed, a Muslim activist based in Albuquerque; Arturo Uribe, a resident of Mesquite, who lives near a dairy; Todd Wynard, a Mennonite working on watershed discipleship in the Taos area; Tina Cordova, co-founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, working to obtain compensation and health care for the Trinity downwinders; and Monique Salab, an Iraq war veteran and member of the Veterans for Peace.  To view the livestream of the Albuquerque meeting go to http://www.breachrepairers.org/ or http://www.ourrevolutionnm.us/

Ms. Salab explained how her work for the abolition of war puts her in classrooms to talk about the lies of the military, the racism, the gender bias, and sexual bias.  She is particularly concerned about how the junior ROTC programs are “invading low income schools.”

Ms. Cordova received a standing ovation for her talk about the health, economic, and environmental impacts of the first atomic bomb test at the Trinity Site on July 16, 2017.  She explained that people have had to hold bake sales or sell cattle in order to pay for cancer treatment.

Mr. Wyndard, a Mennonite and a board member of New Mexico Interfaith Power and Light, said he was addicted to petroleum.  He called a “life destroying drug” and that we “sold creation for convenience.”

Mr. Uribe spoke of the negatives impacts of the 148 dairies to communities throughout New Mexico, including flies, dust, concerns about the safety of the drinking water, and the smells that prevent summer cookouts and other outdoor activities.  He also spoke about the nuisance lawsuit brought by attorneys who took advantage of the people and benefitted the most.  Despite it all, he said he is “proud and humble” and has a life “rich in family values.”

Ms. Assed bore witness as a privileged settler of sacred land and spoke about systematic racism.  Through her work opposing the Muslim ban and protecting freedom of speech, she has created bonds with brown and black mothers around the world.  She concluded by saying her “freedom is tied to everyone in America.”

The host committee for Tuesday’s fabulous community event was Dr. Harold Bailey, of the Albuquerque NAACP; the Rev. Holly Beaumont, of Interfaith Worker Justice – New Mexico; Sr. Joan Brown, of New Mexico Interfaith Power and Light; and Joan Lamunyon Sanford, of New Mexico Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice.

#poorpeoplescampaign #moralresistance #unitethepoor #repairerofthebreach #concernedcitizensfornuclearsafety

Members from more than three-dozen Tri-Valley, Tracy and Bay Area peace, justice and environmental organizations and communities of faith invited the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Director to join them at the West Gate to discuss the new Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.  The activists visited the Livermore Lab Main Site on Wednesday, August 9^th to commemorate the victims of the U.S. bombing of Nagasaki, Japan with an atomic bomb on that day in 1945.  It was the second U.S. wartime bombing; the first was on Hiroshima, Japan on August 6^th.

Just last month, on July 7^th, 122 countries, or state parties, adopted the historic treaty at the United Nations in New York City.  https://treaties.un.org/doc/Treaties/2017/07/20170707%2003-42%20PM/Ch_XXVI_9.pdf  (The English version of the 10-page treaty begins on p. 17.)  One state abstained, and one voted no.  The U.S. did not participate in the final negotiations or the vote.

A new global majority took the steps necessary to establish an important new law and a new global norm.  The treaty prohibits the development, testing, production, manufacture, acquisition, possession or stockpiling of nuclear weapons, which is exactly what the Livermore Lab does.

In fact, 88.5 percent, or over $1,230,000,000, of Livermore’s budget request for fiscal year 2018 is for nuclear weapons activities.  http://www.trivalleycares.org/new/FY2018_LLNL_Budget_Request_PieChart.pdf  These activities include developing a new W80-4 warhead for a new Long-Range Stand Off weapon and the new Interoperable Warhead-1.

Anticipating resistance from the Lab to meet, the activists acknowledged that national policies and behaviors do change over time.  They cited how South Africa, after coming under global pressure, dismantled its apartheid systems and rose in stature in the world.  They wrote, “So, too, may the U.S. and other nuclear weapons states accede to the treaty and come into compliance at a not-too-distant date.”

The Lab Director, William Goldstein, replied to the invitation saying he respectfully declined.  He wrote, “This topic is best discussed with the U.S. Government representatives at the UN.”

Marylia Kelley, of Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment, or Tri-Valley CARES, replied that the UN is not the sole forum for discussing U.S. nuclear weapons policy and disarmament obligations.  She wrote, “Livermore Lab is a proper and necessary forum to discuss nuclear disarmament in general and the implications of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in particular.  Indeed, the nuclear weapons activities that Livermore Lab conducts at its Main Site in Livermore … make it not merely an appropriate location but an imperative location for this discussion.”  http://trivalleycares.org/

About 200 people attended the commemoration event, which was filled with speakers, poetry, music, and a die-in at the West Gate.  Forty-seven were arrested and given a court date of September 11^th, 2017.

“I’d like to de-nuke the world,” said Trump, the same afternoon in which he claimed his prior threat to bring “fire and fury” upon North Korea “wasn’t tough enough.” The president said that until such a day, the U.S. “will be most powerful nuclear power by far” with the “biggest, finest” nuclear arsenal. “Nobody is going to be threatening us with anything,” said Trump.

CCNS is very concerned with increasing tensions between the U.S. and North Korea.  Please support our work and spread the following tweets:

Ivanka, please rein in your father on North Korea.  Life is too precious to waste on a nuclear war.

Melania, please rein in your husband on North Korea.  Life is too precious to waste on a nuclear war.

Barron, please rein in your father on North Korea.  Life is too precious to waste on a nuclear war.

To learn more about about the U.S. relationship with North Korea and the fact that the Korean War continues to this day, please visit the Korea Policy Institute at http://kpolicy.org/.  “KPI is an independent research and educational institute whose mission is to provide timely analysis of United States policies toward Korea and developments on the Korean peninsula, and to educate U.S. policymakers, media and the public.   Support KPI’s efforts to provide the information and analysis needed to inform a U.S. policy that respects the Korean peoples’ desire for peace, sovereignty, reconciliation, and the reunification of Korea.”

For an informed conversation about what North Korea wants (it wants peace), please listen to the August 8, 2017 interview of Christine Hong, an Associate Professor of Literature at UC Santa Cruz and KPI Board member, on KPFA-FM at https://archives.kpfa.org/data/20170808-Tue0700.mp3  It begins at 33.40.

Citing a discriminatory public process involving the proposed ground water discharge permit for Waste Control Specialists (WCS), Citizens for Alternatives to Radioactive Dumping (CARD), and the Alliance for Environmental Strategies, recently requested that the New Mexico Environment Department stop the permitting process.  The Environment Department responded by terminating the public comment period.  Comments were due to the Environment Department by August 8^th.  The Department plans to reissue the public notice in both English and Spanish soon, thus starting the public comment period again.

The draft permit would allow WCS, a limited liability corporation, to discharge an theoretical maximum of 170,500,000 gallons per day from the 14,900-acre radioactive and hazardous waste storage and disposal facility located in Texas on the Texas-New Mexico border, five miles east of Eunice, New Mexico.  d_WCS_GWDP_1817_060917

The Environment Department’s discriminatory practices include the omission of a public notice in Spanish, the dominant language in the Eunice area; and the omission of a study about the potentially affected local communities.  Further, the Environment Department did not provide inclusive public participation opportunities as required by their January 19, 2017 Settlement Agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).  That agreement resolved a 2003 civil rights complaint filed by CARD about the discriminatory practices involved in the permit process for the Triassic Park Hazardous Waste Treatment and Disposal Facility, located east of Roswell.  EPA_FINALResolutionLetterandAgreement_TriassicPark_Complainant_011917

CARD, an Albuquerque-based non-governmental organization, filed the complaint with EPA alleging violations of Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act based on race and national origin.  CARD claimed the Environment Department “failed to require or perform a scientific investigation into possible disparate impacts; failed to ensure that limited-English proficient Spanish speaking residents were provided a meaningful opportunity for effective public participation in the permitting process; and has a statewide pattern and practice of similar discriminatory permitting and lack of access for limited-English proficient residents to the public participation and permitting process.”  http://nuclearactive.org/epa-reaches-informal-resolution-of-14-year-old-civil-rights-complaint-against-nmed/  Fourteen years later, the Environment Department continues the same practices.

Noel Marquez, of the Artesia-based Alliance for Environmental Strategies, wrote the Environment Department, stating, “When it comes to issues of contamination of our lands, water and air regarding our southeastern region of New Mexico, the people will always come first.”

Marquez explained, “Our water is precious and many of us operate small farms and we will not allow the state or nuclear industry to threaten or stigmatize our home lands with radioactive dumps and their toxic effects.  The EPA has also noticed [the Environment Department’s lack of] outreach to the public and we hope that our communities will be better served in the future.”

Recently the Department of Energy and the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) announced a settlement concerning leaking nuclear waste dumps at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) that will not protect regional drinking water supplies from toxic, hazardous and radioactive pollution.  The Settlement Agreement begins on p. 21 at http://permalink.lanl.gov/object/tr?what=info:lanl-repo/eprr/ESHID-602518  The settlement perpetuates the myth that alternative groundwater monitoring requirements are as protective as the hazardous waste laws and regulation.  Unfortunately, alternative requirements have allowed pollution to continue to migrate to the regional drinking water aquifer below LANL.

Under the terms of the settlement, LANL submitted a hazardous waste permit modification request to the Environment Department for the three dumpsites at Technical Area 54 (TA-54).  The Environment Department Hazardous Waste Permit is available at https://www.env.nm.gov/HWB/Permit.htm  and the 312-page permit modification request is available at http://permalink.lanl.gov/object/tr?what=info:lanl-repo/eprr/ESHID-602518

The dumps are, Area G, an operational 63-acre dump for radioactive, hazardous and toxic waste; Area H, a non-operating dump with nine deep shafts containing toxic, hazardous and explosive chemicals; and Area L, a non-operating 2.6 acre dump contaminated with fast-moving liquids, volatile organic compounds and radioactive tritium.

Because the dumps received waste after July 26, 1982, they are “regulated units” under the hazardous waste regulations.  Owners and operators of regulated units must establish groundwater programs for detecting, characterizing and responding to pollution releases that reach the uppermost aquifer, “as well as lower aquifers that are hydraulically interconnected with this aquifer within the facility’s property boundary.” 40 CFR §260.10.

As documented by Robert H. Gilkeson, an independent registered geologist, the groundwater wells LANL drilled to characterize the geology near the dumps are defective and cannot detect, characterize and respond to pollutants that leak from the dumps.  See Gilkeson Cleanup Documents, Groundwater Documents,  Groundwater Wells, National Academy of Sciences Review of LANL Groundwater Plans and Practices (2007), and Buckman Direct Diversion Project at http://nuclearactive.org/gilkeson/

A case in point is the regional well, R-22, located 500 feet east of Area G downgradient of the boundary, along the direction of groundwater travel from beneath Area G to the property of the Pueblo de San Ildefonso, the Rio Grande, and the Buckman Wellfield, an important source of water for Santa Fe.

In 2004, pentachlorophenol was detected at six times the drinking water standard.  Pentachlorophenol is a pesticide and wood preservative.  The Environmental Protection Agency set a zero maximum contaminant level goal because of the serious health issues caused by exposure, including cancer and damage to the central nervous system, reproductive system, liver and kidneys.

Under the regulations, the Environment Department was required to order LANL to install more advanced groundwater monitoring.  But they did not.  No upgraded monitoring system was installed, nor was well R-22 replaced.  The settlement perpetuates the use of alternative requirements that do not work to protect the drinking water aquifer.  See Section 1.4.2 Integration with Consent Order, and Section 1.4.2.1 MDAs G, H, and L at pp. 181 and 182 at http://permalink.lanl.gov/object/tr?what=info:lanl-repo/eprr/ESHID-602518 compared to 40 CFR §§264.90 – 100.

Joni Arends, of CCNS, said, “As we’ve seen with the LANL’s repeated failures to protect its own staff and contractors from unsafe working conditions, we also see its failure to live up to its responsibility to protect its neighbors and our drinking water from these truly dangerous chemicals – and NMED’s complicity in allowing it do so.”  See Center for Public Integrity Nuclear Negligence five-part series at https://apps.publicintegrity.org/nuclear-negligence/

CCNS is a party to the hazardous waste permit litigation, but did not sign the settlement.  CCNS is represented by the New Mexico Environmental Law Center.

Please note:  LANL/DOE is hosting a public meeting about their permit modification request on Wednesday, August 30, 2017 at Fuller Lodge, 2132 Central Avenue, Los Alamos, from 5:30 to 7:30 pm.

Comments are due to the New Mexico Environment Department by September 22, 2017.  CCNS is preparing sample public comments you can use to develop your comments.  We will let you know when they are ready by email and on social media.