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Exhibit 6: CCNS and EVEMG Multimedia Comments Regarding
The Draft Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement for
Los Alamos National Laboratory
CCNS and the Embudo Valley Environmental Monitoring Group (EVEMG) submitted a mix CD titled "Where do the Children play" with liner notes as a part of our formal comments to the Department of Energy regarding . This mix CD is an official part of our comments and requires consideration and response under the National Environmental Policy Act. We requested, and eagerly await, a response in-kind from DOE.
Please listen to the songs below. These files are in MP3 format. The songs are intended for educational purposes not distribution.
Exhibit 6.1
Where Do the Children Play?
CCNS and EVEMG draft LANL SWEIS Comment Mix
Song Selection Made By Kalliroi Matsakis and Leah McLeroy
Submited to the Department of Energy on September 20th, 2006
The following is a track list for the enclosed music mix compact disk (Mix CD). This Mix CD is intended to compliment our comments, by providing emotional undertone, which our specific, and even general, comments cannot convey. It is also intended for your enjoyment while reviewing the public comments regarding the draft LANL SWEIS.
As stated above, CCNS and EVEMG request a response, in kind, to this Mix CD. The remarks following the title and artist for each track are intended to aid you in preparing such a response. If you have any questions or would like to schedule a meeting to discuss our request further, please contact Kalliroi Matsakis, Media Network Coordinator, Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety, by phone at 986-1973, or email at kmatsakis@nuclearactive.org.
Track 1: Where Do the Children Play, Cat Stevens
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An evolving family of nuclear weapons, which has come a long way from Fat Man and Little Boy, and is changing day to day, is all well and good, but we ask you "Where do the children play?"
One answer is on baseball fields next to Area G, the legacy and low-level nuclear waste dump. Another is in Acid Canyon, which is as safe as an extended backyard so long as they don't eat the dirt (please see Exhibit 9.3 and/or www.ieer.org/reports/lanl/cleanup.pdf).
Track 2: The Battle Is Over, But the War Goes On, Sonny Terry and Brownie MaGhee
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"Its only through love, this ol' world can stay alive"
Track 3: River, Joni Mitchell
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We wish we had a river which was not contaminated with elevated levels of PCBs, to the extent that you cannot eat the channel catfish caught in White Rock Canyon. Please see Exhibit 6.2
Track 4: Imagine, John Lennon
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Imagine the first verses went a little something like this:
Imagine incorporating our comments
It's easy if you try
No DU Burned
Openly in our sky
Imagine all the people
Breathing clean air
Imagine there's no new nukes
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
No more waste TRU
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace
You may say that we are dreamers
But we are not the only ones
We hope someday that you will join us
And the world will live as one
Track 5: I Wanna Be An Engineer, Pete Seeger
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Please see above comments regarding employment discrimination at LANL. Solidarity Forever.
Track 6: Talking about a Revolution, Tracy Chapman
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Los Alamos County is the richest county in the country and surrounded by some of the most impoverished counties in the nation. Please see Exhibit 8 and 9.1
Track 7: A Hard Rain is Gonna Fall, Bob Dylan
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Data presented in the draft LANL SWEIS shows that there are very high levels of plutonium in storm water run off, as well as in the regional aquifer as reported in Appendix F of the draft LANL SWEIS. Please see comments from the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research for more details.
Track 8: Eve of Destruction, Barry Mc Guire
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When you are singing along to this track please pay close attention to the line that says "I can't twist the truth, it knows no regulation" and please consider using this line instead "I will twist the truth, because I forgot the regulations" or maybe "I always the twist the truth, because I don't care about the regulations" or on a more uplifting note "I won't twist the truth anymore, because I respect and love the regulations".
Please see CCNS and EVEMG water comments and Exhibits 1-4 for further discussion of DOE/NNSA's use of regulations in the draft LANL SWEIS.
Track 9: Ball of Confusion (That's What the World is Today), The Temptations
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"Oh, great googalooga, can't you hear me talking to ya?"
Track 10: War, Edwin Star
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'Nuff said.
Track 11: Wade in the Water, Big Mama Thorton
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All people that live downstream and downwind from LANL require and have a right to clean water for drinking, sacred ceremony, growing food, raising animals, recreating, and overall wellbeing. Please see the Los Alamos National Laboratory Water Watch Shared Values Statement, Exhibit 16.2.
Track 12: Bad to the Bone, George Thoroughgood
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This is a shout out to the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, and their report, 'Bad To the Bone: Plutonium and Drinking Water Standards.' DOE/LANL must check out the report and the proposal to lower the standard for plutonium and other actinides in drinking water by 100 times based on new understanding of plutonium in the human body. These findings must be incorporated into the reanalysis for a new draft LANL SWEIS. Please see: http://www.ieer.org/reports/badtothebone/fullrpt.pdf
Track 13: Man in Black, Johnny Cash
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And why do our comments have a somber tone? Well there's a reason for the things we've put down. . .
Track 14: Lies, Violent Femmes
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The draft LANL SWEIS relies on conclusions made in the draft Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) Public Health Assessment for its statement that there is no health impact from existing and proposed operations. The draft report was released for public comment last summer.
In comments about the draft assessment, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) stated, "Blanket statements are made regarding the conservatism of this public health assessment without supporting documentation. In general, a risk assessment is revised to reflect more appropriate site-specific exposures or exposure point concentrations to rather than rely upon defaults and declare that the risk assessment is conservative." (Emphasis added) p.1 Exhibit 17.1.
Further, this ATSDR public health assessment was shelved without response to comments due to lack of funding as stated in an ATSDR letter dated December 8, 2006. The ATSDR report has not been finalized, yet DOE/NNSA relied upon its conclusions in the draft LANL SWEIS.
Track 15: Trash, New York Dolls
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Let us clarify the lyrics, "TRASH, go pick it up, don't take your life away." CCNS and EVEMG state that the MDA removal option is the only way to protect surface water, ground water and existing and future drinking water supplies.
Track 16: Godzilla, Blue Oyster Cult
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Godzilla was a Japanese pop culture response to the United States dropping atomic bombs on two Japanese cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The bombings occurred only three days apart, on August 6th and 9th, 1945. These bombings killed over 70,000 people instantly and many, many more over time. Please see the photos of Hibakusha and Hiroshima Shadows in Exhibit 6.2.
Please recall that August 9th was also the date of the second Public Comment Hearing fro the draft LANL SWEIS, held in Espa–ola, NM. Ms. Withers described this scheduling choice as "ironic." We would say "telling," but perhaps we should quote Blue Oyster Cult and say, "history shows again and again, how nature points out the folly of man."
Track 17: Human Behavior, Bjork
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There is no way to determine the future land use because there is definitely, definitely, definitely no logic to human behavior. Therefore all cleanup must be done to a level which would allow a future pregnant subsistence farmer and her children and grandchildren to live there for their entire lives.
Track 18: Atomic, Blondie
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Despite how sexy this song may be, nuclear weapons are not hot, well, not figuratively at any rate.
Track 19: Party Like Its 1999, Prince
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Although the millennium didn't bring the apocalypse, relying so heavily on the analysis in the 1999 LANL SWEIS just might. Especially when it is applied as a substitute for a true No Action Alternative in the draft LANL 2006 SWEIS.
Track 20: Respect, Aretha Franklin
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The draft LANL SWEIS is misleading, incomplete, inadequate and technically indefensible. DOE/NNSA must withdraw it and issue a new . . . you read our comments, we donŐt need to repeat ourselves yet again. All we are asking for is a little R-E-S-P-E-C-T.
September 23, 2006
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