County Commissioners Protest DOE Water Rights Transfer Application to State Engineer

Today’s story points up how an NGO like Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety can prompt county and city officials to make sure that various regulations are followed and can act as a watchdog for compliance. In this case, the Department of Energy (DOE) and Los Alamos County submitted an application to the State Engineer requesting to move 679 acre feet a year in water rights from wells north of Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) to wells used for remediation of the co-located hexavalent chromium and perchlorate plume in Mortandad Canyon.  CCNS reviewed DOE’s application and found that some questions were left unanswered; on some pages, unidentified handwritten additions were made; and no pumping schedule was provided; among other things.  DOELAC 679 afy App to SEO 1-24-19

Only owners of water rights that could be impaired by the transfer are allowed to protest the application, such as Santa Fe County, the City of Santa Fe, and the Buckman Direct Diversion Project Board.  An acre foot of water is approximately 326,000 gallons.

On July 12th CCNS read the legal notice about the application in the Santa Fe New Mexican.  CCNS scanned it and alerted Santa Fe County Commissioner Anna Hansen.

CCNS noted that the legal notice was published on July 12th, three days after the July meeting of the Buckman Board.  Protests were required to be filed with the State Engineer by August 5th, one day before the August Buckman Board meeting.  That is, the timing precluded the possibility for a public discussion of the application by one of the most critically impacted agencies that protects drinking water.

On July 31st CCNS wrote a memo to Commissioner Hansen detailing the inadequacies of DOE’s transfer application.  CCNS Memo to Hansen re- Cr-VI SEO app. 7-31-20

Commissioner Hansen forwarded the memo to the attorneys for the Buckman Board and Santa Fe County, thus bringing the resources of the Buckman Board and Santa Fe County water staff to bear on a review of the application.  Once the application was reviewed,  the attorneys wrote timely letters of protest to the State Engineer.  2020 08 05 BDD Board OSE Formal Protest of Application for RG00485 et al RECORDED-2 and Santa Fe County Protest RG-485 Aug 5, 2020-1

At the August 11th meeting of the Santa Fe County Commissioners, the County’s letter of protest was approved.  Commissioner Hansen made a motion to ratify the protest of the DOE and Los Alamos County application under the State Engineer’s File No. RG-00485 and to authorize prosecution of the protest.

Commissioner Hansen said, “We are not protesting this application to stop the cleanup of the hexavalent chromium plume; we are protesting this application because it is woefully inadequate and extremely sloppy.  Clearly DOE feels entitled to submit such a blatantly disrespectful application.”

https://www.santafecountynm.gov/county_commissioners/anna_hansen

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has lied to New Mexico. Instead of holding five in-person public comment meetings across the state, NRC has announced it will hold only four more call-in/webinars (August 20, 25, 26, and September 2) about Holtec’s irradiated nuclear fuel consolidated interim storage facility. This proposed facility, 16 miles north of WIPP, targets already heavily polluted majority Hispanic areas near the Mescalero Apache lands.

To learn about New Mexico’s opposition to the proposed Holtec project, please see NM Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s July 28, 2020 letter to the President of the United States.  MLG Holtec Letter to President-1

ACTION ALERT:  Please contact your U.S. Rep., and both your U.S. Senators (call their D.C. offices: 202-224-3121); urge that they demand NRC extend the deadline, and hold in-person meetings in your state/congressional district, once safe to do so. We also urgently need a large-number of quality comments by the September 22 deadline (prepare your own comments using our samples. See also submission instructions).  http://www.beyondnuclear.org/centralized-storage/2020/9/22/please-submit-public-comments-opposing-the-holtecelea-cisf-b.html

Below is specific NRC information about the webinars:

“The public meeting webinars will be accessible to the public by navigating, on the day and time of the meeting, to the internet link below and entering the event number and password associated with the date of the webinar when prompted.  Telephone access will be required for the audio portion of the meetings and is available by dialing the telephone number and entering the passcode provided below.  The NRC staff will present the results of the draft environmental impact analysis and receive the public’s comments on the draft report.  The NRC invites members of the public to attend the public meeting webinars and to present oral comments on the draft EIS.”

Thursday, August 20, 2020 – 4:00 pm MT (6:00 pm ET)

Webinar

Event address: https://usnrc.webex.com/

Event number: 199 831 2299

Event password: HOLTEC

Telephone access

Phone number: 888-566-6509

Passcode: 1904459

Tuesday, August 25, 2020 – 12:00 noon MT (2:00 pm ET)

Webinar

Event address: https://usnrc.webex.com/

Event number: 199 973 2733

Event password: HOLTEC

Telephone access

Phone number: 888-566-6509

Passcode: 1904459

Wednesday, August 26, 2020 – 4:00 pm MT (6:00 pm ET)

Webinar

Event address: https://usnrc.webex.com/

Event number: 199 278 6216

Event password: HOLTEC

Telephone access

Phone number: 888-566-6509

Passcode: 1904459

Wednesday, September 2, 2020 – 9:00 am MT (11:00 am ET)

Webinar

Event address: https://usnrc.webex.com/

Event number: 199 183 5099

Event password: HOLTEC

Telephone access

Phone number: 888-566-6509

Passcode: 1904459

Tags: application, blatantly disrespectful application, Buckman Direct Diversion Project Board, City of Santa Fe, Department of Energy, DOE, hexavalent chromium, LANL, Los Alamos County, Los Alamos National Laboratory, perchlorate, prosecute, protest, Santa Fe County, Santa Fe County Commission, Santa Fe County Commissioner Anna Hansen, Santa Fe New Mexican, State Engineer File No. RG-00485, water rights