LANL Stormwater Meeting on Tuesday, July 8th and 35th Red Water Pond Road Community Uranium Tailings Spill Commemoration on Saturday, July 19th

CCNS NEWS UPDATE

Runs 7/4/14 through 7/11/14

(THEME UP AND UNDER)  This is the CCNS News Update, an overview of the latest nuclear safety issues, brought to you every week by Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety.  Here is this week’s top headline:

•  LANL Stormwater Meeting on Tuesday, July 8^th and 35^th Red Water Pond Road Community Uranium Tailings Spill Commemoration on Saturday, July 19^th

As required by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) will hold a public meeting about its Individual Stormwater Permit on Tuesday, July 8^th, from 5:30 to 7:30 pm at the Cities of Gold Conference Center, located at 10 Cities of Gold Road, in Pojoaque.  http://www.lanl.gov/community-environment/environmental-stewardship/protection/compliance/individual-permit-stormwater/index.php

The meeting will begin with a poster session about the individual stormwater permit, which regulates over 400 sites that have the potential to release contaminants when stormwater runs on or runs the polluted sites created by industrial activities.  LANL will discuss the mitigation measures it has taken for flood events, the rain gage network located in the canyons that flow to the Rio Grande, and its recent application to EPA to renew the permit.

Then the Youth Council Initiative Project of the Communities for Clean Water will present about the work they are doing.  The Youth Council began meeting at the beginning of the year to learn about LANL and the stormwater issues.  Recently, they toured LANL and will report on their experiences.  The Communities for Clean Water is a network of community groups from Taos to the South Valley of Albuquerque along the Rio Grande, that includes CCNS.  The Communities for Clean Water  have been instrumental in addressing storwmwater issues at LANL.

On Saturday, July 19^th, the Red Water Pond Road Community Association will be hosting its Sixth Annual North East Church Rock Environmental Awareness Conference from 7 am to 3 pm, located 12 miles north of Red Rock State Park on State Highway 566.  The public is cordially invited to attend.  It will include the 65^th commemoration of the North East Church Rock Tailing Spill, which occurred on July 16^th, 1979.  On that day, an earthen uranium tailings dam at the United Nuclear Corporation Church Rock Uranium Mill failed, spilling 93 million gallons of liquid toxic waste into the Rio Puerco in New Mexico, which eventually flowed downstream into Arizona.  The spill contributed to the long-term contamination already present in the watershed from the release of untreated or poorly treated uranium mine water into the Rio Puerco.

The organizers ask you to join them “to heal our Dine’ and Mother Earth.  We believe we need to support one another and cherish our families and communities, just as our elders have.  By working together, with our combined intelligence and wisdom we can address this legacy to provide a life of balance and harmony for our people and future generations.”

For more information, please contact Edith Hood at 505 717-5731.

This has been the CCNS News Update.  For more information, please visit http://www.nuclearactive.org and like us on Facebook.

Tags: 1979, Communities for Clean Water, July 16, LANL, LANL stormwater, Red Water Pond Road Community Association, Uranium Tailings Spill, Youth Council Initiative Project