Weighing whether to remain in or withdraw from the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities, members of the City of Santa Fe Quality of Life Committee decided to ask for additional information, including information requested during similar meetings last summer and fall.  The question presented on Wednesday evening was whether to approve a restated and amended Joint Powers Agreement establishing the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kPovX3O3us  (Discussion begins at 35:21); supporting materials here.  SFCC Quality of Life RCLC JPA 3-17-21 It is scheduled to go before the full City Council on Wednesday, March 31^st, but may be delayed.

The controversial Coalition formed in 2011 with the signing of the Joint Powers Agreement (JPA).  It is a coalition of communities and Pueblos in Northern New Mexico, comprised of the City of Española, Rio Arriba County, Los Alamos County, the City of Santa Fe, Santa Fe County, the Town of Taos, Taos County, and the sovereign nations of Pueblo of Ohkay Owingeh and the Pueblo of Jemez.  https://regionalcoalitionnm.org/

Los Alamos County Councilor and Coalition treasurer, David Izraelevitz stated the Coalition has two focus areas, which are regional community and economic development and environmental remediation, or cleanup.  See Powerpoint beginning on p. 13 of SFCC Quality of Life RCLC JPA 3-17-21.pdf.  SFCC Quality of Life RCLC JPA 3-17-21

Recently, the City of Santa Fe and Santa Fe County each passed resolutions in support of a new site-wide environmental statement and in opposition to proposed expanded pit production.  SFCC 2021 LANL SWEIS Request Resolution and Resolution_2021-011-p0001_-_p0005.  Councilor Renee Villarreal asked how those resolutions are incorporated into the Coalition’s work.  Izraelevitz said that the Coalition has steered away from such issues and focuses on cleanup.

Economics and politics lack clear boundaries in the organization.  For example, the current Coalition chair, Henry Roybal, also serves as chair of the Santa Fe County Board of County Commissioners, and is a LANL employee. Commissioner Henry BIO-1 And as another example, annual dues vary between $3,500 and $60,000, as is the case of Los Alamos County.  Santa Fe pays $10,000 a year.

Izraelevitz explained that the Coalition receives a $100,000 grant from the Department of Energy, which owns LANL.  The grant prohibits lobbying.

Even so, the Coalition has a black eye because the New Mexico State Auditor found over $51,000 in improper spending over four years.  NM_OSA_FY_2018_Annual_Report.  See P. 37 -38.

At LANL’s request, the University of New Mexico Bureau of Business and Economic Research (BBER) prepared a report about economic impacts in Northern New Mexico.  UNMBBER_LANLImpactAnalysis_Revised_101419  It found that LANL does not create economic benefits in surrounding counties.  In fact, the report concluded that LANL’s presence creates a net economic loss in Rio Arriba, Santa Fe and Taos Counties, finding that Santa Fe County lost over $2.2 million, while Rio Arriba County lost over $2.6 million.  Yet Los Alamos County gained $13.6 million.  “Inequities Edited Out of Los Alamos National Lab Study,” Rio Grande Sun, by Molly Montgomery, June 26, 2020.  http://www.riograndesun.com/news/inequities-edited-out-of-los-alamos-national-lab-study/article_ea042414-b7f8-11ea-ada6-a7134ccaff97.html

1. Every Friday and Saturday from noon to 1 pm – Protest LANL signing a 10-year lease (for the former Descartes building) to establish itself in Santa Fe at the corner of Guadalupe and W. Alameda. JOIN US!  We’ll have banners.  Please bring a sign.

2. Ongoing – Washington-Marshall Islands Nuclear Remembrance Week: We Are Not Alone.  Thurs. March 18^th through 19^th from 6:30 – 8:30 pm MST and Sat. March 20^th from 2:30 – 5:30 pm MST.  This week of virtual events commemorate Marshallese nuclear legacy, highlighting the Spokane Marshallese community, and bringing together frontline communities from across Washington state and the country.  For more information and to register, go to  https://www.cann-wa.us/our-work

3. Monday, March 29^th – EPA granted a four-week extension of time to provide comments about LANL industrial wastewater discharge permit.  CCNS is preparing comments in response to Triad National Security, LLC’s comments submitted on March 1, 2021.  Stay tuned for sample public comments you can use, as we get closer to the deadline.  https://www.epa.gov/nm/los-alamos-national-laboratory-lanl-limited-reopening-public-comment-period-npdes-permit-no

The W-87-1, a new plutonium pit for a proposed nuclear warhead for fighting a full-scale nuclear war, would be fabricated at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL).  A plutonium pit is a grapefruit sized radioactive core of a nuclear warhead.  The plutonium pit would fit on a proposed Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent intercontinental ballistic missile.  Many people question the need for a new estimated one billion dollar weapon, which they say is “outdated and unnecessary.”  https://fas.org/issues/icbm-information-project/ (Federation of American Scientists); https://www.internationalpolicy.org/program/Arms-%26-Security-Program (Issue Brief:  Inside the ICBM Lobby:  Special Interests or The National Interest, Center for International Policy’s Arms & Security Program); and https://www.opensecrets.org/news/reports/capitalizing-on-conflict (Capitalizing on conflict:  How defense contractors and foreign nations lobby for arm sales, Center for Responsive Politics).  

The total congressional budget request for LANL in Fiscal Year 2021 is approximately $3.7 billion.  Approximately 80 percent is for nuclear weapons activities, or $3 billion.

Recently LANL signed two 10-year leases for nearly 96,000 square feet of space in three vacant office buildings in Santa Fe.  LANL plans for 75 employees to be based in one building on the corner of West Alameda and Guadalupe, and 500 more in two buildings on the hill above the intersection of St. Michael’s and Pacheco.  It is calculated that of those employees, 460 will work on nuclear weapons.

City officials and others have claimed that bringing LANL employees to Santa Fe will boost the economy.  But many of them are already in Santa Fe working virtually, such as Thom Mason, who is the LANL Director as well as President and CEO of Triad National Security, a limited liability corporation.  https://www.lanl.gov/about/leadership-governance/director.php

CCNS asks that we look more closely at LANL’s claim to boost the local economy – an extra cup of coffee in the morning, a bagel for lunch, a tank of gasoline, a trip to the bank to deposit the salaries of some of the highest paid employees in New Mexico?  LANL’s taxes are already contributing to Santa Fe’s economy. Such claims depend on redefining what is meant by “economic support” because there is no commercial product, nothing that is a benefit to the community.

CCNS asks why Santa Fe is expressing enthusiasm for LANL’s proposed expansion, when on January 22^nd, just seven weeks ago, the international Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons went into force.  It is the first treaty to categorically ban nuclear weapons.  http://disarmament.un.org/treaties/t/tpnw

Like the treaties to ban chemical weapons, biological weapons, and landmines, once they went into force, the weapons manufacturers began to reduce or eliminated production and financial institutions stopped investing in such businesses.  https://thebulletin.org/2021/01/turn-back-the-clock-the-nuclear-ban-treaty-is-entering-into-force/

As a community, questioning LANL plans is essential.

Basia Miller, a CCNS Board member, said, “However the concept of ‘economic support’ is conceived, it cannot outweigh our responsibility to question LANL’s operations, which risk nearly irreversible damage to our lands, health, and lives and the wellbeing of the world.”

And don’t forget to listen to us weekly on your favorite PODCAST platform:

1. Every Friday and Saturday from noon to 1 pm – Protest LANL signing a 10-year lease (for the former Descartes building) to establish itself in Santa Fe at the corner of Guadalupe and W. Alameda. JOIN US!  We’ll have banners.  Please bring a sign.

2. Mon. March 15^th through 19^th from 6:30 – 8:30 pm MST and Sat. March 20^th from 2:30 – 5:30 pm MST – Washington-Marshall Islands Nuclear Remembrance Week: We Are Not Alone.  The week of virtual events commemorate Marshallese nuclear legacy, highlighting the Spokane Marshallese community, and bringing together frontline communities from across Washington state and the country.  For more information and to register, go to  https://www.cann-wa.us/our-work

3. Monday, March 29^th – EPA granted a four-week extension of time to provide comments about LANL industrial wastewater discharge permit.  CCNS is preparing comments in response to Triad National Security, LLC’s comments submitted on March 1, 2021.  Stay tuned for sample public comments you can use, as we get closer to the deadline.  https://www.epa.gov/nm/los-alamos-national-laboratory-lanl-limited-reopening-public-comment-period-npdes-permit-no

CCNS works for you every day by producing the CCNS News Update radio broadcast and related social media posts. And now we’ve added podcasting to that list of avenues of information available to you. We are a grassroots non-profit organization challenging the proposed expansion of WIPP and LANL’s proposed increase in plutonium pit production. These pits are triggers for nuclear weapons. We provide information, action alerts, and sample public comments you can use to easily participate in these public processes. All of this costs money. If you appreciate our work, please make a donation TODAY to support CCNS. Thank you!

Late last week the New Mexico Environment Department filed a lawsuit against the Department of Energy to terminate the 2016 Consent Order for Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL).  The Consent Order is an administrative tool requiring the cleanup of radioactive, hazardous and toxic wastes stored or buried at LANL.  The lawsuit is the culmination of a failed mandated dispute resolution process required by the Order.

Environment Department Secretary James Kenney said, “[W]e are seeking to terminate the 2016 Consent Order and initiate court-supervised negotiations to renegotiate clean-up terms that protect communities and their environment.”  He described the Department’s high expectations on entering into the 2016 Order, concluding that, “[A]lmost five years later, our expectations are far from met.”   2021-02-25-NMED-seeks-termination-of-LANL-2016-Consent-Order-1 

The Department’s efforts to address legacy waste began over 20 years ago, after the May 2000 Cerro Grande fire.  The fire burned over 7,000 acres across LANL facilities above the Rio Grande.  It burned the Jemez Mountains.  It crossed LANL facilities and Los Alamos homes, opening new pathways for wastes to move through the canyons toward the Rio Grande.

After its investigation, on May 2, 2002, the Department released a Determination that conditions at LANL created an Imminent and Substantial Endangerment to Health or the Environment, along with a draft Order.  http://www.nuclearactive.org/news/050802.html  The Determination provided comprehensive information about the pollutants found on the mesas and in the canyons, the burial and storage sites and the pathways for pollutants to reach the Rio Grande.

A month later, LANL filed lawsuits in both federal and state courts to challenge the Determination and Order.  The government agencies entered into a lengthy, 18-month closed-door settlement negotiation.  On March 1, 2005, a new Consent Order was signed and the public learned that during the negotiations, the Determination had been withdrawn.  NMED-REPONSE-TO-COMMENTS-ON-LANL-CONSENT-ORDER-16251 See Response to Questions 24 and 25 on p. 8 – 9.    

During the Martinez Administration, the parties re-negotiated the 2005 Order with the ineffective 2016 Order.  Preventative pollution-reporting requirements and some public notice were eliminated, among other measures that benefited LANL.  https://nuclearactive.org/nmed-signs-new-consent-order-for-lanl-follows-failed-campaign-approach-resulting-in-lanl-shipping-faulty-waste-drum-to-wipp/

Joni Arends, of CCNS, having followed the Consent Order process of the previous two negotiations and provided public comments, insists on the critical importance for the Department to update and reinstate the Imminent and Substantial Endangerment to Health or the Environment Determination.  She points out that the same or similar risks remain.

Arends also urged the Department to open up the negotiations to the public.  She says, “We are impacted by LANL’s operations everyday.  CCNS’s vision for LANL is a site that is cleaned up; where surface and ground water flow to the Rio Grande without pollution; the air is safe to breathe; and LANL honors this Place and the People’s well-being.”

1. Every Friday and Saturday from noon to 1 pm – Protest LANL signing a 10-year lease (for the former Descartes building) to establish itself in Santa Fe at the corner of Guadalupe and W. Alameda. JOIN US! We’ll have banners.  Please bring a sign.

2. Thursday, March 11^th – Two Virtual Events Commemorating the 10^th Year Since the Fukushima Disaster.

a) At 7 pm MST, 6 pm PST – Mothers for Peace, San Luis Obispo with a presentation by Biologist Mary Olson of the Gender and Radiation Impact Project. Mary will introduce REFERENCE GIRL.

Yuji and Beverly Findlay Kaneko, co-producers of Voices from Japan, will provide a current update on Fukushima. 

Register at:  https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYqdOutqD0sGddniE9O2P4EimnWcl_QtaSV  For more information:  https://mothersforpeace.org/

b) At 6 – 7:15 pm MST, 5 – 6:15 pm PST – Oregon Physicians for SocialResponsibility will host a panel discussion about the film, Remembering Fukushima, Ten Years Later, with filmmaker Hitomi Kamanaka. He will be joined by Norma Field, Ruiko Muto and Leona Morgan.

The film begins streaming on March 1^st and is available until March11^th. For more information about streaming the film for $8, please go to Oregon PSR:  https://www.oregonpsr.org/remembering_fukushima_ten_years_later

The film screening and panel discussion are part of the Cascadia Arts Film Festival.

3. Monday, March 29^th – EPA granted a four-week extension of time to provide comments about LANL industrial wastewater discharge permit. CCNS is preparing comments in response to Triad National Security, LLC’s comments submitted on March 1, 2021.  Stay tuned for sample public comments you can use, as we get closer to the deadline.  https://www.epa.gov/nm/los-alamos-national-laboratory-lanl-limited-reopening-public-comment-period-npdes-permit-no

The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reopened the comment period for the industrial wastewater discharge permit for Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) facilities, including the Radioactive Liquid Waste Treatment Facility.  https://www.epa.gov/nm/los-alamos-national-laboratory-lanl-limited-reopening-public-comment-period-npdes-permit-no  The Clean Water Act requires a “discharge of [a] pollutant” in order for EPA to issue a permit.  This facility has not discharged for at least a decade.  A mechanical evaporator is used to treat the wastewaters.  Nevertheless, EPA says it will issue a discharge permit for it.

If a facility that handles, treats and stores hazardous waste has a Clean Water Act permit, then it is automatically exempt from regulation by the hazardous waste laws, including the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, or RCRA.  Under this exemption, LANL can avoid meeting the more protective and stringent RCRA requirements.

For example, hazardous waste regulation requires a public permitting process for approval of new construction.  LANL has avoided this requirement.  EPA admits in its Fact Sheet that LANL has “a newly constructed main low-level [liquid] waste treatment facility, [] with an estimated operational start date in 2023.”  https://www.epa.gov/nm/los-alamos-national-laboratory-lanl-limited-reopening-public-comment-period-npdes-permit-no-0  There has been no public permitting process for this new facility.  Instead, LANL and the New Mexico Environment Department have been using the New Mexico Water Quality Act regulatory definition of a “discharge permit modification” to allow the design and construction of the new facility without public knowledge.   20.6.2.7.P NMAC.

In particular, this new facility was not designed to meet the seismic risk on the Pajarito Plateau, as required by RCRA.  The risk is significant.  40 CFR 264, Appendix VI to Part 264:  Political Jurisdictions in Which Compliance with § 264.18(a) Must Be Demonstrated, including Los Alamos County.  The new wastewater treatment facility is located across the street from the site of the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement Project.  As you may recall, the proposed super Walmart-sized Nuclear Facility was canceled due to the seismic risk on the Pajarito Plateau.  https://nuclearactive.org/obama-proposes-3-billion-for-nuclear-weapons-projects-at-lanl-in-lieu-of-cmrr-nuclear-facility/

Other RCRA requirements include assurances of the engineering integrity of the tank systems where waste treatment and storage take place, and completeness of the closure plan.  These requirements are intended for review through a public process, enabling members of the public to advocate more protective levels of public health and safety assurances than provided in the Clean Water Act.

Please raise your voice in support of the New Mexico Environment Department recommendation that all discharge sites covered by the industrial wastewater permit be sampled for PFAS.

Recent LANL and New Mexico Environment Department sampling results show levels of PFAS, or “forever pollutants,” in the canyons where LANL has historically discharged industrial wastewaters.  The sampling results in the canyons covered by the EPA discharge permit show levels of PFAS contamination at 60 times and more than the recommended lifetime exposure limits.

Here are links to recent articles about PFAS in New Mexico, as well as background information and fact sheets. https://www.newmexicopbs.org/productions/groundwater-war/stories/ and https://www.sfreporter.com/news/2021/01/19/forever-pollutants/   More information about PFAS:  https://www.env.nm.gov/pfas/main/ ,  https://www.env.nm.gov/pfas/about-pfas/  ,  https://www.env.nm.gov/pfas/data/ .

Comments are due to EPA on Monday, March 1^st.  Sample public comments that you can modify for your own use are available at nuclearactive.org. EPA comment for LANL industrial discharges 2-26-21

1. Friday, Feb. 26^th and Saturday, Feb. 27^th from noon to 1 pm – Protest LANL signing a 10-year lease (for the former Descartes building) to establish itself in Santa Fe at the corner of Guadalupe and W. Alameda. JOIN US!  We’ll have banners.  Please bring a sign.

2. Monday, March 1^st – comments due to EPA about LANL industrial wastewater discharge permit. See above CCNS News Update.

3. Tuesday, March 2^nd – comments due to DOE about the proposed Versatile Test Reactor. DOE has another plan for the same 34 Metric Tons of surplus plutonium, which is as fuel for its proposed three to six billion dollar Versatile Test Reactor, a fast neutron reactor at the Idaho National Laboratory. https://www.energy.gov/ne/nuclear-reactor-technologies/versatile-test-reactor    A short sample public comment letter that you can modify is available here.  Sample comment Versatile Test Reactor 2-4-21        

4. Wednesday, March 3^rd at 7 pm MST – San Diego Veterans for Peace, Chapter 91 virtual Zoom presentation about the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons:  Ratification and Mobilization with Marylia Kelley, Tri-Valley Communities (CARES).    For more information, go to http://trivalleycares.org/

At the request of Triad National Security, LLC, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reopened the comment period for the industrial wastewater discharge permit for Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL).  https://www.epa.gov/nm/los-alamos-national-laboratory-lanl-limited-reopening-public-comment-period-npdes-permit-no  According to EPA, on November 12, 2020, Triad requested that EPA reopen the public comment period so that it could respond to the information provided by other commenters that Triad believes “to be incomplete, misleading, or technical[ly] inaccurate.”

Prior to this, on October 15, 2020, CCNS, Honor Our Pueblo Existence, and the New Mexico Acequia Association submitted a 33-page brief to EPA opposing the issuance of the discharge permit for the six LANL facilities that, in fact, no longer discharge wastewater to the environment.  https://www.epa.gov/nm/los-alamos-national-laboratory-lanl-limited-reopening-public-comment-period-npdes-permit-no-0

In a recent letter to the EPA, the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) stated that the new information they referenced in the brief comes from Department of Energy and Triad documents that support their argument that EPA is prohibited from issuing a permit for six non-discharging facilities.

While the Clean Water Act forbids the discharge of pollutants into waters of the United States, it does allow EPA to “issue a permit for a discharge of any pollutant, or combination of pollutants.”

One of the non-discharging facilities is the Radioactive Liquid Waste Treatment Facility (Outfall 051).  Since November 2010, a mechanical evaporator has been used to treat the wastewaters.  Hazardous waste is handled, treated and stored at the facility.

The federal hazardous waste laws provide that, if a facility that handles, treats and stores hazardous wastes also has a Clean Water Act permit, it is exempt from hazardous waste laws.  Triad has asked EPA to issue a permit for the Radioactive Liquid Waste Treatment Facility, and others, that have not discharged in order to keep the exemption and prevent regulation by the hazardous waste laws.  In 1998, LANL recognized the hazardous waste exemption was an “important consideration” when it planned to shift from discharging to evaporation.

The other five facilities as detailed in Triad’s permit application and associated documents are:

1. Sanitary Wastewater System (SWWS) Plant (Outfall 13S), located at TA-46;
2. Strategic Computing Complex (SCC) cooling tower (Outfall 03A027), located at TA-3;
3. Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE) cooling tower (Outfall 03A113), located at TA-53;
4. National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (NHMFL) cooling tower (03A160), located at TA-35; and
5. High Explosive Wastewater Treatment Facility (HEWTF) (Outfall 05A055), located at TA-16. “Since November of 2007, the HEWTF has used the electric evaporator and not discharged through the permitted outfall.”  H-125.

Hazardous waste regulation requires a public permitting process for approval of new construction, assessment of compliance with safety standards for seismic risk, assurances of the engineering integrity of the tank systems where treatment and storage takes place, and completeness of the closure planning.  These requirements would be instituted through a public process, enabling members of the public to advocate for more protective levels of public health and safety assurances than provided in the Clean Water Act.

The NGOs are requesting EPA grant an additional comment period for response to Triad’s second submittal.

As of now, the public comment period ends on Sunday, February 28^th.  Stay tuned to nuclearactive.org where sample public comments you can use will be posted soon.

1. Friday, Feb. 19^th and Saturday, Feb. 20^th from noon to 1 pm – Protest LANL signing a 10-year lease (for the former Descartes building) to establish itself in Santa Fe at the corner of Guadalupe and W. Alameda. We’ll have banners, bring a sign.

2. Wednesday, Feb. 24^th at 11 to noon – Bulletin for the Atomic Scientist virtual program about “Why is America getting a new $100 billion nuclear weapon?” To register:  https://info.thebulletin.org/NewNuclearWeapon

3. Thursday, February 25^th from 5:30 to 7 pm: NMED Community Engagement Meeting re:  NMED’s work at LANL.  For details and links, scroll down to February 11, 2021 press release in English and Spanish.  https://www.env.nm.gov/news-releases/    

4. Thursday, February 25^th at 6:30 pm: WIPP Town Hall 700-C Fan Test Results.  Please click HERE to register. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email from WIPP containing information about joining the Zoom meeting.  Test results will be available on the 700-C restart webpage before the meeting.        

5. Friday and Saturday February 26 & 27: 26^th Annual Tulane Environmental Law & Policy Summit, a zoomed event.  Environmental Justice is the theme.  The event is free and open to the public.  CCNS Board Member, Myrriah Gomez, Ph.D., will moderate a distinguished panel about Recent Publications on Environmental Injustice.  For more information:  https://tulaneenvironmentallawsummit.com/

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2021

The 7th Anniversary of the Explosion at WIPP

Please send a valentine to

our Governor

NM Environment Department Secretary James Kenney

and to our Federal Congressional Delegation

• Governor:
  Michelle Lujan-Grisham
  
• Secretary NMED
  (New Mexico Environment Dept.)
  James Kenney
  
• Senators:
  Martin Heinrich
  Ben Ray Lujan
• Representatives:
  Teresa Leger-Fernandez
  Yvette Herrell
  Deb Haaland

Click on the picture to read the WIPP History & Timeline

Forward this Valentine to your Family and Friends
and post it on your Facebook page.

Ask them to send it out and love New Mexico too!

Stop Forever WIPP is a coalition opposing the expansion of WIPP and is a project of SRIC, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization. All donations are tax deductible.

Another step on a twisted journey will take place on Friday, February 26^th, when the U.S. Supreme Court will consider CCNS’s Petition for Certiorari in a case challenging the issuance of a Clean Water Act discharge permit for a critical Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) facility.  https://www.supremecourt.gov/search.aspx?filename=/docket/docketfiles/html/public/20-717.html  In an unpublished decision, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals decided erroneously that CCNS did not have standing to challenge the permit.  CCNS v. EPA (RLWTF) 200423 CA10 decision  For that reason, CCNS filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court for review of the Tenth Circuit’s decision.

The critical LANL facility is the Radioactive Liquid Waste Treatment Facility, or RLWTF.  It has operated since 1963.  It treats radioactive and hazardous liquid wastes from key plutonium and tritium facilities across the LANL site.  It discharged treated liquid wastewater into Effluent Canyon, which flowed into the upper reach of Mortandad Canyon and soaked into the ground.

But in November 2010, those discharges ended because LANL began to exclusively use an evaporator system to treat the liquids and release them as vapors into the air.

For a facility to obtain a Clean Water Act permit, a discharge of a pollutant into the environment is required.  In an effort to prevent dual regulation by both the Clean Water Act and federal hazardous waste laws, if a facility has a Clean Water Act permit, it is granted an exemption from the hazardous waste laws.  But because the RLWTF no longer discharges, it is no longer eligible for a Clean Water Act permit and must be regulated by the hazardous waste laws.  But EPA did issue the permit.  As a result, neither the Clean Water Act nor the hazardous waste laws regulate the RLWTF to the detriment of the People.

CCNS members submitted affidavits to the Tenth Circuit stating our fears that the lack of proper hazardous waste regulation means that we are deterred from visiting riparian areas near and downgradient from the RLWTF in the Rio Grande watershed.

The Tenth Circuit ruled that persons who live in and use lands downgradient from the RLWTF, and whose use and enjoyment of those areas are diminished by its noncompliance lack standing to question the unlicensed operations.  The court added that CCNS must prove that the pollutants had reached the Rio Grande, a requirement not found in existing standing criteria.  The Tenth Circuit’s decision is inconsistent with other decisions within the federal circuits.  Thus, our appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Attorney Lindsay A. Lovejoy, Jr., represents CCNS.  http://lindsaylovejoy.com/

Please make a tax-deductible contribution to CCNS to support these efforts to hold the federal government accountable to enforce the laws.

1. Valentine’s Day – Sunday, February 14th: Seventh anniversary of the explosion in the WIPP underground of one or more drums of plutonium-contaminated waste packaged and shipped by LANL.  Please contact Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham https://www.governor.state.nm.us/contact-the-governor/ , New Mexico Environment Department Secretary James Kenney james.kenney@state.nm.us , and your congressional members and tell them:

LOVE NEW MEXICO

Don’t waste it!

STOP FOREVER WIPP

 ~Safety and security at WIPP remains a concern.

~Please stop the plans to expand WIPP and keep waste coming for many decades.

~Keep the promises for limits on WIPP.

~Require other disposal sites.

~Support the closure of WIPP in 2024 as required by the New Mexico Environment Department’s WIPP Permit

2. Monday, February 15 at 10 am MST (Albuquerque) and 10 am CST (Mexico City) – Virtual Celebration with OPANAL (Organismo para la Proscripcion de Armas Nucleares en la America Latina y el Caribe) in the commemoration of the 54th anniversary of the Treaty of Tlatelolco.

Crash course for those unfamiliar with OPANAL and/or Tlatelolco (pronunced tuh-laa-tuh-laal-kuh):  The Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin American and the Caribbean – known as the Treaty of Tlatelolco – is the legal instrument signed and ratified by all 33 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. It prohibits: the testing, use, manufacture, production or acquisition by any means whatsoever of any nuclear weapons, directly or indirectly, within said region. The Treaty of Tlatelolco delineates its Zone of Application (Article 4); it creates and sets the structure, powers, and activities for the Agency (OPANAL) which oversees compliance with the obligations of the Contracting Parties (Articles 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 19, 22, and 23); it establishes a Control System, under OPANAL, and the International Atomic Energy Agency (Articles 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16).

To learn more:  http://www.opanal.org/en/the-prohibition-of-nuclear-weapons-in-latin-america/

3. Tuesday, February 16, 2021: Comments due to DOE about the Versatile Test Reactor, a fast neutron reactor with uranium and plutonium fuel, draft environmental impact statement.  Sample public comments are available at http://nuclearactive.org/

4. Thursday, February 18^th: Comments due to DOE about the scope of a forthcoming draft environmental impact statement for its plans to bring up to 48.2 metric tons of “surplus” plutonium to New Mexico for processing at LANL and disposal at WIPP.  It is important for DOE to receive comments for New Mexicans.   Sample public comments you can use available at http://nuclearactive.org/ on the right side of the page under the golden #STOPFVRWIPP logo.

5. Thursday, February 25^th at 6:30 pm: WIPP Town Hall 700-C Fan Test Results. Please click HERE to register. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email from WIPP containing information about joining the Zoom meeting.  Test results will be available on the 700-C restart webpage before the meeting.

This week’s Update will provide short highlights of a recent victory and information about Department of Energy (DOE) plans either to bring more than 34 metric tons of “surplus” plutonium to New Mexico or to use the plutonium in a proposed test reactor.  These plans are open for public review and comment.  And finally, DOE tested the 700-C fan at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP).

First, the victory:  On Tuesday, January 26^th, the Santa Fe County Board of County Commissioners unanimously passed a resolution requiring a new site-wide environmental impact statement, or SWEIS, for Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) before any proposed expansion of plutonium pit production there.  Plutonium pits are the triggers for nuclear weapons.  The last LANL SWEIS was completed in 2008.

Commissioners Anna Hansen and Anna Hamilton brought the resolution forward.  SF Co. BCC LANL SWEIS Resolution No. 2021-011

Although public comments were due on Monday, February 1^st, about the scope of an upcoming environmental impact statement for DOE’s plans to bring 34 Metric Tons of surplus plutonium to WIPP, DOE has extended the comment period to Thursday, February 18^th.  https://www.energy.gov/nepa/doeeis-0549-surplus-plutonium-disposition-program    Sample public comment letters you can use are available here.  f one-pager Surplus Pu Scoping EIS comments 1-8-21     f long Surplus Pu Scoping EIS comments 1-8-21

At the same time, DOE has another plan for the same 34 Metric Tons of surplus plutonium, which is as fuel for its proposed three to six billion dollar Versatile Test Reactor, a fast neutron reactor at the Idaho National Laboratory.

DOE claims that it needs the test reactor for experimentation, but no support of that claim is found in the draft environmental impact statement.  Normally, uranium is used as fuel.  DOE wants to use both uranium and plutonium as fuel, which would increase the risk of operating such a reactor.  The fuel would be fabricated at either the Idaho National Laboratory or at the Savannah River Site.

This operation would generate waste, which DOE wants to ship to WIPP.  Public comments are due to DOE by Tuesday, February 16^th.  https://www.energy.gov/ne/nuclear-reactor-technologies/versatile-test-reactor

A short sample public comment letter that you can use is available here.  Sample comment Versatile Test Reactor 2-4-21 

Finally, over this past weekend, DOE conducted a four-hour test of the aboveground 700-C fan at WIPP to determine what amount of radioactive particles would be released. The fan was shut off on February 14, 2014 when one or more drums of plutonium-contaminated waste exploded in the deep geologic disposal facility.  DOE claims that using the fan increases airflow in the underground.  But releasing contamination endangers workers on the surface.  The $300 million New Filter Building that would bring uncontaminated airflow is delayed by contractor errors.  Test results from the air sampling will be available soon.  DOE will host a virtual public meeting to discuss them in about two weeks.  https://www.energy.gov/em/articles/wipp-completes-initial-test-restarting-700-c-ventilation-fan-0

1. Sunday, February 14, 2021: Seventh anniversary of the explosion in the WIPP underground of one or more drums of plutonium-contaminated waste packaged and shipped by LANL.  Please contact your congressional and state representatives and let them know that you remain concerned about safety and security at WIPP.  Urge them to publicly support the closure of WIPP in 2024 after 25 years of operations as promised by the DOE, and, as required by the NM Environment Department’s Hazardous Waste Permit.

2. Tuesday, February 16, 2021: Comments due to DOE about the Versatile Test Reactor, a fast neutron reactor with uranium and plutonium fuel, draft environmental impact statement.  Sample public comments are available at http://nuclearactive.org/

3. Thursday, February 18, 2021: Comments due to DOE about the scope of a forthcoming draft environmental impact statement for its plans to bring up to 48.2 metric tons of “surplus” plutonium to New Mexico for processing at LANL and disposal at WIPP.  It is important for DOE to receive comments for New Mexicans.   Sample public comments you can use available at http://nuclearactive.org/ on the right side of the page under the golden #STOPFVRWIPP logo.