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Water Quality

LANL Letter

BDD Actions to Assure Water Quality

The Buckman Direct Diversion project Board and Staff are taking a number of actions to assure that radionuclide contamination is minimized as a potential issue in the production of BDD drinking water.

Letter to Los Alamos National Laboratory

In November 2007, BDD Board Chair Harry Montoya sent a letter to LANL asking the organization to take six specific action steps to address these issues, including:

  1. Stop migration of LANL contaminants to the Rio Grande and to groundwater through the construction of additional sediment barrier and containment systems, improved waste treatment and disposal practices, stabilization and clean-up of sediment beds and banks in the Rio Grande tributary canyons that have received LANL waste discharges, and other appropriate management actions;
  2. Properly monitor the transport of legacy contaminants (contaminants from the 1940s-1960s) in both the surface water and groundwater flow systems, including implementation of all recommendations contained in a report entitled “Plans and Practices for Groundwater Protection at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Final Report (2007)” recently published by the National Academy of Sciences with especially high priority placed on improvements in monitoring the transport of contaminants in the regional groundwater flow toward the Buckman well field and implementation of the recommendations addressing surface water and transport of contaminants from LANL property;
  3. Measure the radioactive and toxic contamination of buried sediments containing higher concentrations of post World War II LANL legacy contaminants now buried in the slough (side channel) upstream of the BDD diversion site to determine whether the BDD, as currently aligned, will intersect areas with elevated concentrations of these contaminants and help the BDD determine if minor realignment of project facilities could avoid these areas;
  4. Provide an early warning system so the BDD can temporarily stop diversions of any water from the Rio Grande when the Rio Grande is expected to contain elevated levels of contaminants of LANL origin;
  5. Monitor the mass of any LANL-origin contaminants diverted with BDD raw water supplies and account for that mass in water treatment plant residuals and treated drinking water (to assure contaminants remain at low levels in the diverted water prior to treatment and to show that the treated drinking water and sediments removed during treatment meet or exceed all state and federal standards); and
  6. Provide funding for the BDD Board to retain independent peer review by qualified persons with regard to matters of LANL-origin contamination of the public drinking water resources of Santa Fe County and the City of Santa Fe.

The BDD Board and staff will continue working with LANL and the NMED on these issues and will provide updates as they become available. LANL’s formal response to the letter is expected soon. A copy of the actual letter is available by clicking here.

UPDATE: On May 13, 2008, Los Alamos National Laboratory issued a letter in response to the BDD Board’s requests. To read the actual letter, click here.