The Energy Department assured the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) on April 16 it would oversee remediation of recently discovered radioactive waste on former federal land near the site of a planned housing complex in Los Alamos County.
Top brass for the Office of Environmental Management and the semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration at the Los Alamos National Laboratory said the department is already coordinating with current landowner Los Alamos County “on immediate site recovery and future cleanup activities. The letter , to NMED Hazardous Waste Bureau Chief Kevin Pierard, was co-signed by the top officials for both DOE branches at the lab: NNSA Field Office Manager Michael Weis and Environmental Management acting Field Office Manager Thomas Johnson.
A local contractor doing sewer line excavation Feb. 14 for a planned low-income housing development turned up debris contaminated by uranium and plutonium. The site is in the vicinity of a former material disposal area for the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Energy Department crews subsequently removed three drums of contaminated material from the 28-acre tract of land that was transferred to the county by the NNSA in 2016. In a March letter to LANL officials, County Manager Harry Burgess said the 2016 deed transfer said the property was no longer contaminated, and DOE legally retains responsibility for any future hazardous materials.
In their reply last week to the state and Los Alamos County, Weis and Johnson indicated DOE has no intention of walking away from responsibility. The Office of Environmental Management will oversee remediation.
The site is currently secure, with fencing around it, and there is no radiation above background levels, according to the DOE officials. The trench is covered with tarps to prevent spread of potential contamination and air monitoring stations are set up around the DP Road location to check on any windborne radioactivity. Site inspections are occurring regularly, they wrote.
Los Alamos County moved the proposed sewer line location to the west, farther from the former disposal area, to avoid the potential for uncovering more waste, County Manager Harry Burgess said in a Friday email.
