The Energy Department this week rejected a suggestion by the New Mexico Environment Department that it is being slow to take action on radioactive contamination discovered earlier this year on a public road outside the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Managers of Los Alamos field branches of both the DOE Office of Environmental Management and the semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration said in a letter Wednesday they wanted to address NMED’s criticism over the “perceived lack of progress” on contamination around Middle DP Road.
“NMED’s assertion that DOE is focused on installation of upgraded sewage infrastructure for two housing projects” rather than planning for investigation and cleanup of the site, is incorrect, NNSA Los Alamos Field Office Manager Michael Weis and EM Los Alamos Manager Kirk Lachman wrote.
The contamination was discovered by a Los Alamos County contractor digging up an old sewer line in preparation for a new housing complex around the DP Road and Middle DP Road area. Due to the contaminated material, DOE contractors supported excavation around the sewer line project.
The federal response is moving as fast as the COVID-19 pandemic will allow, the two officials stated in the letter to Kevin Pierard, NMED bureau chief for hazardous waste. They were responding to a letter from Pierard last month complaining about the pace of the federal response.
New Mexico has asked DOE for a “preliminary screening plan” for soil and debris excavated around the area, and a longer term plan for dealing with the waste and remediating the site.
The pace of the response has been affected by the “uncertainties of returning to work” while LANL kept on-site staffing levels at a minimum for two months, ending in June, in order to reduce worker interaction during the pandemic, the Energy Department said.
The Los Alamos Environmental Management Field Office has been vetting a $10 million characterization proposal for the site in Los Alamos County. Details of that work were not immediately available at deadline. The DOE cleanup office is preparing to notify Congress that it is allowing remediation contractor Newport News Nuclear BWXT Los Alamos (N3B) to move ahead with procuring a subcontractor for the task.
The work will comply with provisions of a 2016 environmental consent order between DOE and the state. Initial characterization plans were submitted to NMED on June 26, and the state has since filed comments on the scope of the proposal, according to the Weis-Lachman letter.
The Los Alamos EM office expects to issue N3B a task order by the end of this month, and the legacy cleanup contractor will then procure needed subcontractor assistance, with work commencing in the first half of fiscal 2021, Weis and Lachman said. They added that a full project remediation schedule should be ready in September.
Contaminated debris was discovered in February on a 28-acre parcel of land, which includes the site of a planned housing complex, transferred from LANL to Los Alamos County a few years ago after the Energy Department determined it had been fully remediated.
Since a couple drums of contaminated material were unearthed, more debris – wood and oxidized processed uranium – were also discovered along Middle DP Road. Excavated debris and soil piles have been placed behind locked gates and covered with plastic to prevent possible spread of contamination, according to the DOE letter.
Two air monitoring stations have been set up around the disturbed area. To date, neither shows detectable radiological activity above background, DOE said in the letter.
