The New Mexico Environment Department is still waiting on the Department of Energy to provide more details on the planned remediation of contamination discovered earlier this year on a public road outside the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
The preliminary screening plan that will determine if the hazardous constituents at the 28-acre DP Road site are found at concentrations above residential screening level is due this month, Maddy Hayden, a spokeswoman for the New Mexico agency, said by email Friday.
The state sought the plan earlier this year but the DOE Office of Environmental Management “has continued to delay in providing it to us,” she added.
Cleanup has yet to commence at the site of the contamination discovered during February and the state “is extremely frustrated that DOE has not been more action-oriented with the characterization and remediation necessary” to protect the community and environment around the Los Alamos Laboratory, Hayden said.
The DP Road area parcel was transferred from the national laboratory to Los Alamos County in 2018 after DOE deemed the site fully remediated. The debris, which contains mixed and low-level radioactive waste with traces of plutonium, was discovered while workers contracted by Los Alamos County were digging up an old sewer line. The county contractors were doing site work for a future housing complex.
Federal officials have said in prior correspondence with the state agency that they are not dragging their feet, and are progressing with analysis and cleanup plans as quickly as feasible, given necessary COVID-19 precautions. The site of the contaminated debris has been fenced off and air monitors installed.
According to state documents, Newport News Nuclear Los Alamos, the legacy cleanup contractor for the Los Alamos National Lab, collected three drums of debris such as metal, soil, glass shortly after the contamination was discovered in late February. Lab operator Triad National Security took custody of the drums and shipped the containers on to Waste Control Specialists in Andrews County, Texas, for storage.
Testing at Waste Control Specialists showed there were traces of plutonium in the debris.
