LANL needs to clean up its act

For the past 10 years Taos Town and County elected officials have employed our tax dollars to lobby the U.S. Congress for production of plutonium pit triggers of nuclear bombs at Los Alamos National Lab (LANL)? Did you know that Los Alamos County and the lab are the wealthiest in the nation, while New Mexico communities are near the poorest in the nation? Did you know that the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities (RCLC), an organization including both Taos County and [town of Taos] has spent $2 million of our taxpayer dollars lobbying for LANL instead of investing in local needs like affordable housing, education and public safety?

The RCLC was founded purportedly to allow local communities to have a say in what happens at the nuclear weapons plant and promote cleanup at the lab. One Taos official explained to me that to withdraw from the coalition would mean that we would not have “a seat at the table.”

“If one is not at the table, one is on the menu,” he said. Au contraire! We local communities are already on the menu!

RCLC, a coalition of nine communities surrounding [LANL], was founded for the purpose of co-opting local communities to “speak with one voice” in favor of nuclear bomb production. Actually, it aims to eliminate/deflect local dissent and curtail real cleanup of the radioactive garbage accumulated at [LANL]. RCLC’s founding document (Joint Powers Agreement - JPA) was written and advanced by the so-called Energy Communities Alliance (ECA) created to accelerate cleanup on the cheap at military defense sites. The revised (but unchanged) JPA is on the agenda for approval by Taos County this week.

The ECA are the same folks that facilitated the non-cleanup/coverup that happened at the infamous Rocky Flats nuclear bomb plant near Denver. The first nuclear bomb factory there was raided by the FBI in 1989 and shut down for environmental crimes and massive contamination. A three-year Grand Jury investigation was locked into silence when records were sealed and jurors threatened. According to the Grand Jury report, Rocky Flats for many years had discharged pollutants, hazardous materials and radioactive matter into nearby creeks and water supplies of nearby towns. Similar documents describe LANL’s contaminations (LAHDRA).

When Rocky Flats began cleanup, the ECA recruited neighboring community officials, promising them “a seat at the table” and a “voice” in ensuing cleanup operations. Kirsten Iversen in her book “Full Body Burden,” described this process. The Rocky Flats Coalition of Local Governments (RFCLG), comprised of officials from surrounding counties and cities, was a “community-based post closure long-term stewardship organization.”

These communities were lied to and strung along for several years while decisions had already been made behind closed doors. The end result was a shoddy “cleanup” and “huge cost savings” to the contractors. They spent only $473 million on actual soil and water cleanup out of $7 billion, and pocketed $560 million for finishing early and under budget. Deadly plutonium and other radionuclides and hazardous materials left in the soil erode and are transported by rain, wind, animals and insects. DOE: “One millionth of a gram of plutonium inhaled is potentially a lethal dose.” The “cleaned up” perimeter is now a Wildlife Refuge open to pedestrians and bikers.

The “Risk-based End State” approach to cleanup espoused by the ECA and our Regional Coalition leaves local communities with the risk and cost of contamination while LANL contractors and the DOE are off the hook for long-term (thousands of years) contamination.

“Long-term Stewardship” simply means that cities, counties and pueblos end up with the risks, remediation, the costs and the cancers for centuries. The numbers of cancer cases at nearby Pueblos and in the valley are burgeoning.

Contamination at Los Alamos and surrounding communities is prevalent and ongoing. A Hexavalent Chromium plume (remember Erin Brochovich?) is nearing our groundwater aquifer. Tritium and other contaminants inhabit our surface waters. And the plumes from fires at and near LANL have spread contaminants throughout the valley, independently found in attic dust, plums and lettuce.

What has our Regional Coalition done about this for our communities? Nothing! They have not garnered an extra dime for nuclear waste cleanup. In fact, legacy waste cleanup money has shrunk, while money spent on nuclear proliferation skyrockets.

Here’s the final straw. LANL has already made land transfers of contaminated property to the San Ildefonso Pueblo, [Los Alamos] elementary school and playground and the airport. This is the plan for “long-term stewardship.” Our local politicians are complicit in this unconscionable ruse.