Environmental groups sue LANL over water

Organizations are worried that PCB pollution could get into the Rio Grande and drinking water.

The news conference seemed at times like a religious service when a cluster of environmental group members announced they had filed a federal lawsuit against Los Alamos National Laboratory alleging water-quality violations.

At the chilly Thursday morning event outside the Roundhouse, members of the 11 organizations repeatedly noted the spiritual aspects of water and its importance to human life and the natural world — while skimming through scientific details of how the lab allegedly violated Environmental Protection Agency standards.

"We must be mindful that water is life; water is sacred," said Kathy Sanchez, director of Tewa Women United, one of the complaining parties. "We must hold the lab accountable."

Glimpses of the scientific meat of the matter came sporadically at the news conference. The key issue hinges on data that the lab had violated storm water polychlorinated biphenyl, or PCB, levels by up to 25,000 times the standard required to protect human health.

PCBs are industrial chemicals once used in electrical equipment, such as transformers, capacitors, lubricants and coolants. They were banned in 1977 after they were connected to cancer and other health problems.

The environmental groups said they are worried that PCB pollution from Los Alamos could make it into the Rio Grande and Northern New Mexico drinking water.

The lawsuit Amigos Bravos v. DOE, which was electronically filed in Santa Fe by the Western Environmental Law Center, charges the lab with: Violation of water-quality standards, failure to conduct representative monitoring, failure to conduct quarterly visual monitoring, failure to conduct benchmark monitoring, failure to conduct compliance monitoring, reporting violations and pollution control violations.

It cites the lab's own storm water monitoring data and how the numbers compare to the EPA's standard of 0.00064 micrograms per liter.

It notes concentrations at a site defined as "LA-SMA-2," which monitors storm water discharges from an old septic tank at "hillside 140," have registered PCB levels of 3.8 micrograms per liter, 8.7 micrograms per liter, 8.8 micrograms per liter, 7.9 micrograms per liter and 16.3 micrograms per liter on different dates from 2004 through 2007.

At the news conference, Franciscan Sister Joan Brown, president of the Partnership for Earth Spirituality, noted that "clean water is a spiritual and ethical concern" and that both the lab and the federal government "need to be reminded of their ethical and moral obligations to the common good."

The statements were periodically broken by an enthusiastic "yeah!" from one of the 15 or so crowd members.

The lawsuit claims the nuclear-weapons lab hasn't yet cleaned somewhere between 1,300 and 1,405 sites on lab property contaminated with debris from liquid disposal, hazardous waste landfills, old structures, dumping grounds, explosive testing, firing ranges, septic systems and seepage pits.

In a news release Thursday afternoon, Los Alamos officials said they were surprised by the claims.

"The laboratory is in compliance with its storm water permit under the federal Clean Water Act," said Dick Watkins, associate director for Environment, Safety, Health and Quality. "The laboratory takes its environmental responsibilities very seriously, and we are firmly committed to protecting human health and the environment."

The release also said Los Alamos has been working with the EPA to develop a new storm water permit.

"During this process, the laboratory also met with these citizens' groups, provided them an overview of our storm water program and a tour of a number of sites showing laboratory storm water controls," said Susan G. Stiger, associate director of Environmental Programs at the lab. "Rather than a lawsuit, we had hoped to continue our work with these groups along with the general public through the public permitting process."

Still, Los Alamos' Environment Overview Web page at  http://lanl.gov/environment/all/overview.shtml seems to echo some of the environmental groups' claims.

It notes that water discharges from some areas of lab property will not meet new requirements for certain metals and PCBs, and that runoff from storm events in canyons don't meet new New Mexico stream standards.

But it also says its "study of radionuclides, PCBs, and metals in fish found no difference between upstream and downstream levels, and PCBs and metals are above 'chronic intake' thresholds up and downstream," which means at least some of the pollution in the Rio Grande is not coming from the lab, but from somewhere further upstream.

Brian Shields, executive director of Amigos Bravos, suggested at least some of the blame for pollution problems should be placed at the feet of the federal government. Los Alamos just doesn't have enough money to clean all the contaminated sites on its property, he said.

"The lab is not asking for enough money for cleanup," Shields said. "We need our Congressional delegation to ask for more money for cleanup."

U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., has long said the lab needs more funds for cleanup, although he declined to comment on the lawsuit.

U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., said he agrees more funding would help cleanup efforts at Los Alamos.

"There is no question that the DOE needs to give a much higher priority to environmental cleanup," Bingaman said. "Unfortunately, the current administration just sent Congress a proposed 2009 budget that once again gives short shrift to cleanup. Congress will have to try hard this year to better fund that important program."

The lab has 60 days from Thursday's filing to respond to the suit, said Megan Anderson of the Western Environmental Law Center.

After that, the groups expect things to get heated as it goes to court, Shields said.

"I'm sure it's going to be a lengthy process," he said.