Petition to Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham

Hi,

The Stopforever WIPP coalition has put together this petition to gain the attention of the governor to the dangerous proposal which would expand WIPP to take in surplus plutonium.

The pu would come from Texas to Los Alamos accompanied by armed guards, where it would be processed from metal to powder, trucked to South Carolina still under armed guard, reprocessed and then shipped back to WIPP. In many ways this is a very risky process.

If you are willing to print out and get signatures on this petition, please send to CCNS, PO Box 31147, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87594 by February 8.

Thanks in advance,
Dave

Petition to Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham 

We, New Mexicans, call on our Governor to protect the public health and our environment by taking all necessary actions to stop the expansion of the nuclear waste facility called the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in southeastern New Mexico.

We oppose this nuclear waste expansion at WIPP because:
-The federal government's expansion plans would transport each shipment of deadly waste past our homes twice, over and over for the rest of the century.
- The plutonium nuclear waste in the WIPP expansion is a different and more dangerous form, will remain dangerous for hundreds of thousands of years, and endangers the health of my family and future generations.
- Unless New Mexico says NO to WIPP expansion, other disposal locations will not be developed, and WIPP will always be the only dump site, which is not fair. New Mexico never agreed to bear the burden of being the only site.
- The federal government's plans would expand the size of the nuclear weapons dump to more than twice its current size and more than is allowed.*
- The federal government is not being transparent about expanding WIPP, even though it has clearly admitted its intention in published documents. By repeatedly refusing to discuss its plans with the public, most New Mexicans are not even aware of those plans.

We will strongly support our Governor taking all necessary actions, including denying permits for the piecemeal expansion. 

Name             Zip Code                  Signature 

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* Federal law and legal agreements with New Mexico clearly limit the amount of waste at WIPP, but the expansion would allow more than that capacity, as described in the April 2020 National Academy of Sciences Report - Review of the Department of Energy's Plans for Disposal of Surplus Plutonium in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.

https://stopforeverwipp.org/

-#-

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Kirtland Jet Fuel Spill Delay and Walk Away

KIRTLAND JET FUEL SPILL STILL THREATENS ALBUQUERQUE

               STRATEGY – DELAY AND WALK AWAY

The massive multi-million gallon jet fuel spill at Kirtland Air Force Base continues to threaten the drinking water wells for Albuquerque and the Veterans Administration Hospital.  Governor Lujan Grisham did not respond to a March 9, 2021 Water Utility Authority letter requesting intervention with the Air Force.The unpublished letter obtained by Citizen Action cautions: “[M]any issues remain that place the cleanup’s timely and successful completion at risk.”

The Water Authority letter warns, “Cleanup at the site has slowed alarmingly. The Air Force has not provided an updated time line and has yet to complete the necessary prerequisites for implementation of a final remedy.” The Authority emphasizes that the “Air Force’s estimates of Ethylene Dibromide (EDB) removed by the pump-treat-system [is] potentially over-stating the success of the system and generating unreliable data…” 

Obstacles threatening cleanup include:

• Lack of a long overdue Facility Investigation Report necessary for evaluation of corrective remedies;
• Inadequate groundwater monitoring;
• discontinuation of interim mitigation measures for soil vapor extraction, bioventing
• Air Force reluctance to improve the pump-and-treat system.
• The cleanup budget reduction by 80 percent from the 2018 amount and no certain 2021 budget.

Complete cleanup of EDB in the aquifer is impossible as long as its full extent remains unknown. This is caused by a shortage of groundwater monitoring wells at the water table. Most monitoring wells are on the AF base near the source of the spill. There is the need for an additional deep monitoring well in the City at the northernmost extent of the contamination plume. The AF refuses to pay for the groundwater monitoring well.

The AF refuses to collect data or provide funding for critical data gaps without Pentagon review despite Environment Department Notices of Disapproval.  This obscures understanding of the amount and extent of soil vapor and jet fuel remaining in the ground.  The aquifer is further contaminated as the groundwater rises. The Authority asks the Governor’s support to gain compliance with the Notices of Disapproval.

AF reporting and stakeholder engagement by technical staff in the cleanup process -- from the Water Authority,  NMED,  City of Albuquerque,  U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and AF staff and contractors -- has “degraded over the last three years … with little or no opportunity for stakeholder input … on key datasets and decisions in a timely manner.”

Citizen Action obtained another unpublished and unanswered 11/19/2020 Water Authority Technical Memo to the Environment Department. It starkly underscores the defective groundwater monitoring well network and sampling practices that were not authorized by the Department causing critical data gaps.

The  AF claims improper credit for lowering concentration levels of EDB.  The AF relies on groundwater monitoring wells that are submerged due to a rising water table.  Unless sufficient groundwater monitoring wells are at the water table, the data “almost certainly underestimates the concentrations within the plume … and are cause for great concern.”

The inaccuracy from the extensive, unauthorized use of passive bag samplers at 105 out of 161 sampling wells rather than using more accurate low-flow pumping methods “goes against technical recommendations.” The Environment Department authorized only use of 12 bag samplers.  The bags are used inappropriately where jet fuel was detected and also in submerged monitoring well shielding evidence of contaminant levels.

The AF excludes all detected concentrations for EDB and other chemicals not at maximum permissible levels. That defeats understanding of the width and depth of the plume migration. “Samples from some wells are as much as 40 feet below the water table.  That can make it appear that EDB concentrations are decreasing.  As a result, the effectiveness of the pump and treat system can be inaccurately stated.”

The minimal legal requirements for remediation are being ignored.  At this point, there is not a justifiable solution for remediation when groundwater monitoring is unreliable and the full scope of contamination is unknown. 

July 6, 2021

Dave McCoy, Director

Citizen Action

818 448 9981

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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Letter to Gov. Grisham From Water Utility Authority

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Jet Fuel Spill Groundwater Monitoring with Bag Samplers

Hits: 1157