New Mexico lawmakers raise alarm over toxic plume under Pueblo land

Legislators warned about the toxic plume while New Mexicans worried about proposed uranium mines on Native land.ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (CN) — A toxic chromium plume spreading from Los Alamos National Laboratory under Pueblo de San Ildefonso is a “runaway train,” the chairman of the New Mexico Legislature’s radioactive materials committee warned Thursday.Los Alamos National Laboratory representatives updated the New Mexico Radioactive and Hazardous Materials Committee on their legacy cleanup efforts, boasting that they had shipped off more than 90% of above-ground waste while maintaining a high safety record.Senator Jeff Steinborn, though, focused on another issue: the toxic plume under Pueblo de San Ildefonso, just outside of Santa Fe.The plume, made up of hexavalent chromium, spread to underground Pueblo land aquifers. The chemical derived from a non-nuclear powerplant belonging to the laboratory, where workers flushed contaminated water into Sandia Canyon from 1956 to 1972.Now, the laboratory is trying to restart its interim measure: a system that extracts, treats and injects clean water along plume edges.“It clearly doesn’t feel like it’s been characterized, let alone that we’re effectively remediating or arresting it,” said Steinborn, a Democrat.The plume does not pose an immediate threat to public or drinking water wells, Stanley Pyram, acting manager of the Environmental Management Los Alamos Field Office, said.Prolonged exposure, though, can be damaging to one’s skin, eyes and respiratory tract and can cause cancer, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.“The tribe is rightfully very concerned,” Steinborn said of Pueblo de San Ildefonso. “Seems to be a runaway train that is getting worse.”The laboratory has enacted multiple recommendations of its technical advisory committee, Pyram said. Laboratory representatives met with the New Mexico Environmental Department in August to reach a waste cleanup agreement, but Los Alamos National Laboratory has not yet signed the settlement.“By the time we have a signed settlement, we’re already ahead,” Pyram said.Without an agreement, though, there wouldn’t be a commitment, Steinborn said. He asked whether the representatives believed it was the laboratory’s responsibility to clear the plume.“There’s enough data that shows part of the contamination came from the power plant,” Pyram said. “That’s why … we’re working the cleanup process.”The committee also took up concerns over 20 proposed uranium mines in the state. According to New Mexico resident, Leona Morgan, three of them are on Mount Taylor, a sacred mountain to the Navajo Nation.Energy Fuels, a Colorado company, is one that seeks to open a uranium mine near Mount Taylor within the Cibola National Forest and National Grasslands. If permitted, the mine would operate for 21 years: 11 for production and 10 for reclamation and monitoring.“I just wanted to highlight that the Navajo Nation still maintains a moratorium and a law that prohibits uranium mining, at least on the Navajo Nation and Mount Taylor,” Morgan said.Though the reservation lacks jurisdiction to stop the mining, the nation opposes new mining and transport of radioactive materials, Morgan said.Another speaker, Ava Curtis, an environmental justice coordinator for the Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment echoed Morgan’s complaints. The alliance is a member of the Communities for Uranium Accountability, and she noted the health effects of New Mexico’s 261 abandoned mines.“It is time to pump the brakes on permitting these mines until we can set up some regulatory infrastructure that can address these changes in technology and have specific regulatory systems to address this new surge in uranium mining,” Curtis said.The New Mexico Radioactive and Hazardous Materials Committee continues Friday.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads