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Show A-23 Park Record Wed/Thurs/Fri, December 19-21, 2007 Waste threatens city's only water source ards will persist for centuries ... millennia ... or essentially forever." Another NAS report, from 2000, notes that at such sites, subsurface Tritium (radioactive hydrogen) has contaminants often travel farther By STEPHANIE HILLER been detected less than 100 feet than expected and futureriskscanHigh Country Netvs below the landfill; it's the most not be accurately predicted. Even if the soil cover does its mobile form of waste, and Sandia Just south of Albuquerque on officials believe the other contami- job, no one will be able to tell, Kirtland Air Force Base lie 30 nants have not gone as deep. according to geologist Robert H. years' worth of canisters, boxes and Removing the containers of Gilkeson. because the wells even plastic bags, summarily waste, many of which are broken installed to monitor contamination dumped into unlined trenches by and leaking, would cost about don't work correctly. Gilkeson was Sandia National Laboratories dur- three-quarters of a billion dollars lead consultant for a monitoring ing nuclear weapons research.This and endanger workers, according to project at Los Alamos, but resigned mixed waste landfill, loaded with the lab. And no approved "disposal when the state rejected his design in 100,000 cubic feet of "low-level" pathway" exists for some of the favor of a less expensive, quicker radioactive and hazardous waste, waste. Sandia has proposed simply approach. Describing himself as a was once out in the middle of covering the dump with three feet whistleblower. he now works indenowhere, but now the city of of soil, seeded with shallow-rooted pendently - and for free - evaluAlbuquerque is growing rapidly in plants to take up rainfall and pre- ating how the two New Mexico labs its direction. A new 90,000-resident vent leaching. But critics say that are affecting groundwater. development, Mesa del Sol, is going won't be enough to keep contami"The installation of the wells in west of the Air Force base. nants from reaching the groundwa- started in the late 1980s with a belief Even as the city creeps toward ter, 460 feet below. - a belief - that the flow of water the dump, some of the toxic sub"The landfill will be a whole lot was to the north," Gilkeson says. By stances in the dump may be creep- safer with the cover than it is now,11 1990, however, data clearly showed ing toward the Albuquerque says David Miller, the Sandia engi- that the groundwater was moving Aquifer, currently the city's sole neer who manages the landfill. "But southwest instead. Despite this, the source of drinking water. Sandia because of litigation from one citi- wells were not moved. and the state regulatory agency zens' group, we've had to put these Gilkeson notes that the aquifer have struggled to figure out a safe plans on hold." has two layers: a slow-moving sandy and legal way to keep that from For the past decade, Citizen layer at the water table, and the happening. The area's burgeoning Action has demanded the excava- actual drinking water source growth has depleted the aquifer, tion and removal of the wastes, and beneath. To accurately track wastes, sinking it 180 feet. By next year a in 2005, it sued the New Mexico both layers must be sampled. Only new water project, the San Juan- Environment Department and the one monitoring well reaches the Chama diversion, should supply 90 U.S. Department of Energy over drinking water layer, but its screens percent of Albuquerque's water, but their approval of the soil cover. In cross both layers, mixing the waters. the aquifer will continue to be an tum, the environment department Some of the stainless steel well important source for the growing recently sued Citizen Action, trying screens are also corroded and city. to avoid making public a report on clogged. Sandia engineers say that The toxic wastes in the landfill, the risk of leaks at the dump. corrosion is responsible for the closed in 1988, include tritium, pluOn such legacy waste sites, soil chromium and nickel that have tonhim and other transuranics, covers are inadequate, according to been found in water samples at volatile solvents, and some 270,000 a 2003 report from the National higher levels than drinking-water gallons of nuclear reactor water. Academy of Sciences: "... the haz- standards allow. Gilkeson suspects that these levels are too high to be accounted for by corroded screens alone. Bentonite clay from the drilling process clogs many screens, "hiding the contaminants (the Park City Racquet Club wells) are intended to detect, espe- A Cold War-era landfill leaves toxic legacy in Albuquerque's aquifer Christmas Recreation Hours cially radionuclides," he says. indulgent z)tecessities The same drilling process was used in Los Alamos, and those wells failed to detect groundwater contamination. Now, plulonium is showing up in Santa Fe's drinking water The final monitoring plan now being reviewed by New Mexico's environmental department corrects some of these problems, but not all. Three new wells will be dug through the landfill cover, with plastic screens instead of stainless steel. They'll be located on the west side of the dump, closer to the potential contaminants. But there are still no wells on the landfill's south side, and none directly over the "hot spots" where tritium was dumped and where tetracholorocthane (PCE), a probable carcinogen, has been found. Gift Certificates ~ Gift Registry Available "The landfill is being monitored Leigh Bantivoglio • Hanky Panky • Spanx • Simone Perele by very competent staff at present," Le Mystere • Bed Head • Munki Munki • Cosabella • Montelle says Jerry Peace, a Sandia geophysical engineer, "and will continue to www.britchesinc.com be monitored in the future." Sandia officials say the soils appear to slow 1675 W. Redstone Center Drive • Park City, Utah 84098 the transport of wastes, and given Designers from Paris, Itaty, Canada, New York and Los Angeles the short half-life (12.5 years) of tritium, it may not reach groundwater until it has become relatively harmless. For the city's half-million residents, though, the implications are unsettling. Sandia and the Department of Energy appear to be taking a calculated risk, banking on the probability that contaminants will not reach groundwater. But in water-sparse New Mexico, Albuquerque's aquifer may well be priceless, and any risk too great. Bed Head Flannel PJ's Now Available. Gourmet (upcab from (upab Couture everyy Saturda ay Getting A Cozy Den, Or Acres to Gallop Just Got Easier! The author is a freelance writer who researches nuclear issues in Albuquerque. This article originally appeared on Dec. 17, 2007, In High Country News (www.hcn.org), which covers the West's communities and naturalresource issues. FOX POINT CONDO • $ 3 8 5 , 0 0 0 Chrisfmas Eve, Monday, Dec. 24 6 a.m. - 3 p.m. Christmas Day, Tuesday, Dec. 25 closed *All regularly scheduled fitness classes will be held on BAnGKOKHGTHAI on LA_J main • . Christmas Eve from 6 a.m.- noon. Ail others are cancelled. CHECK OUT OUR NEW WINE CELLAR Basin Recreation Field House Christmas Eve, Monday, Dec. 24 8 a.m. - 3 p.m. : Christmas Day, Tuesday, Dec. 25 closed South Summit Aquatic and Fitness Center Christmas Eve, Monday, Dec. 24 5 a.m. - 4 p.m. UP TO 80%OFF K'iSV. .if'*-*-'1 FOR PROPERTY THAT FITS YOUR LIFESTYLE... 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