Northern New Mexico Citizens' Advisory Board Meeting Minutes

Jemez Pueblo, NM

Board Meeting Minutes

August 23, 2000

1. OPENING

A. Call to Order

M.J. Byrne, DOE Deputy Designated Federal Official, called the meeting to order. Ms. Byrne turned the meeting over to Menice S. Manzanares, Chair.

At the beginning of the meeting, a quorum of Board members was not present. Later in the meeting, a quorum was present when Ms. Valdez arrived.

B. Approval of Minutes

Ms. Manzanares asked for additions or deletions to the June 28^th Board minutes. Dr. Alarid moved, seconded by Ms. Galpin to approve the June 28^th minutes. Ms. Manzanares ruled that the minutes of June 28^th were unanimously adopted.

Ms. Manzanares postponed the approval of the July 26 Board meeting minutes to the September Board meeting because people did not have time to read them.

2. REPORTS

1. Chair Report

Ms. Manzanares thanked people for coming to the beautiful Walatowa Visitors Center at the Jemez Pueblo. She thanked the Board members for attending Board and committee meetings. Ms. Manzanares asked current members to recommend new members for the Board. She said that the Board would have an election of officers at the September meeting.

Ms. Manzanares said that during August, Jim Johnston, Ted Taylor and she went to Amarillo, Texas for the Chair’s meeting for the Site Specific Advisory Boards (SSABs) across the DOE complex. The Pantex Board hosted this Chair’s meeting. Mr. Taylor presented information on the Cerro Grande fire. Ms. Manzanares said that the SSAB Common Values paper was approved at this meeting. This paper originated at the February meeting in Idaho Falls. These common values are held by SSABs. She thanked Dr. Berting who worked on planning the SSAB Stewardship Conference. Ms. Manzanares announced that the next Chairs meeting would be in Las Vegas, Nevada in February. She invited to New Mexico the SSAB Chairs for the fall 2001 meeting.

Mr. Johnston said that the SSAB Chair meeting participants toured Pantex. An attorney from DOE Headquarters, Greg Bridges, spoke about possible conflicts of interest including employees, LANL employees, and CAB members. The SSAB Stewardship Conference was to be held in Denver, on October 25^th, 26^th, and 27^th with a tour of Rocky Flats. Martha Crosland, Acting Director of the DOE Office of Intergovernmental and Public Accountability, discussed the SSAB guidance document. Some changes from the previous guidance document include the policy that Board members cannot be paid. Ms. Crosland said that Boards could hire outside consultants. Mr. Johnston said that the travel restrictions would be more lenient. He observed that the field could appoint up to five new members per year. Mr. Johnston reported that Ms. Crosland said that DOE has a six-year rule about a Board member’s tenure on the Board. She said that this rule is not firm. For example, when a CAB doesn’t have a Chair and the person that you want to be the Chair is a person that is going into the seventh year, then DOE will make an exception.

Ms. Byrne reported that Martha Crosland said that she checked with DOE Headquarters General Counsel and DOE funds cannot be used to pay for refreshments at meetings.

Mr. Johnston reported that there was some concern about CAB members contacting members of Congress and that would be considered lobbying. Ms. Crosland’s opinion was that was not considered lobbying. Ted Taylor discussed the LANL cleanup after the Cerro Grande fire. Mr. Johnston reported on the conversation around public outreach strategies. He got some ideas for a Board brochure that has the mission statement, lists the Board members and the meeting dates.

Mr. Johnston said that the participants discussed possible joint recommendations. One possible joint recommendation concerns the transportation of waste to WIPP. For example, the respective Boards might recommend that the sites that ship to WIPP might have a single motor carrier, and a single type of container. The effect of this joint recommendation would have more authority because under the CAB requirements, DOE has 30 – 60 days to respond.

Mr. Johnston announced the Transportation Seminar that is jointly sponsored by the Los Alamos National Lab and the Northern New Mexico Citizens’ Advisory Board. The Seminar will be held in Santa Fe on November 5, 6, and 7, 2000.

Ms. Manzanares invited Board members to attend the next Chairs meeting in Las Vegas. The topics will be groundwater and/or outreach.

1. DOE Report

Ms. Byrne said that at the September meeting, the Board would approve the proposed FY2001 budget and forward it to DOE.

Ms. Byrne observed that at this meeting the Army Corp of Engineers would report on the work they did since June after the Cerro Grande fire and the onset of the potential floods. She thanked the Corp of Engineers for presenting to the Board on such short notice. Ms. Byrne reported that Lee McAtee would give an update on the various Environment, Safety and Health projects at LANL.

Mr. Armenta said that he received a call from Brother Joseph at St. Michael’s High School. Brother Joseph asked for a Board member talk with the students. Ms. Manzanares suggested that Mr. Armenta work with Mr. Johnston and the Community Outreach Committee and respond to that request.

Waste Management Committee

Ms. Galpin said that the Committee had its monthly meeting on August 21. Tom Starke from the LANL Stewardship Office presented LANL’s work on pollution prevention. He will present at a future Board meeting, the innovative work of this program. Los Alamos is a leader in the DOE complex for waste management and pollution prevention.

Mr. Starke said that he appreciated the opportunity to talk to the Waste Management Committee and discuss some of LANL’s accomplishments in waste prevention. He shared that the Los Alamos National Laboratory has been asked to host next June the DOE National Pollution Prevention Meeting. At these meetings, national experts teach about pollution prevention, energy conservation, and DOE’s environmental community. The conference participants share the best ideas about what the DOE sites around the country are doing to minimize waste and become more effective at eliminating the possibility of hurting the environment. The organizing committee invited the national SSABs to attend the conference and support the pollution prevention offices at their sites. He would provide logistical support and the SSABs would plan the agenda for their one-day pre-workshop event.

Ms. Galpin said that the Waste Management Committee is dealing with different issues both pre- and post-Cerro Grande fire. The Committee interviewed a possible candidate to provide technical support. The Committee requested that Ms. Byrne expedite hiring this person for the Committee’s work.

Ms. Galpin reported that two months ago the Committee composed the goals and the proposed budget for fiscal year 2001. She said that she was not able to attend the DOE Long-Term Stewardship Conference due to her flight being canceled.

Mr. Johnston reported on his trip to Rocky Flats on behalf of the Waste Management Committee. He reported on his tour of the Rocky Flats plant. A new idea for shipping waste materials was developed through his conversations. A presentation of this idea about compressing the material and reducing the volume of material going to WIPP was made to the National Transportation Program in Albuquerque. This idea could be part of a possible joint recommendation adopted by the Hanford, Los Alamos, Rocky Flats, and Savanna River Boards.

Mr. Johnston attended the Rocky Flats Citizens’ Advisory Board meetings. He got several ideas from observing this Board about the facilitation of meetings. This Board has a facilitator for all their meetings. The Chair opens and closes the meetings and the facilitator runs them.

Mr. Johnston shared his learnings about how the Rocky Flats staffing budget is spent. Their staff prepares a quarterly newsletter and brochures that are available to the public at each meeting. General information including documents, recommendations and their FY2000 Work Plan are printed on paper for the public and are available through their web page.

Ms. Galpin asked Ms. Manzanares if a quorum were present to discuss a recommendation. Ms. Manzanares said she received two Board members’ resignations this week. They are from Elmer Torres and Joe Field. Therefore, the Board does have a quorum and could vote on a recommendation.

Ms. Galpin said that the recommendation from the Waste Management Committee which has been read twice to the Board at previous meetings. At the June 19^th Committee meeting, the Committee passed the following recommendation:

"For consideration of the Northern New Mexico Citizens’ Advisory Board at its meeting on June 28, 2000. The Northern New Mexico Citizens Advisory Board has become increasingly aware of the hazard posed to White Rock from potential contamination released from TA 54 as a result of fire or other catastrophes as demonstrated by the decision to evacuate White Rock during the Cerro Grande Fire. Therefore, the Northern New Mexico Citizens Advisory Board recommends that the DOE accelerate the schedule for waste shipments to WIPP from the current projected completion date of 2015 to 2008 to eliminate the above ground storage of legacy Tru-Waste and to minimize the above ground storage of new waste."

Ms. Manzanares asked that all the Board members vote on this recommendation. She ruled that the recommendation was approved unanimously so it will be sent to DOE. Ms. Manzanares thanked the Committee and the Board for this very important recommendation.

Ms. Galpin said she has another item that is more Board business than Waste Management Committee business. She reported that Mr. Gurulé, Area Manager of the DOE Los Alamos Area Office, wrote a letter to Ms. Manzanares requesting information on the Board’s staffing needs and included a draft statement of work. She said that Ms. Manzanares asked the Committee Chairs to talk about their staffing needs and to poll the members of their committees. Ms. Galpin said that the Committee Chairs met and she was tasked with writing these requests. She thanked Jim Johnston for bringing the items from Rocky Flats because these ideas were helpful in summarizing the Board’s needs. Ms. Galpin reported that she submitted these needs to DOE on behalf of the Board. She sent copies of the letter to the Committee Chairs including the recommended job descriptions, salaries, a draft statement of work and a list of needs in case the statement of work didn’t cover every item.

Ms. Manzanares thanked Ms. Galpin for her work.

Monitoring and Surveillance Committee

Mr. Armijo reported on the August 15 Committee meeting. The meeting included representatives from Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety, the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED), LANL and three Committee members. The Committee talked about the aftermath of the Cerro Grande fire. The representatives from the New Mexico Environment Department discussed the challenges that they experienced. Their small staff is overworked by monitoring all of the rain events in Los Alamos. The very first rain events were not monitored by NMED because the safety measures and equipment were not in place. The NMED staff reported on their health concerns.

Mr. Armijo said that the Committee reviewed the low levels of perchlorides found in some production wells and regional waters. The Committee expressed their concern that LANL’s budgets be stable throughout the implementation of LANL’s Hydrogeologic Workplan. LANL should bring in more drilling rigs at this time so that the Workplan is completed within the allotted time or maybe even sooner.

Environmental Restoration Committee

Dr. Berting indicated the Committee’s priorities for FY2001 include risk assessment methodology and applications; Material Disposal Area (MDA) strategy and presumptive remedies; long-term environmental stewardship; plus information gathering and analysis including tours and workshops. The Committee plans a workshop for each quarter on one of these topics. Risk assessment is the first workshop topic planned for sometime between October and December. Then MDA strategies and remedies between January and March, and long-term stewardship in the spring quarter. This workshop is in addition to the SSAB long-term stewardship conference in October.

Dr. Berting requested that more Board members consider joining the Committee. Ms. Byrne reminded everyone that members of the public could be on committees.

Dr. Berting described the written report due on September 22^nd for the SSAB Stewardship Conference. The report will include 1) information from LANL about what the site will look like at the time when long-term stewardship will be implemented, 2) a description of current stewardship activities at the site, and 3) a list of concerns, issues, comments, questions or statements by our Board with respect to the core topic issues. The core topic issues include 1) how stewardship is going to be funded, 2) how will the site monitor land that is not totally cleaned up for as long as the stewardship is required, 3) how will the public be involved with these decisions, 4) what are the roles and responsibilities of the various entities like the local government, federal government, DOE or its successors, or whatever private entity takes over the land, and 5) information management to convey this information about each particular contaminated site to however many generations that are going to have to pay attention to it.

Dr. Berting requested future agenda time to report on the Energy Community’s Alliance with the Environmental Law Institute two-day conference on the role of local government in stewardship.

Ms. Byrne observed that from the Los Alamos perspective, our site is a little different from the standpoint that environmental stewardship is into the future. Some DOE sites are considering now how to implement environmental stewardship.

Dr. Canepa observed from her perspective, as the Manager of LANL’s Environmental Restoration Project, that LANL and the Board should stay completely aware of what’s going on. This awareness will make LANL do a better job of stewardship by staying with the rest of the complex. LANL is in a different situation because it is an operating facility, but the issues are still exactly the same. For example, what LANL might be propose about digging up Material Disposal Areas or leaving it in place does not require the site to be shut down to make this strategy path forward.

Mr. Chandler added that Tom Stark calls his program, "pollution prevention". However, Mr. Starke started calling his program "stewardship" but he is really talking about stewardship of ongoing operations. The vision of the future is to combine those two things. So, a discussion with Tom Starke in the Environmental Restoration context might help illuminate that future.

Ms. Manzanares asked for volunteers from the Board members to help with the stewardship paper. Mr. Armijo, Dr. Alarid, Mr. Brannon and Mr. Johnston agreed to help.

Community Outreach Committee

Mr. Johnston reported on the Board’s web page. He said that some citizens were concerned about the minutes not being posted. When the minutes are officially approved, they are posted.

Mr. Johnston said that Ray Armenta and he went to a Santa Fe City Council meeting and met with Mayor Delgado. He made a presentation on the Board’s mission. One of the Council’s concerns was that they wanted to see the burned areas in Los Alamos. He talked to Ms. Byrne who suggested that the Mayor make a written request and then the tour will be coordinated through Public Affairs. Dr. Alarid suggested that a letter be written to invite Mayor Delgado to attend the Board meetings and send the letter before the next Board meeting.

Mr. Johnston said that Ray Armenta has been working on a newsletter. Mr. Armenta reported that he submitted two versions of the newsletter and they have not been approved so the newsletter is not yet complete.

Mr. Johnston said he recommended that some capital equipment be purchased. These items could include a sound system and a Proxima to use when we have presentations. Ms. Galpin added that she was at the Budget Committee meeting and these items and more will be purchased in this fiscal year.

Mr. Johnston said that this Committee also needs additional members. Mr. Armijo agreed to help. Maxine Ewankow volunteered to be on the Environmental Restoration Committee because she used to work for LANL’s Environmental Restoration Program. Ms. Manzanares said that Mr. Alejandro and Mr. Martinez are also on this committee and Mr. Armenta is the staff person.

Mr. Johnston said that the Committee met by conference call on August 10^th. He discussed how outreach is handled at the Pantex and other facilities. Ms. Manzanares said that at the SSAB Chairs meeting each site brought some outreach information with them. This information will be available through the Board’s Santa Fe Office.

Army Corps of Engineers

Mark Clark introduced himself as one of the project engineers for the Los Alamos work, and resident engineer, Roger Torres and Jim Heinz, project engineer and RCC specialist on the flood retention structure in Pajarito Canyon. The term "RCC specialist" refers to a roller compacted concrete structure. Mr. Clark explained that he works for the Army Corp of Engineers Environmental Engineering Department. Mr. Heinz is from the Portland district and Mr. Torres is from the Albuquerque district.

The Army Corps of Engineers did some remedial action on sites in the Los Alamos area including 1) the State Road 501 projects, which consisted of the Water canyon, Pajarito Canyon, the Two Mile Canyon; 2) downstream of the Two-Mile Canyon was the Abandoned Land Bridge road; 3) downstream of that was the flood retention structure in the Pajarito Canyon; 4) the Los Alamos Dam structure and 5) downstream from the Los Alamos Dam structure was the Los Alamos low head weir. Those projects were funded through the Department of Energy. The Diamond Drive culvert to the North was a county funded project. Mr. Torres was the project engineer on that project. The Federal Emergency Management Agency funded the temporary housing unit to the North. The Bureau of Indian Affairs funded the Santa Clara Pueblo and the San Ildefonso projects.

Mr. Torres described the Diamond Drive Project and the Corps is waiting for additional funds to finish up on the inlet and the outlet structures. Ms. Galpin said that after the fire the concern was that flooding could cut off part of the town. She asked if that problem were resolved. Mr. Torres responded that when they sized this pipe, they considered the possibility of a one hundred-year flood.

Ms. Byrne commented on how quickly the Corps came and the potential catastrophe that the Corps helped to avert. Mr. Torres responded that Senator Domenici was responsible for the quick response.

Mr. Clark talked about the Los Alamos Dam Reservoir project. This project used a shot crete application. Mr. Clark explained that shot crete is a concrete mixture, kind of a slurry type mixture that is blown over the structure. He described how the Corps re-modified the overflow structure keeping the same elevation that was originally designed on the reservoir. Representative Wallace said that the reservoir is where our kids have always gone fishing. She asked if there are still areas they can walk around? Mr. Clark answered that the paths along the right descending bank and the roadway on the left ascending bank are still in place with the two fishing piers upstream. The park department or the county will reestablish that walkway. A large storm, approximately three weeks ago, moved the ashes and debris off the canyon walls and filled up the inside of the dam and added approximately three to four inches of mud. The county is considering dredging this material to refurbish the water quality in this reservoir. Representative Wallace asked if there was water in the reservoir now. Mr. Clark responded that yes, the water is near the top. After the July 18^th event, the level was lower than the two fishing piers and right now it is lower. The Corps pumped out the water over the spillway so the shot crete could be placed.

Ms. Galpin asked when is this reservoir going to be functional. Mr. Vozella responded that it would be ready in about three years. The plan is not to keep water in it so it will be pumped out after each flood event to keep the water down for the next year or two. In either next year or in two years, the reservoir will be dredged after all the ash is washed away. It’s about a half a million dollars roughly to dredge it. Then it will revert to an irrigational reservoir. Mr. Vozella said that the estimate from the BAER (Burned Area Emergency Rehabilitation) Team, is that the environment will begin to return to its pre-fire state in approximately three years.

Mr. Clark reported on the Abandoned Land Bridge road at TA-14, which is on the backside to the explosive area at LANL near TA-18. This area was downstream from the State Road 501 projects part of the Two-Mile Canyon.

Mr. Clark described the road-hardening project on Highway State Road 501. There were three similar sites at Water Canyon, Pajarito Canyon, and Two-Mile Canyon. The shot crete application was most cost effective

Mr. Clark described the Low head weirs project in Los Alamos Canyon, downstream of the Los Alamos Reservoir near the Y. The Corps was unable to blast due to some archeological sites. The Corps reduced the area of the sediment basin. Mr. Clark said this project is complete and LANL will seed around the perimeter.

Mr. Clark said that the Bureau of Indian Affairs funded the San Ildefonso project. It was an original streambed that had some wooden structures in it. With the rainfall, there was head cutting and the original structures were starting to fail. At this time, the Corps must get some funding to complete this work at the quarry operation.

Mr. Clark described the Santa Clara Pueblo project. The Corps started this project and then turned it over to another project engineer. The project involves the stream that flows through the Pueblo to the sewage treatment plant. This project is about two thirds completed.

Mr. Clark described another problem at the bridge on highway 30 and the bridge on Main Street next to the Pueblo building. The bridges silted in so they cleaned out an area upstream of the Pueblo public office where it had eroded into the levee.

Mr. Clark summarized that in the last 23 days the Corps placed approximately 90,000 tons of reinforced concrete by working 24 hours a day

Mr. Heinz described the flood retention structure built by the Corps. This flood retention structure is not designed to be a reservoir or impound water. It is designed to hold back water in a flood event and then release the water in a controlled manner. The concrete for this structure is 60,000 cubic yards, or approximately 120,000 tons. The height of the structure is 70 feet above the original streambed and 45 feet below the original streambed so the overall height is approximately 135 feet.

Mr. Vozella said that this year’s budget that Congress allocated is $138 million and LANL will obligate as much as possible including $20 million in erosion control, $15 million for the Corps and some ancillary things.

Ms. Galpin asked since the flood retention structure is supposed to be temporary, when will it come down or what are the criteria for it’s coming down? Mr. Vozella responded that criteria have not yet been set. Part of the supplemental environmental analysis will look at this issue and potentially a mitigation action plan might address the criteria upon which this would come down. So, at this point in time there is no funding provided for its coming down.

Mr. McAtee said that the Forest Service would give a report about the reforestation at the end of September. The report will describe how well the Forest Service land is coming back and whether they will reseed this year.

Mr. McAtee said the Laboratory emergency rehabilitation activities include 1) the Corps’ big engineering projects, 2) what the Laboratory is doing like removing the ash and sludge that came down the Water Canyon, and 3) emergency rehabilitation. Emergency rehabilitation includes phase one for the next two to three months to prevent floods and mitigate the consequences of any flooding. LANL is about 95 percent done with everything in this phase. A second project is the slope treatments. That work is now complete. A third project has been the removal of the low-level contaminated sediments, both in Los Alamos Canyon and Mortandad Canyon. Those projects are now complete.

Two ongoing major projects are 1) the protection of various utilities including telephone poles, gas lines, sampling wells or other utility-related items and 2) decommissioning and removal of material associated with TA-2, the old Omega West reactor in Los Alamos Canyon.

Mr. McAtee described the third project with the potential release sites. The first piece of this project was those potential release sites that had the best management practices or the erosion controls damaged by the fire. LANL identified 91 potential release sites that were touched by fire and had their erosion controls damaged. LANL replaced those best management practices and completed this project about a month ago. The second part of this project concerns Potential Release Sites that were not touched by the fire but were downstream or in a location that could be affected by potential runoff or floods. LANL identified 77 sites that deserved further attention and then ultimately 21 sites that needed accelerated actions including getting them out of harms way, or sampling and monitoring. Those actions will be completed by the end of September.

Mr. McAtee described the water sampling program. Los Alamos had four substantial rain events including June 2^nd, June 28^th, July 18^th and July 19^th. Few rainfalls resulted in runoff. About a half dozen rainfalls ran a little bit but not substantially. LANL sampled all events when there was a runoff worth sampling. These samples were collected by using the automated samplers or manually grabbing them. The results are available on the web by going to the LANL home page, then go to organization, then to ESH Division and then ESH-18.

Mr. McAtee explained that LANL sends the samples to an independent analysis laboratory because LANL wants the independence on the results. Those analysis laboratories are overwhelmed and their turn-around time is four to eight weeks. Initially, LANL requested and paid for quick turn-around but the laboratories could not expedite the results. LANL pursued getting additional independent Laboratories. The bottom line is that LANL has not seen anything that causes us any particular concern in terms of the results. The results are available on LANL’s website.

Mr. McAtee added that the air sampling taken during the fire, showed a lot of natural radioactivity that was released as a result of the fire. When LANL did the detailed analysis, the results showed that LANL did not release the radioactivity, it was natural radioactivity. The same thing is happening with the water sampling. An example is the elevated cyanide levels. The cyanide is part of the slurry that the bombers used to extinguish the fire. It came onto LANL’s land and then it was picked it up in the sampling. The levels are not high enough to cause health concerns.

Ms. Manzanares asked about who is removing the extra deposits that are accumulating along the roads. Mr. McAtee explained that Johnson Controls Northern New Mexico is doing this work.

Ms. Manzanares asked about early retirement packages or layoffs that might occur toward the end of this year. Mr. McAtee said that this rumor is not true and that Congress funded LANL for now.

Mr. Bartlitt said he has been involved in environmental activities as a citizen for 30 years. The Emergency Rehabilitation project asked him to help with communications. He hopes to develop a different style and approach to communications. Ms. Manzanares said that she would like to hear more about his thoughts and how the Board can help to push the Lab to be more open, not just in times of emergencies. Ms. Byrne said that Mr. Bartlitt invited a member of this Board to be on his citizens’ communication group.

Ms. Manzanares announced the next Board meeting on September 27^th at Santa Clara Tribal Council Meeting Room.

The minutes are an accurate and complete summary of the matters discussed and conclusions reached at the Northern New Mexico Citizens’ Advisory Board meeting held on August 23, 2000.

Certified by:

______________________________ ________________________

Menice Santistevan Manzanares, Chair Date

Los Alamos Citizens Advisory Board
P.O. Box 1665
Los Alamos, New Mexico 87544
(505) 662-1234  FAX (505) 662-4321
staff@lacab.org