Minutes

Northern New Mexico Citizens' Advisory Board Meeting Minutes

Sweeney Convention Center

Agenda: Mat Johansen called the meeting to order. At Elmer Torres' request, Hank Daneman acted as Chair until the meeting break after which Elmer Torres' acted as Chair.

The Board approved the agenda as amended. The Board tabled the approval of the March 21, 1998 meeting minutes. Elmer Torres asked that he, Carlotta McInteer and Ann DuBois correct the minutes. Hank Daneman volunteered to ask the members of public who spoke at the March 21 meeting to write their comments so that we could append the comments to the minutes.

Mr. Trujillo referred to the previous Board recommendations. He stated that these recommendations were very important and related directly to environmental restoration issues. Recommendation 96?6 asked that DOE complete the Stockpile Stewardship Environmental Impact Statement before implementing any decisions. Board recommendation 96?8 requested that DOE not produce any plutonium pit until the Board reviewed the Grand Jury report on Rocky Flats and made more recommendations. Mr. Trujillo felt that some parallel situations existed between Rocky Flats and LANL. He referred to Recommendation 97?3 that recommended that DOE institute a surveillance program, including an outside consultant, to provide oversight of waste management activities. Mr. Trujillo cited Recommendation 96?5 that dealt with the lack of a safety culture at LANL. Accidents could endanger the public. He stated that Recommendation 96?4 dealt with how land use could affect the clean up of the land that DOE was considering transferring. Mr. Trujillo gave copies of the recommendations to John Arthur, DOE/AL. He felt that the Board did an honorable job in preparing the recommendations concerning environmental, safety and health issues.

Suggestion(s): Requested that DOE follow up and give a status report on Board recommendations 96-4, 96-5, 96-6, 96-8, and 97-3.

Mr. Aeby was concerned about the loss of continuity between the old and the new Boards. He served on the former Environmental Restoration/Waste Management Committee. Mr. Aeby volunteered to share the reference materials gathered by the committee. Hank Daneman has copies of these materials. George Chandler volunteered to take the materials offered by Mr. Aeby.

Ms. Prince reported that she met with Senator Bingaman. She said that the consensus in Washington was that the old CAB was a renegade group and DOE did not empower the Board to do what needed to be done. Ms. Prince stated her opinion that the old CAB was doing the job that they empowered it to do. She felt that apparently DOE was successful in shutting down the voices of Northern New Mexico. Ms. Prince said that LANL has the highest minority populations in its surrounding communities. The second highest is Savannah River. She referred to the current lawsuit against the Department of Energy. Ms. Prince stated her opinion that DOE and LANL made a serious mistake in summarily dismissing the Board members.

Notice: Mat Johansen stated that DOE wants the Board to be successful in making recommendations related to environmental restoration issues. He clarified that DOE was not saying that the previous recommendations passed by the Board were not valid.

Mat Johansen announced that Tom Todd has now left his position at the Los Alamos Area Office. He is the Facilities Operation Manager at DOE Headquarters. Tom Todd sent a letter to the Board stating his appreciation for the Board's contributions. His temporary replacement is Tyler Przybylek. Mr. Przybylek will be Acting Area Manager for several months while DOE looks for a permanent replacement. Mat Johansen announced a new position for a permanent Deputy Designated Federal Official to work with the Board. This person will move to the Los Alamos area in a month or two.

Mat Johansen announced some public meetings on the Site?wide Environmental Impact Statement. The tentative dates are: June 9 in Los Alamos, June 10 in Santa Fe, and June 24 in Española. DOE invited some Board representatives to an Intersite Workshop on the disposition of nuclear materials and environmental restoration. The League of Women Voters is coordinating the workshop on June 21?23 in San Diego. Mat Johansen said he was looking for additional travel funds for this workshop. The recommended delegation size is one to four Board members. Hank Daneman asked DOE to distribute to the Board the contractors' report on integration in preparation for this meeting.

Report: Mat Johansen introduced John Arthur and George Rael from the DOE Albuquerque Operations Office. John Arthur is the Assistant Manager, Office of Environment/Project Management. He worked with the Formation Committee to create the Board.

John Arthur reported on the Accelerating Cleanup: Paths to Closure Report. DOE recognizes that active programs such as LANL will generate new wastes. LANL will ship Transuranic waste to WIPP or other facilities as soon as possible. Cleanup plans are increasing their momentum but the budgets are going down. DOE wants input from the Board to improve the clean up plans and generate ideas on the scope of what is needed.

Recently, DOE held a "vision" meeting with NMED and LANL about the clean up program. The vision that they developed cooperatively is: "We will complete all environmental restoration and stabilization efforts and ensure long?term maintenance and monitoring programs are in place at all New Mexico DOE facilities by 2006, SNL by 2001 and LANL by 2006. DOE will ship legacy waste, identified for removal, for permanent disposal. Effective waste minimization/pollution prevention programs are in place. These completions are cost?effective, approved, and comply with applicable regulations, ensure acceptable risk, and are implemented in a trust and partnership manner with the regulatory agencies and with public participation for the communities of New Mexico."

1. Cleanup Approaches (i.e., Clean up of Material Disposal Areas and canyons, legacy wastes to be shipped off site, waste minimization activities.) DOE wants to: 1) ensure that the completions are cost effective, 2) the results are at an acceptable risk level for the public and 3) that the activities comply with all regulations and include public participation.

The State has the regulatory authority but DOE needs public participation into these decisions. He urged the Board to make recommendations while the budget is available to implement them. The Stakeholders include: DOE, NMED, LANL, other members of public, special interest groups, EPA, Tribal governments, Los Alamos city/county government, and the Board.

DOE welcomes input on ground water issues, ground water characterization and determining modeling analysis for groundwater monitoring. Future funding will also decrease. DOE recognizes the importance of public participation in decision making.

DOE will continue effective waste minimization programs. The Intersite
Conference will discuss this topic at the June meeting in San Diego.

DOE wants to complete the legacy waste disposal and wants WIPP to open soon. Putting the materials in WIPP is safer than to store them in temporary places. The Board may want to examine the plans to ship waste.

DOE wants Board input into remediation activities for the Material Disposal Areas by 1) determining the nature/extent of the contamination, 2) excavating and disposing of the waste, and 3) designing engineering solutions.

DOE wants Board input on cleanup levels for different areas at LANL. To what levels should DOE remediate depending on the land use? This very much helps DOE have a clearer cleanup target and improve efficiencies.

DOE wants input on the new tools for site characterization, materials disposal and caps, minimization of transuranic wastes, and pollution prevention.

Michael Smith asked John Arthur about the uranium tailings cleanup program. This program was the first public participation effort with the state where citizens gave advice. John Arthur replied that AL Operations transferred oversight from the Department of Defense to the Department of Energy about 75.5 million tons of material. He said that the project had industry input and DOE changed its standard to be like more like industry ? if you make it, you clean up.

Michael Smith asked what was the plan to transfer future waste activities to the operational programs at LANL. Tom Baca responded that this action was part of a "polluter pays" concept and that he wanted to move to zero discharge approach and welcomed Board input into how to accomplish that goal.

Michael Smith asked that when DOE considers the canyons and their wildlife territory habitat that the public participation activities include Los Alamos residents.

The public comments on the draft "Accelerating Cleanup" document are due on May 1. DOE will extend the deadline for Board comment. DOE will look for opportunities for continuing dialogue and input from the Board. Michael Smith said he hoped the Board would comment on this document.

Hank Daneman said that a year ago and again in last August he met with Al Alm, Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management. He requested that DOE distribute his previous comments to all Board members.

Report: Kathy Sanchez reported on progress regarding the bylaws. Kathy Sanchez and Mat Johansen met Saturday, April 25.

Motion: Connie Thompson?Ortega made the motion that to adopt the proposed interim bylaws until the Board can approve a more permanent document.

The Board asked for clarification about the June 16 draft memo from DOE. Hank Daneman claimed that the DOE accepted the bylaws passed by the Board on June 10, 1997. Mat Johansen said that DOE did not accept these bylaws. The Office of Environmental Management Site?Specific Advisory Board Guidance ? Final January 1997 says that Board must develop the bylaws cooperatively with DOE.

Kathy Sanchez said that the interim bylaws document should have come to the bylaws committee before this Board meeting.

Connie Thompson?Ortega gave her opinion that consensus is not working. She suggested that the Board adopt the Interim bylaws which states that recommendations by consensus and the rest of the decisions are by majority vote.

Hank Daneman reported that Tom Todd had two main objections to bylaws as passed by the Board on June 10, 1997. Those areas were: (1) he did not like the co?chair model. He wanted the Board to have a chair and a vice chair arrangement like most of other Boards did and (2) nominations should have DOE involvement and approval.

Mat Johansen said that DOE did not approve the previous bylaws. Tom Todd was not giving his opinion. These comments were based on the Federal Advisory Committee Act, the DOE Advisory Committee Management Program Manuel and the Office of Environmental Management Site?Specific Advisory Board Guidance documents. The bylaws, as passed at the June 10, 1997 meeting, do not agree with the parent documents. The strikeouts in the current draft are where the documents are in conflict. Meanwhile, the DOE Amended Charter for the Environmental Management Site Specific Advisory Boards, the Guidance and the Program Manual can guide the Board. DOE has not reviewed the proposed interim bylaws for compliance with FACA and the other parent documents.

Kathy Sanchez observed that the Board has to decide first if it will decide by consensus or vote.

Ian Aeby observed that the June 10 edition has a section that states that when a conflict exists between the bylaws and other parent documents, the bylaw provision is stricken.

Mat Johansen said that the proposed Interim Bylaws were acceptable on an interim basis, and the draft containing the strikeouts is also acceptable.

Action: The Board voted to accept the proposed Interim Bylaws dated April 27, 1998 by a show of hands: Yes 7, No 3

Hank Daneman said that a majority vote was out of order. Kathy Sanchez and Hank Daneman protested that a vote is not a consensus and the vote is out of order.

Elmer Torres said that the adopted Interim Bylaws will be the operating document for Board decisions until an amended edition of the June 10, 1997, version can be presented to the Board.

Action: Elmer Torres asked for nominations for Chair. Connie Thompson?Ortega nominated George Chandler. Michael Smith nominated Elmer Torres. Hank Daneman nominated Michael Smith and Michael declined. Hank Daneman said that he was elected Chair Pro Tem in July. He would like to share the Chair with Elmer Torres. Hank Daneman suggested that the Board appoint a nominating committee and forward the nominations of Chair and Vice Chair to the Board for a mail ballot. Carlotta McInteer recommended that the Board vote on the Chair and the runner up could be the Vice Chair. Kathy Sanchez nominated Carlotta McInteer. Hank Daneman nominated Chuck Montaño.

Hank Daneman protested the procedure of the elections. The votes for the Chair were: [Note: Eleven voting members present]

Protest 1
Michael Smith 1
George Chandler 5
Abstain 1
Elmer Torres 2
Carlotta McInteer 1

George Chandler was elected as Chair. The Board stated that the term of the officers would be for the remainder of the calendar year.

Catherine Rivera?Lyons nominated Connie Thompson?Ortega. Hank Daneman nominated Chuck Montaño. Michael Smith nominated Catherine Rivera?Lyons. Carlotta McInteer nominated Elmer Torres. The first vote for Vice Chair was:

Protest 1
Elmer Torres 4
Catherine River?Lyons 1
Abstain 1
Connie Thompson?Ortega 4

Elmer Torres 6
Connie Thompson?Ortega 4
[Note: One member did not submit a vote.]

Elmer Torres was elected Vice Chair. Hank Daneman protested this election process.

Agenda: The next meeting will be Thursday, May 28 in Taos. The agenda will be to finish the agenda from the April 28 and the March 21 meetings. Additional items may include a presentation on the Site Wide Environmental Impact Statement and the June trip to the Intersite Workshop in San Diego.

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 April 28, 1998.

Home

Northern New Mexico Citizens Advisory Board
1660 Old Pecos Trail, Ste B
Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505
(800) 218-5942
(505) 989-1662 FAX (505) 989-1752
E-Mail CAB

PDF Version - Click Here
Files are in Adobe Acrobat format
To get a free copy of Acrobat click on the banner below

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