'White Rock Y' parking area open again

Contact: James Rickman, elvis@lanl.gov, (505) 665-9203

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LOS ALAMOS, N.M., July 9, 2001 -- The "White Rock Y" parking area -- which closed in March to allow researchers to construct a water-monitoring station -- is open again.

The paved parking area, near the junction of N.M. 4 and N.M. 502, is near a flood mitigation device -- called a low-head weir -- that was constructed after the May 2000 Cerro Grande Fire.

Researchers with the Laboratory's Earth and Environmental Sciences Division, Environment, Safety and Health Division, and the Environmental Restoration Project constructed three specialized boreholes that will allow them to monitor shallow bodies of groundwater that lie beneath the canyon bottom upstream of the weir. By sampling shallow groundwater in the area, the researchers will be able to assess whether the accumulation of water behind the weir enhances downward transport of contaminants from historical Laboratory operations.

"Monitoring the effects of runoff in the wake of the Cerro Grande Fire is an important issue for the Laboratory and for the public, so we know that many people supported our efforts to construct this monitoring station," said William Stone, technical leader of the White Rock Y borehole project. "We know that closing the parking area during the drilling process created some inconveniences for people, so I want to thank everyone for their patience and cooperation while the construction was going on."

Now that the monitoring station is complete, researchers will collect samples from it periodically. By analyzing the samples, the scientists will gain a better understanding of the relationship between surface runoff and intermediate-depth groundwater. Such data could be valuable to the Laboratory's ER Project, which engages in activities to clean up legacy contamination or stop it from potentially migrating.

The station is located inside a fenced area at the northeast end of the parking lot. Because scientists must routinely have access to the station, the area directly in front of the fenced area is designated as a no-parking zone. Stone urges parking lot users to keep the area in front of the fence free of vehicles.

Los Alamos National Laboratory is operated by the University of California for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration.

Additional news releases from the Environment, Safety and Health (ESH) Division