Land transfer efforts continue with environmental remediation

Contact: John Bass, jbass@lanl.gov, (505) 665-9204 (02-099)

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LOS ALAMOS, N.M., Aug. 28, 2002 -- The investigation and clean-up of Department of Energy-owned parcels of land for transfer to the County of Los Alamos or to the Department of the Interior to be held in trust for the Pueblo of San Ildefonso continues at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Ten parcels of land totaling approximately 4,000 acres are no longer considered necessary to the Laboratory's mission and have been identified for transfer under Public Law 105-119. Early in 2002, these 10 parcels were subdivided into 28 sub-parcels in order to expedite the conveyance and transfer process. The land is to be used by Los Alamos County or San Ildefonso Pueblo for community self-sufficiency, economic diversification or historical, cultural or environmental preservation.

An example of the investigation, cleanup and restoration activities associated with the land transfer process is currently underway at Technical Area–21. Two potential release sites on the north side of DP road are the focus of Voluntary Corrective Actions being conducted by the Laboratory. One site is the footprint of a building that was used as a safety training facility from 1947 to 1949, then converted to a liquid-waste-research laboratory. The other is a concrete drainage structure, or sump, and associated outlet piping that received wastewater from the building from 1947 until the building was removed in 1954.

The team involved in the cleanup includes representatives from the Laboratory's environmental remediation program, and Washington Group International, the subcontractor conducting the fieldwork.

In 2001, the project team sampled the area around the building footprint and sump and approximately 100 ft of outlet line between the sump and DP Road were uncovered, examined, and removed. Subsurface soil samples were collected from the building footprint, sump footprint, and beneath the pipe joints along the outlet line to determine if there had been a release from any of the structures. Boreholes were drilled and sampled beneath and down slope of the sump to confirm that no release had occurred. Following the removal action and site characterization, the sump and outlet line excavations were backfilled and the area was restored to its original condition. Currently, the project team is writing up the results of the investigation and remedial action in a Voluntary Corrective Action (VCA) report to be submitted to the Department of Energy by the end of fiscal year 2002.

Members of the Laboratory's Environmental Remediation Program collaborated with state and federal officials on the best strategy for characterizing and cleaning up land transfer sub-parcels. Based on the results of sampling and removal activities at the two sites, the Laboratory has determined that there is no unacceptable risk associated with this sub-parcel.

Los Alamos National Laboratory is operated by the University of California for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) of the U.S. Department of Energy and works in partnership with NNSA's Sandia and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories to support NNSA in its mission.

Los Alamos enhances global security by ensuring the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile, developing technical solutions to reduce the threat of weapons of mass destruction and solving problems related to energy, environment, infrastructure, health and national security concerns.