- Long-Term Environmental Stewardship & Sustainability Strategy ›
- Clean the Past ›
- Control the Present ›
- Introduction
- Something in the Air? ›
- Protections: Sediment ›
- Protections: Sediment Control = Contaminant Retention
- Tour: Sediment Retention
- Protection #2: Trap and Remove Sediment
- Stormwater Controls
- Stop Contaminant Movement & the Individual Permit
- View of Stormwater Monitoring Sites
- Stormwater Control Structures
- How are the aftereffects of wildfire managed?
- Las Conchas Wildfire
- Stormwater Controls after Wildfire
- Los Alamos Canyon Weir
- 10,000 Willows
- Pueblo Canyon Grade Control Structure
- Early Notification Gages
- Protections: Sampling ›
- Protection #3: Sample and Survey
- Tour: Environmental Monitoring
- Groundwater Monitoring
- How does LANL determine where to put a monitoring well?
- Protection of the Groundwater Resource
- The Location Investigation Process
- The Location Determination Process
- Monitoring Well Placement
- Contaminant Sources
- Groundwater Monitoring Network
- View of Groundwater Monitoring Sites
- Well Placement Decision Process
- Create a Sustainable Future ›
- Multimedia ›
Example Cleanup: Removal of Polychlorinated Biphenyls from Hillside 140
- Two cleanups of radioactive materials were completed in the 1970s and 1980s following the standards of the day. Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were not then regulated.
- In 2008, LANL accelerated the cleanup of PCBs directly south of residences in the town site.
- Project managers had dozens of meetings with residents and took hundreds of samples.
- Workers shoveled, picked, and vacuumed PCB waste from the steep hillside. Rocks that did not fit in the vacuum hoses were zipped on wires to the canyon bottoms. The project removed over 1400 cubic yards of waste.
- Two catchment basins were installed in the canyon bottom above the streambed to catch runoff.
- Water and sediment is sampled periodically for contaminants. If PCB waste is present, it is shipped to licensed disposal facilities.
- Removing the source is one of three defenses in depth: removal of, sampling for, and controlling contaminants.
Vacuuming PCB contamination from Hillside 140
Stormwater catchment basin below Hillside 140
Removing PCB-contaminated dirt with giant vacuums
PCB-contaminated dirt transported by zipline