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Tainted Los Alamos Soil Dug Up
Tainted Los Alamos Soil Dug Up
LOS ALAMOS, N.M. (AP) - A legacy of the Atomic Age lies in the soil
along a canyon about two miles from a reactor once important in
nuclear weapons research and manufacturing.
Now there's a race against time and weather to ensure the radioactive-
contaminated soil from Los Alamos National Laboratory doesn't flush
onto neighboring Indian lands and into the state's largest river, the
Rio Grande.
Seasonal rains are expected soon and lab officials fear that could
bring heavy flooding because of a fire last month that consumed more
than 48,000 acres in and around Los Alamos.
Workers are digging up truckloads of the dirt along Los Alamos Canyon
and shipping it to a waste storage site on the federal laboratory's
property.
Large swaths of the once-green mountainsides are barren, except for
the blackened remnants of pine trees. There's little or no vegetation
to slow water or stop sediment from pouring into some of the canyons
that lead to the river about 10 miles from the city of Los Alamos.
On Monday, lab officials led a tour of the contamination site and
explained the excavation operation that should be finished late in
the week.
Lee McAtee, the lab's deputy director of environmental safety and
health, said there's no serious health risk from the soil because it
has very low levels of radiation. A frequent hiker to the area, for
example, would receive a radiation dose equal to riding in an
airliner for one hour.
But McAtee said the lab wanted to ease potential concerns of the
public by preventing any contamination from moving off of the
government's property.
``We're doing it because we believe it's the right thing from the
standpoint of being a good neighbor,'' said McAtee.
So far, about 360 cubic yards of soil - 33 dump truck loads - have
been dug from a sandy area alongside a rocky road that leads up the
canyon. Up to twice that much may be removed by the end of the week.
The digging started Friday.
Environmentalists welcomed the lab's effort to stop the spread of
contamination.
``It's a good idea to do cleanup where cleanup is possible,'' said
Greg Mello, director of the anti-nuclear Los Alamos Study Group in
Santa Fe.
Except for the excavation operations - roped-off areas with
radioactivity warning signs - there's nothing to visibly suggest the
place had become a dumping ground for early makers of the atomic
bomb. It looks no different from the high desert canyons all around
Los Alamos. A road leading into the area has a gate that warns of
possible contamination, but there are no markers of specific
contamination sites. The area and road has been open to hikers.
The soil is believed to be contaminated from dumping in the 1940s and
1950s of liquid wastes near a weapons research reactor shut down
seven years ago. Rains have carried contaminated sediment down the
canyon.
Lab officials selected the area for excavation because it contained
among the highest levels of contamination in flood-prone canyons.
Once the soil is removed, clean dirt will be brought to the site and
then rocks will be placed along the meandering channel - now dry -
where water flows when it rains.
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Sandy Perle Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100
Director, Technical Extension 2306
ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Division Fax:(714) 668-3149
ICN Biomedicals, Inc. E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net
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Costa Mesa, CA 92626
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