Environment Clean-up
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Potential Release Sites & Areas of ConcernOne of LANL's environmental duties is to investigate where hazardous chemical and/or radioactive wastes are present as a result of past LANL operations and to clean up sites where such materials are still found above acceptable levels. These sites, called solid waste management units and areas of concern, are collectively called potential release sites. Contamination originated from septic tanks and lines, chemical storage areas, wastewater outfalls (the area below a pipe that drains wastewater), material disposal areas (landfills), incinerators, firing ranges and their impact areas, surface spills, and electric transformers. Potential release sites are found on mesa tops, in material disposal areas, in canyons, and in a few areas in the Los Alamos townsite. Since 1989, LANL has reduced the number of potential release sites requiring further action from the original total of 2,100 sites by over 40 percent. This has been accomplished by remediating sites that were found to be contaminated; by evaluating sites and confirming that their impact on human health, plants and animals, and the environment is acceptable; and by combining similar sites into units. A small percentage of sites, currently estimated at less than 10 percent, will need to go through the entire corrective action process, a task that is expected to take until 2015 to complete. Data gathered since 1970 in a comprehensive environmental monitoring and surveillance program, designed to identify releases from LANL operations, indicate that no contamination that threatens the health or safety of local residents is known to exist on private property. |
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