Fines Connected to Both WIPP Incident and Los Alamos Cleanup
Kenneth Fletcher
WC Monitor
12/5/2014
The New Mexico Environment Department is planning in the next 10 days to take enforcement actions against the Department of Energy that could include about $35 million in fines related to cleanup issues at Los Alamos National Laboratory, with a separate major fine in the works for incidents that occurred early this year at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, WC Monitor has learned. The issue of the fines will likely come to a head on Dec. 6 as Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz is set to meet with New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez (R) at the Western Governors’ Association meeting. The state’s actions are expected to come in stages, with the potential for additional fines in subsequent phases in the coming months. NMED this week declined to comment on the potential fines, citing its ongoing investigation. A DOE spokesperson said this week in a statement: “Since no penalties have been issued it would be pre-mature to comment.”
DOE is facing the major penalties from New Mexico after a truck caught fire underground at WIPP in February, and soon after that incident a transuranic waste drum at WIPP that had been processed at Los Alamos was breached and linked to a radiological release. Follow-up investigations found issues with both WIPP’s initial response and LANL’s transuranic waste program, and NMED Secretary Ryan Flynn in September warned that “significant penalties” were coming to the Department of Energy in the wake of the incidents. Additionally, NMED cited LANL in July for treating some WIPP-bound waste without the proper permit—while LANL is allowed to process waste under its permit, it cannot take further steps that would be considered treating the waste. The noncompliances involved adding neutralizers and absorbents to some extremely acidic waste containing nitrate salts, which has been theorized to have contributed to the reaction that led to the WIPP release. LANL has also improperly assigned waste codes to some waste sent to WIPP.
However, the penalties could be linked not only to the events at WIPP, but also to targets and milestones missed with New Mexico’s consent order on the cleanup of Los Alamos, which could lead to penalties of $3,000 per day. DOE and LANL had agreed with the state to remove all 3,706 cubic meters of aboveground transuranic waste at Los Alamos by the end of June. That 2012 deal was part of a framework agreement meant to open up renegotiations of numerous LANL cleanup milestones under a 2005 consent order with New Mexico that had called for legacy cleanup at the lab to be completed by the end of 2015, which DOE has long said it will not be able to meet. The 3,706 campaign effort was proceeding largely ahead of schedule until it hit major roadblocks this year when shipments to WIPP were suspended indefinitely following the radiation release, and NMED subsequently denied DOE extension requests for Los Alamos cleanup milestones.
State Considering Several Options for Levying Penalties
New Mexico is considering several options for how to levy the fines to ensure that they will not have a negative impact on ongoing cleanup work, according to officials familiar with the discussions. NMED could ask for all the fines up front, but another option would involve holding a portion of the fines in abeyance while DOE, LANL and WIPP perform specific corrective actions. A separate option would involve DOE taking on supplemental environmental projects in lieu of fines. In the past, Flynn has also said that it is crucial that the fines will not be taken out of funds for cleanup work at Los Alamos.
