By JENNIFER MCKEE
LOS ALAMOS, N.M., Oct. 27, 2000 (Albuquerque Journal)—Days after government scientists confirmed nuclear waste is trickling into the water supply here, the Los Alamos County Council voted Thursday to acquire the contaminated water system — and buy pollution insurance just in case.
The council voted 5-2, with Councilors James Rickman and Christine Chandler dissenting.
The Department of Energy currently owns the water system, comprising 12 deep wells punched in canyons near town. The county and the department signed an agreement in 1998 that started a three-year process to transfer the water system from the federal to the local government, according to council information.
As part of the deal, the county is leasing and operating the water system for a two-year trial period. If the council decides against keeping the system, the DOE would retain ownership of the system as before. Regardless, the county will operate the system until September of next year.
According to Tim Glasco, the county's deputy utilities manager, who spoke to the council at Thursday's meeting, the county has enjoyed reasonable success in its trial period. Rates have gone down, he said. The county has made improvements to the system, fixing some of the problems resulting from the DOE's longstanding habit of letting repairs slide.
"We're aggressively going out there and doing improvements," he said.
As part of the deal, the department also has agreed to kick in $2.5 million to the county and take some responsibility for sickness and property damage that could result from lab-generated wastes that could be in the water supply.
The county might need the money. State and lab scientists have found several contaminants in both monitoring and drinking water wells in the Los Alamos water system.
According to lab records, high explosives were found in a monitoring well in 1999. Perchlorate, likely derived from acids used in lab research, has been found repeatedly in one particularly troubled production well called Otowi-1. Strontium-90, a radioactive contaminant, was found in the same well this year, along with tritium, another radioactive contaminant. Later testing failed to find any more strontium-90, but lab tests confirmed this week that tritium is definitely leaking into the well, likely left over from decades-old lab discharges in Acid Canyon.
All of the contaminants were found in tiny quantities, most in levels so small testing didn't exist until recently to pick them up at all.
Both state and federal scientists have said, however, that they don't know what else might be in the ground water and won't know until they completely study the situation.
Glasco and other county employees urged the council to take the water system. The contamination isn't going to go away just because the Department of Energy owns the system, Glasco said. This way, the county could call the shots if anything goes wrong.
"This is the water we're going to be drinking," he said. "What we're talking about is the city's place at the table."
Both Rickman and Chandler said they appreciate that argument and believe that Los Alamos must become less dependent upon the DOE.
"I think it is important for us to be a 'normal' community," Chandler said.
But both council dissenters felt the department didn't take enough responsibility for the pollution it may have caused, pollution the county could be stuck with now that it has the water system.
"In a good and just world this wouldn't happen," Rickman said.
But the county isn't taking over the system carte blanche. Should anything go wrong, federal Superfund anti-pollution laws would kick in for cleanup, said Seth Kirshenberg, a Washington, D.C., lawyer who works with communities acquiring mostly defense and nuclear-related federal property.
In addition, the DOE has agreed to the indemnity. And finally, the council voted to buy environmental insurance as part of the vote to acquire the system.
According to Kathy Gettys, a Denver consultant who also spoke to the council Thursday, Los Alamos could buy up to $50 million in "pollution legal liability insurance" for anything from $200,000 to $1.2 million paid out over 10 years, depending on how much insurance the county wants.
There's also a chance, Chandler said, that the DOE will help pay the insurance premiums, although the county hasn't yet brought that up with the lab.
"We're accepting a risk," she said.
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