Lapsed federal funds threaten monitoring at NM's national labs
Rick Shean, who leads the Environmental Protection Division for the New Mexico Environment Department, pictured above testifying before the Radiation and Hazardous Waste interim committee on Aug. 21, 2023. (Danielle Prokop / Source New Mexico)
According to New Mexico officials, for the last three years, the National Nuclear Security Administration has failed to pay its share toward monitoring the environment around federal installations in the state.
Unless the federal government makes up that funding, Source has learned, independent monitoring of air, water and ecology around Los Alamos and Sandia National Labs could stop at the end of the month.
'My concern is that the state of New Mexico and our citizens will not have an independent review of the impacts the labs are having,' New Mexico Environment Department Resource Protection Division Director Rick Shean told Source NM. 'Without this funding, going forward we're not going to be able to sample and monitor the environment for ourselves in order to ensure that the data that they're collecting is true.'
NMED has operated water, air and environmental monitoring projects at LANL and Sandia since 1990, and later included the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad.
'We're verifying they're not impacting the environment and public health around their facilities,' Shean said. The bureau does not regulate the sites but does release data to the public on its findings.
The work is funded by a U.S. Department of Energy grant, which was developed as part of an agreement between the state and federal government.
Previously, one office in the Department of Energy paid for the grant funding the oversight bureau at NMED. In recent reshuffling at the federal level, the National Nuclear Security Administration was assigned to foot part of the bill. Currently, NMED's Department of Energy Oversight Bureau has 16 employees and a budget of $4.3 million. The NNSA has failed to pay its share for the past three years, Shean said. For this year, that amounts to a $750,000 gap, approximately 17% of the budget for the state oversight program.
Without the funding, NMED would have to stop the current monitoring work at the national laboratories on May 30, Shean said. WIPP monitoring would still continue.
Compounding the missing funding, Shean says new federal projects are putting more strain on existing employees. For instance, Shean noted LANL's new plan to start venting pent up barrels of tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen, possibly in June, which would increase the monitoring workload for the oversight bureau.
Shean said he received assurances on May 9 after a meeting with NNSA officials, that federal funds would be available by May 16.
In an emailed statement, the NNSA said it issued a partial payment to NMED, but did not disclose the amount.
'NNSA will continue to incrementally fund its portion of the funds for the remainder of FY 2025,' the statement said. The statement concluded by saying the agency would pay NMED by the close of the fiscal year. It's unclear if that indicates the federal fiscal year (in September) or New Mexico's fiscal year, which ends in June.
NMED spokesperson Drew Goretzka confirmed to Source NM that NNSA sent a partial payment to the agency but said the NNSA statement to Source does not reflect previous commitments the federal government made. Source has a pending request for more specifics on the amount of the payment that was made.
'That timeline does not line up with what they presented to us in meetings in which they are going to deliver the funds by this Friday, May 16,' Goretzka said in a phone call. 'We're still under the impression they'll deliver the funds by then.'
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