Cyanide, other poisons found in Los Alamos storm runoff

Albuquerque Tribune, The (NM)
September 12, 2000

LOS ALAMOS - Radioactive contaminants and other chemicals have been found in storm water running onto Los Alamos National Laboratory property.

Lab officials said Monday they believe the contaminants resulted from the Cerro Grande Fire in May, which burned more than 47,000 acres and left hundreds of residents homeless.

Bruce Gallaher, a hydrologist with the lab's Water Quality and Hydrology Group, said a team of experts will analyze the results to see whether the runoff could pose a health risk to anyone downstream from the lab.

"Initially, I don't think there is a health threat," Gallaher said.

Most likely, the contaminants will be extremely diluted and won't be a health problem, he said.

Lab and state Environment Department officials have been worried for months that flooding in the lab's many canyons after the Cerro Grande Fire could wash contaminants from decades of nuclear weapons work off lab property.

The worst of the contaminated material seems to be coming from the forest above the lab, officials said.

Tests of water samples taken this summer mostly following storms on June 28 and July 9 showed only small levels of contamination that could have come from the lab's weapons work, Gallaher said.

Cyanide was also found in the runoff water in levels five times greater than the New Mexico standard for fishing waters. The state's safe level for cyanide is 22 micrograms per liter of water. Scientists found cyanide levels of 110 micrograms per liter in the Pajarito Canyon.

The lab doesn't use cyanide for its research. Instead, the cyanide could be coming from the residue of fire retardant used to fight the wildfire, Gallaher said. A cyanide compound is added to slurry to protect the tanks, to keep the slurry from hardening and to prevent the bombers from corroding.

The runoff samples also contained amounts of cesium-137, strontium-90 and plutonium greater than prefire levels. Lab officials said the radioactivity likely came from fallout from the 1950s and 1960s because the contaminated water was coming from headwaters above lab canyons in the mountains.