EPA: Los Alamos County and lab’s stormwater pollution high enough to require a federal permit

Federal regulators determined this week that Los Alamos National Laboratory and the county’s municipal system will require stricter regulation due to high levels of pollution running off during storms tainted waters downstream, including the Rio Grande.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s decision means the county, state and nuclear lab facilities will need a permit that puts limits on the pollution and requires monitoring and reporting.

While environmental advocates praised the EPA’s action, they called the permit an initial step which doesn’t fully address years of contamination of chemicals scientists say cause cancer and other pollution.

The fight to address the pollution has stretched into a decade, and has stakes for surrounding communities, as the Rio Grande below Los Alamos provides nearly half of Santa Fe’s drinking water.

“We are pleased that EPA has responded to our petition and determined that toxic storm water discharges to tributaries to the Rio Grande on the Pajarito Plateau must be more strictly regulated,” Rachel Conn, deputy director for water conservation nonprofit Amigos Bravos, said in a statement.

But while the Rio Grande still has federal protections, the smaller streams receiving pollution are not, Conn said.

“The EPA’s decision is not protecting many of the streams on the Pajarito Plateau, they’re treating them as pipes,” Conn said.

The arroyos where stormwater is flowing into recorded higher levels of pollution, but they have less options for protection by the federal government. The U.S. Supreme Court Sackett v. EPA ruling in 2023 gutted federal protections for an estimated 93% of New Mexico’s rivers and wetlands, when the opinion narrowed the definition of protected waters to exclude many intermittent rivers.

How was the decision made?

Amigos Bravos first filed a petition for the EPA to review stormwater pollution in surrounding water in 2014.

After 10 years of legal back-and-forth, the federal agency determined that pollution captured by county municipal stormwater systems, a Los Alamos storm drain and a New Mexico Department of Transportation drain will now require a federal permit. The stormwater pollution was degrading water quality in the Rio Grande, which has federal protections.

Under the newly required permit, dischargers will have “requirements to reduce pollutants in stormwater discharges to the maximum extent practicable,” the decision stated.

The pollution documented by the EPA included high levels of toxic industrial chemicals, alpha radiation and high levels of aluminum, silver, cyanide, mercury and copper documented in surrounding canyon streams and measured in rivers downstream.

The EPA documented contamination from the toxic, probably cancer-causing chemical Polychlorinated biphenyl – nicknamed PCBs – at levels of more than 150 times the limit to protect human health. Those high levels were found in 98% of the urban stormwater samples flowing off of the Pajarito Plateau to canyon waters.

Past pollution doesn’t incur fines or administrative penalties, Conn said, only future violations of the permit.

A spokesperson for Los Alamos National Laboratory did not issue a statement by deadline.

Los Alamos County spokesperson Julie Willliams-Hill said the county is reviewing the decision and would not be prepared to comment Wednesday.

Looking forward

Amigos Bravos said further work will be needed on two fronts. First, the nonprofit will watch the federal permitting process. Second, Amigos Bravos will join the New Mexico Environment Department’s push for New Mexico control over the state’s surface water quality to better protect the smaller streams.

The Sackett ruling spurred the state to create a program that would govern pollution levels in surface water, which is still years out from being operational.

The New Mexico Environment Department concurred with EPA’s determination, said Drew Goretzka, a spokesperson for the agency, and will focus on state law changes to keep moving forward on a state permitting program.

“NMED is looking forward to passing our Water Quality Act amendments in the upcoming session to support a state-led permitting program for surface waters, giving New Mexicans control of New Mexican waters,” Goretzka said.