Who We Are

Background

What We Do

How We Do Our Work

Watershed Approach

Statutory and Regulatory Framework

Structure

The purpose of the Remediation Services's project is to investigate whether hazardous chemical and/or radioactive wastes are present as a result of past LANL operations and to clean up sites where such materials are still found above acceptable levels. These sites, called solid waste management units and areas of concern, are collectively called potential release sites. Site investigations, assessments, and cleanups are known as the corrective action process.

The Remediation Services project originally identified over 2,100 potential release sites at and around the LANL. Contamination originated from septic tanks and lines, chemical storage areas, wastewater outfalls, landfills, incinerators, firing ranges and their impact areas, surface spills, and electric transformers. Potential release sites are found on mesa tops, in canyons, and in the Los Alamos townsite. As a result of the investigations, remediations, and the 1999 and 2000 Annual Unit Audits, LANL has reduced the number of potential release sites requiring further action by over 60%. A small percentage of sites, currently estimated at less than 10 percent, will need to go through the entire corrective action process, a task that is expected to take until 2015 to complete.

Data gathered since 1970 in a comprehensive environmental monitoring and surveillance program, designed to identify releases from LANL operations, indicate that no contamination that threatens the health or safety of local residents is known to exist on private property.