Thursday, April 17, 2003

LANL Installing New Filter To Trap Perchlorate
By Adam Rankin
Journal Staff Writer

A new filtration system is being installed at a waste-water treatment facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory after lab officials measured elevated levels of perchlorate in its effluent over the last several months.

LANL spokesman James Rickman said all discharges from the High Explosives Wastewater Treatment facility at Technical Area 16, or TA-16, will be on hold until the new system is in place and functioning in about two months.

"The bottom line is we are not going to discharge any effluent from that facility until it has been treated for perchlorate," he said. A similar ion-exchange filter was installed last year at LANL's Radioactive Liquid Wastewater Treatment facility at TA-50 to remove perchlorate from its effluent.

"We've had great results at the TA-50 plant with the ion-exchange columns," Rickman said. "They are a real simple process to use and very inexpensive."

The high explosive waste-water treatment facility, which discharges about 25,000 gallons of effluent annually, was built in the lab's southwest corner to remove high explosives from the waste stream, Rickman said.

Before last fall when perchlorate levels increased in the effluent, measurements showed perchlorate at about 10 parts per billion, he said.

No state or federal standards have been established for perchlorate, which is a primary ingredient in solid propellant. The federal Environmental Protection Agency placed perchlorate on the contaminant candidate list and is evaluating health impacts as it considers establishing regulatory limits.

In the interim, EPA has established a draft limit of 1 ppb perchlorate for drinking water.

Rickman said an August reading recorded effluent levels of 40 ppb; a September measurement was also elevated, he said. A late March sample showed perchlorate at 58 ppb, Rickman said.

"That is when the decision was made that we are seeing these elevated levels and we need to do something about it," he said. "Our goal is to not discharge any perchlorate into the environment."

The New Mexico Environment Department also measured the sample and found a level slightly lower than LANL's reading.

Department spokesman Jon Goldstein said the agency is pleased LANL is taking steps to address perchlorate contamination.

"There is still more to be done," he said. "We are going to be going back to do more sampling to make sure this remediation action is going to have results."

Joni Arends, the waste programs director for Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety, said LANL needs to be praised whenever it does something on its own that is good for the environment.

"But we have concerns about the perchlorate in the alluvium in Mortandad Canyon ... and in the regional aquifer," she said. "What about the stuff that is already out in the environment?"

She said measurements show perchlorate in natural springs bubbling along the Rio Grande.

"How are we going to deal with that? How do we catch the stuff before it becomes really expensive?"