Residents of Santa Fe, New Mexico, less than a half-hour drive from the birthplace of the atomic bomb, are drinking from a water supply containing alarming traces of plutonium, scientists have discovered.
The shocking samples were taken from soil in Los Alamos, just 24 miles from Santa Fe, which has about 90,000 residents.
Experts have since warned that the discovery could mean a rehabilitation project is needed to save the city’s drinking water.
Contaminated soil can be found right at the cusp of Los Alamos, in the area appropriately named Acid Canyon, where radioactive waste seeped into the ground between 1943 and 1964.
“We need to permanently protect the precious and irreplaceable groundwater and the Rio Grande, while providing well-paying cleanup jobs for decades,” said Jay Coghlan, executive director of Nuclear Watch, in an email to Santa Fe New Mexico This past spring.
Residents of Santa Fe, New Mexico (pictured) are drinking from a water supply with alarming traces of plutonium, scientists have discovered
Los Alamos, considered the birthplace of the atomic bomb, remains contaminated by high levels of plutonium, experts warned
Pointing to maps showing contaminated spots across an area of land, Coghlan said there was evidence that a “genuine cleanup” was needed.
While Santa Fe’s water is still safe to drink with its current plutonium levels, Coghlan said radioactive drinking water “should be a major concern for residents of northern New Mexico.”
In Santa Fe County, up to 3 picocuries per liter of plutonium were recorded in the water supply, double the limit set by the New Mexico Administrative Code, the outlet reported.
Nuclear Watch also collected data on underground plutonium contamination between 1992 and 2023 by plotting points on a map.
Huge hot spots have been found in the landfills of a former laboratory used for experiments.
This, of course, occurred at Los Alamos National Laboratory, located just over a mile from the city, and one of 16 research and development sites used and owned by the U.S. Department of Energy.
Soil samples taken from Los Alamos revealed the contaminants, which were also found in the Rio Grande as far away as Cochiti Lake, 30 miles away.
This July 21, 2024 photo shows vegetation in Acid Canyon and lower Los Alamos Canyon near Los Alamos, NM, after being ground up as part of a radiation sampling and testing project.
Contamination of surface waters such as streams and rivers can be traced back to places like the Acid Canyon hiking trail, where the lab dumped waste between 1943 and 1964.
Your past pollution may now be migrating downwards into the area’s invisible underground aquifer, which will likely bring the contaminants through the lands of the Pueblo of San Ildefonso and towards the Rio Grande, Coghlan warned.
The river feeds the Buckman Direct Diversion Project, an integrated infrastructure system used to divert up to 2.8 billion gallons of surface water to Santa Fe annually.
That water makes up nearly half of Santa Fe’s public drinking water supply, which is a cause for concern, Coghlan said.
Over the past 40 years, Santa Fe’s population has nearly doubled to about 90,000, earning it the “boomtown” distinction in a 2019 national survey.
In the years since then, the city has added about 5,000 residents, an increase of about 6 percent, as occupied housing units and per capita income have also grown.
The lake itself is 30 miles west of Santa Fe, which has about 90,000 residents. A cleanup may be necessary to save the city’s drinking water.
News of the Acid Canyon contamination comes nearly 20 years after the Department of Energy and the University of California (the lab’s previous operator) reached an agreement with the New Mexico Environment Department to clean up the contamination.
Decades-long efforts have so far been unsuccessful in remedying the fallout, Nuclear Watch data shows, as NMED seeks a complete cleanup at one of the dumps at a cost of more than $800 million to protect Santa Fe’s drinking water.
As it stands, radiation levels aren’t high enough to harm those hiking the Acid Canyon Trail, but Coghlan pointed out another danger that could occur if a fire were to break out.
“If Acid Canyon were to burn in a wildfire, and we know that threat is very real, that could be dangerous in the form of respirable plutonium that is released into the air through wildfires,” he said.
Coghlan warned that inhaled smoke could cause lung cancer and his concerns were echoed by Northern Arizona University professor emeritus of chemistry and biochemistry Dr. Michael Ketterer.
“I’m just trying to show New Mexicans what the truth is,” he said after collecting and analyzing plutonium samples on the trails of Acid Canyon. “I see a lot of things that concern me.”
Major General Leslie Groves (right), head of the Manhattan Engineering District where the first atomic bomb was developed, and Dr. J.R. Oppenheimer, director of the top-secret project, discussing the secret program that led to the plutonium contamination that is still present at the site today.
“We can’t really predict where it will go or how severe it will be,” he continued, referring to the possibility of a fire creating deadly conditions in the area.
Surrounding communities could also be at risk, including historic Santa Fe, The shocking pollution data prompted Ketterer to question whether official warnings should be posted along the trail.
“I’ve never seen anything like this in the United States,” Ketterer said. “It’s a no-holds-barred zone.”
He went on to compare the radiation levels observed at the popular park to those at the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the Soviet Union.
Above, a bucolic winter image showing Los Alamos, New Mexico, left and center, the Omega Bridge in the middle, and Los Alamos National Laboratories on the right.
This July 22, 2024 image provided by biochemist Michael Ketterer shows vials containing water samples from Acid Canyon in Los Alamos, New Mexico.
“It’s just an extreme example of very high concentrations of plutonium in soils and sediments,” the biochemist said. “It’s hiding in plain sight.”
The biochemist also noted that high concentrations of plutonium in the canyon water posed broader environmental risks to downstream communities and habitats.
‘Under monsoon storm flow conditions, Pu (plutonium)-laden water and sediment flow through Acid Canyon and into Los Alamos Canyon and ultimately into the Rio Grande,’ he said. noted in a presentation for New Mexico Nuclear Watch.
Ketterer noted that radioactive plutonium present in groundwater can also be absorbed by plants, entering the food chain via local plant-eating herbivores, or spread as airborne ash after increasingly common wildfires.
“This is one of the most shocking things I have ever encountered in my life,” the biochemist said recently. The Guardian of the disturbing discovery.
Meanwhile, the cleanup of the lab’s Cold War sites is only half complete, the DOE reports.
If the department’s plans are finalized, all wells and pipelines would be excavated and the radioactive waste would be buried at the Carlsbad Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.