Officials debate hazardous materials

With the possibility that chemical pollutants are still spreading in soil near Cannon Air Force Base and the prospect of trainloads of spent nuclear fuel stopping in Clovis, New Mexico State Sen. Jeff Steinborn, D-Las Cruces, thought Clovis should host a meeting of the Legislature's radioactive and hazardous materials committee, which he chairs.

The committee met at the ClovisCivicCenter on Friday, with members of the committee joined by state Sen. Pat Woods, R- Broadview, and state Rep. Martin Zamora, R- Clovis.

"Clovis stands on the edge of some major environmental and economic issues," Steinborn said as he introduced the committee session.

PFAS, Cannon and agriculture

Art Schaap, owner of the former Highland Dairy, which adjoins Cannon Air Force Base, recounted to the committee how finding per- and polyfluoroalkyl chemicals (PFAS) in the dairy's water supply drove his dairy out of business in 2018 and required him to kill about 2,000 head of cattle, about half of his beef and dairy herd.

"My farm is now a hazardous waste site," he said.

He is keeping the dead cattle on his land, he said, to avoid further contamination.

Schaap also recounted how the U.S. Air Force and federal Department of Defense have avoided dealing with the issue.

"I don't know how long the PFAS was in the ground or what else might be in the water," Schaap said.

Steinborn said he invited Air Force and Defense Department officials to Friday's session, but they declined.

Others who testified echoed Schaap's concerns about what they called "stonewalling" from Air Force and Defense Department officials as they try to find information.

PFAS chemicals are found in fire repression foam used in firefightingexercises at Cannon and other Air Force bases, including Holloman AFB in Alamogordo and Kirtland AFB in Albuquerque.

The prospect of PFAS pollution spreading to other ranches has affected farming and ranching in both Curry and Roosevelt counties, witnesses said.

Traci van der Ploeg, whose family operates a dairy farm and other agricultural businesses in Clovis, said sales of their yogurt products have been reduced dramatially in the Albuquerque market due to concerns about soil and water contamination, even though their own wells have tested negative for PFAS and are located a considerable distance from the base.

"PFAS has affected all of our businesses," she said of all their family businesses.

“Customers in our Albuquerque market are losing trust in our products,” she said, "and we in the dairy industry as a whole pride ourselves on the safety of our products. Between the drought, COVID-19, and supply chain issues, PFAS is just one more nail in our coffin."

She added, "We're all going to have to work together and urge the Department of Defense to come to the table on this."

Ryan Miltner, counsel, Dairy Producers of New Mexico, said, "What we don't understand is the inability of the Defense Department to be transparent on this. I don't see the DoD trying to remove barriers."

Woods pointed out that Clovis and Portales depend on Cannon's contribution to the local economy, but said, "We still need to get answers."

Woods also pointed out that Texas managed to get some action on PFAS and wondered why New Mexico had not.

Zamora said he was "sad the defense department has not moved faster." He said the importance of the issue could be important to the world, since New Mexico beef and dairy products are exported to other nations.

Neither Cannon Air Force Base nor the Defense Department on Monday responded to allegations of stonewalling on PFAS issues.

State Environmental Department Secretary James Kenney, said PFAS chemicals have been identified as harmful in amounts as small as 70 parts per trillion, which he equated to a cup of coffee poured into Lake Mead, the reservoir behind the Hoover Dam.

It does not seem to degrade, he said, making it a "forever chemical."

It can be filtered out of water, he said, but the problem then becomes how to dispose of the filters.

Cholla Khoury, chief deputy attorney general of Civil Affairs, said she and other attorneys in the state attorney general's office have been frustrated in their attempts to give the New Mexico Environment Department a voice in taking on PFAS issues.

The federal courts insisted on including the state's case in "multi-district litigation" on PFAS, which was unacceptable, Khoury said. "We are sovereign," she said.

When the attorney general's office tried to appeal, the case was transferred from the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals to the Fourth Circuit Court, headquartered in South Carolina.

"We are trying very hard to get answers," she said. "We are going to continue to be the squeaky wheel."

Spent fuel rail transport, storage

Steinborn made it clear he opposes a plan to construct and operate an interim storage site for the nation's spent nuclear fuel near Carlsbad, about a dozen miles from the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), which stores highly radioactive wastes that often include highly toxic plutonium and other radioactive elements resulting from nuclear reactions.

That plan, he said, would route all the nation's spent fuel assemblies currently stored close to the power plants where the fuel was used through Clovis and Portales by railroad, since rail is the only way to access the storage site near Carlsbad.

All the spent fuel waste would be routed through Clovis and Portales to get to the site, he said.

That would be two trains a month, each carrying up to 20 300-ton fuel casks, each of which would hold about 100 spent fuel rods.

According to the plan, the fuel would be stored at the interim site until a permanent storage site is approved and prepared.

The favored site for permanent storage, YuccaMountain in the Nevada desert, is still under consideration, even though it was rejected under the Barack Obama administration.

At Friday's hearing Ed Mayer, project director for Holtec International, the firm that seeks to establish the interim storage site, defended the firm's safety record, the safety record of spent nuclear fuel transport, measures taken to assure safe rail transport of fuel casks, the strength of the fuel transportation casks, and the need for the interim facility.

Mayer also said that while he did not know where trains carrying the nuclear waste casks would be routed north of Clovis, he knows that from Clovis south, there is only one rail route, which also passes through Portales, that the waste-hauling trains could use runs from Clovis to Portales, Roswell and Carlsbad.

The trains, he said would be escorted by armed guards. The casks, he noted, have been tested by dropping them 30 feet, attempted puncture, fire of more than 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit, and even being hit by the equivalent of a fighter jet crash.

Steinborn challenged Mayer on the length of time the fuel is likely to be stored at the interim site before a permanent site is developed, or additional interim sites are established. Steinborn said it could take 40 years.

Steinborn also challenged Mayer's claim of a "flawless" safety record, noting that safety complaints had been filed against Holtec. Mayer said all of those complaints were resolved in Holtec's favor.

On the safety of the transport casks, Steinborn observed, "You have tested for all the expected events, but not the unexpected."

Steinborn also asked, "If the casks are so safe, why do you need armed guards?"

"It's a precaution," Mayer responded.

Steinborn asked about the possibility of a terrorist attack and whether the fuel could be enriched.

Mayer said terrorists would have an impossible task to move a 300-ton cask.

Steinborn asked about the economics of the site.

Mayer said storing the spent fuel in a single site would be far more economical than keeping it at 60 to 70 sites as it is now.

After the session, Steinborn said Texas managed to pass a law that would make it illegal to grant a permit for any aspect of nuclear waste storage and said New Mexico should consider a similar law.

Steinborn said the U.S. Department of Energy should issue licenses for nuclear waste storage based on "consent."

"They should find places that would want these facilities," he said, adding that several communities have already shown interest on a Nuclear Regulatory Commission website.

Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP)

While Richard Knerr, manager of the Carlsbad field office of the DOE, defended WIPP's application to develop more space for storing wastes and the facility's safety record others leveled criticism at the WIPP facility, especially Don Hancock, administrator of the nuclear waste program of the Southwest Research and Information Center.

Hancock noted that WIPP was supposed to be a pilot plant operating for a maximum of 25 years, while other similar facilities were constructed. None have been even approved, he said, and WIPP, instead of shutting down, is now applying for the ability to expand to house trans-uranic waste until 2083. He also said the limits of trans-uranic waste at WIPP have been exceeded, according to a National Academy of Sciences report.The research center provides "information to the public on the effects of energy development and resource exploitation on the people and their cultures, lands, water, and air of New Mexico and the Southwest," according to its website.

Knerr said the academy of sciences "tends to estimate high" on levels of radioactivity. Much of the material the academy identified as highly radioactive waste, was really low-level waste.

Also mentioned was a leak of radioactive material to the atmosphere in February 2014 and a three-year closure of WIPP that followed. Knerr said the leak never presented "any challenge outside the facility."

Knerr noted that the leak was of a small amount of powder in a container that had burst open and that the leak was thoroughly contained. The powder, Knerr said, is the safest way to store plutonium waste.

Steinborn said powder is likely the most dangerous, because it could spread if it gets caught in the wind.