WILL THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO'S ACTION ON WIPP SLOW CLEANUP?
ECA is concerned that the draft permit modification released today by the State of New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) will slow down cleanup in New Mexico and around the country.
Earlier this year, ECA and its members from Los Alamos and Carlsbad, NM met with Secretary Kenny and representatives from Governor Martinez’s office. They identified that if NMED moved forward with this action that it will affect every state and local community that ships waste to WIPP, impact jobs, and possibly slow down the work at both WIPP and other sites around the country.
NMED already amended the permit less than two (2) years ago which addressed the key issues and prioritized legacy waste, while ensuring that WIPP could operate efficiently. The 2024 permit seems to be working well and was touted by NMED as “successful negotiations” (view the NMED presentation here). A "Legacy TRU Waste Disposal Plan” was introduced into the permit to define the term “legacy waste” and to work with generator/storage sites and stakeholders to accurately inventory this waste once it was defined. In addition, Panel 12 will be reserved for legacy waste to the extent practicable.
WIPP is the nation’s only deep geologic repository for defense-related TRU waste, making it the linchpin for all cleanup efforts across the entire EM complex. Its continued operation and accessibility to sites across the nation are critical. The facility’s mission is crucial, its success is a matter of record, and its continued operation – in alignment with the original submission – is essential to our nation’s ability to move forward with cleaning up every site across the complex and fulfilling the legal and moral obligations to the nation’s frontline cleanup communities, including Los Alamos. The WIPP facility has assisted in the remediation of 22 DOE sites of legacy TRU waste since operations began.
It is important to continue and accelerate shipping TRU waste from LANL as well as Idaho, Washington, Nevada, California, Tennessee, South Carolina, Illinois and other sites. Modifications restricting WIPP’s ability to accept shipments from across the EM complex could weaken WIPP’s operations and threaten jobs at WIPP. Reducing shipments to WIPP could have a negative impact on the WIPP facility, potentially impacting the jobs of New Mexicans and disrupting WIPP’s operations, to the detriment of EM sites across the country, and their neighboring communities.
The current permit is new (2024) and adequately addresses the prioritization of legacy waste across the country. It helps to address national environmental cleanup and security concerns. We request that NMED continue to work under the current permit for WIPP.
The draft permit is open for a 45-day public comment period and intends to modify the rates at which Transuranic Radioactive Waste (TRU Waste) across the complex will be accepted at WIPP over the next six years:
January 1, 2027 through December 31, 2031, the Permittees shall emplace legacy waste from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) such that LANL emplaced legacy waste is at least 55% of the total volume of waste emplaced from all generator/storage sites as calculated on a rolling monthly average based on the prior 12 consecutive month.
January 1, 2032, and until all LANL legacy waste has been emplaced at WIPP, the Permittees shall emplace legacy waste from LANL such that LANL emplaced legacy waste is at least 75% of the total volume of waste emplaced from all generator/storage sites as calculated on a rolling monthly average based on the prior 12 consecutive months.
Legacy waste stored above-ground at LANL Material Disposal Area-G shall be shipped and emplaced by July 1, 2028.
If at any point any of the conditions required in this section are not met, all generator/storage site shipments (with the exception of LANL) must cease until all under deliveries are cured.
Public comments can be submitted here, and will be accepted until June 8th, 2026 at 5:00pm MT.