Jeff Bingaman United States Senator from New Mexico

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman and Representative Tom Udall today wrote to Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman expressing their serious concerns about the Department of Energy's approach to cleaning up contamination at Los Alamos National Laboratory. 

On Tuesday, the DOE's Inspector General released a report title "The Department's Progress in Meeting Los Alamos National Laboratory Consent Order Milestones," which revealed that LANL cleanup is at least a few years behind schedule. 

The IG's report said the legally binding cleanup schedule DOE entered into with the State of New Mexico was based on incomplete information, which would have made meeting the goals difficult if not impossible.  But to compound the problem, the IG's report pointed out, DOE has made no serious attempt to adequately fund cleanup efforts. 

"…It appears that the Department of Energy entered into negotiations with the New Mexico Environmental Department knowing that it was working with grossly inadequate information about the cleanup requirements. The result was an agreement that dramatically underestimated the costs and time requirements for the cleanup of the two areas studied by the IG, and virtually guaranteed the Department would fail to meet the milestones it agreed to fulfill," the lawmakers wrote.

"We find it puzzling that the Department conducted these negotiations woefully uninformed, given that the Department had extensive experience in negotiating cleanup agreements prior to the New Mexico negotiations. This is very troubling, and the Department's subsequent inadequate request for funding continues to be wholly irresponsible," they added.   

They asked the secretary to answer the following questions: 

• Which if any of the milestones are in risk of not being met?
• By what date does the Department expect to meet these individual milestones?
• Beyond the two cleanup activities studied, are there other milestones within the consent order the Department projects not being able to meet?
• What is the additional funding requirement necessary to meet these agreed upon milestones?
• How does the Department expect to fund these shortfalls for FY 08, FY 09, and beyond?

Bingaman and Udall said they look forward to a timely response to their letter.