The
media and the public expressed concerns regarding the possibility
that the Cerro Grande fire or post-fire runoff could have
released contamination from Lab soils associated with historical
waste sites dating back to the Manhattan Project. Cleanup
of these sites is the responsibility of the Lab's Environmental
Restoration Project. As ongoing environmental monitoring information
is assessed, LANL will provide updates to the community about
historical contamination issues and their relationship, if
any, to the effects of the Cerro Grande fire.
AIRNET
is the Laboratory's air sampling network in Los Alamos and
surrounding counties designed to measure levels of airborne
radionuclides (plutonium, tritium, and uranium) that may be
emitted from Laboratory operations. AIRNET operated during
the fire; an analyses of the radioactive air quality impacts
of the fire are presented at this site.
NEWNET
Neighborhood Environmental Watch Network is a system to monitor
gamma radiation levels at the Laboratory and in surrounding
communities in near real-time.
Multi-Agency Volunteer
Task Force. After the fire local residents from a variety
of agencies and the public provided an outpouring of public
support that was unprecedented in the history of U.S. wildland
fire recovery. The Volunteer Task Force evolved to coordinate
these volunteer efforts. Current participants include Los
Alamos County, U.S. Geological Survey, USDA Forest Service,
National Park Service, industry and community members. The
Natural Resource Conservation Service and Los Alamos National
Laboratory played significant roles in the early stages. Initially
focused on managing up to five-hundred volunteers that turned
out on weekends to implement watershed protection measures,
the Task Force soon branched out into other areas of local
interest. Three interrelated components soon emerged: 1) Education
and public information; 2) Trails, infrastructure, reforestation
and restoration projects; and 3) Resource inventory and monitoring.
Volunteer work is ongoing, and linkages with other federal,
state, and local agencies and with citizen groups and individuals
are continually being forged.
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