Use the sample message below to send to the Santa Fe County Commissioners
(please also customize & modify if you can):
Dear Santa Fe County Commissioners:
I write to urge you to vote against accepting the amended Joint Powers Agreement for the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities (RCLC).
In 2011 local governments bought into the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities on the premise that it would successfully lobby for mission diversification and accelerated cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). After spending two million taxpayer dollars on itself the Coalition has been a spectacular failure in both.
The opposite of mission diversification has occurred. In 2011 LANL’s nuclear weapons budget was $1.95 billion, 61% of all Lab funding. In 2021 it is $2.9 billion, now 78% of all Lab funding.
The Regional Coalition has stood in the way of accelerated cleanup. The Coalition explicitly supported a 2016 Consent Order governing cleanup at the Lab. The New Mexico Environment Department is so unhappy with that Order that it recently sued DOE to terminate it. Without genuine comprehensive cleanup LANL’s contamination will continue to threaten the regional groundwater aquifer and the Buckman Direct Diversion Project that supplies a substantial part of the County’s drinking water.
The Amended JPA states: “the Parties share a common interest in assuring that LANL’s missions remain sustainable and diversified…” The Department of Energy (DOE) and Los Alamos County have provided 80% of RCLC’s funding. Los Alamos County specifically cites the “interdependent needs of LANL and Los Alamos County.” DOE and Los Alamos County explicitly seek expanded production of plutonium “pit” bomb cores, in which the County of Santa Fe does not share a common interest. Expanded pit production is LANL’s overwhelming growth area (270% increase from $308 million in FY 2020 to $847 million in FY 2021).
Concerning “common interests,” DOE completely ignores Santa Fe County resolutions calling for resolution of nuclear safety problems before expansion of pit production, comprehensive cleanup and a new site-wide environmental impact statement (particularly important for wildfire protection).
RCLC representatives have misleadingly stated that only some $8,000 of taxpayers’ money has been improperly spent. However, an audit by the New Mexico State Auditor found $51,519.45 in improper spending for which no one has been held accountable.
For these reasons and more the County of Santa Fe should leave the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities.
Sincerely,
_________
Email addresses for the Santa Fe County Commissioners are:
athamilton@santafecountynm.gov
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