Fall 1999 Bulletin

An Uneasy Feeling: IFRAT Update

Amigos Bravos has been attending the meetings of IFRAT, the ‘Interagency Flood Risk Assessment Team’ set up last year to address the environmental impacts of the Cerro Grande fire. There were serious concerns that ash from trees burned in the fire would be contaminated with radionuclides, and that the increased runoff and erosion of fire-denuded soils would wash nuclear contaminants into downstream waters such as the Rio Grande. Since then, IFRAT has done some studies and come out with press statements such as "Risks minimal from Cerro Grande flood-carried contaminants." Although we don’t yet have much hard evidence to go on these give the uneasy feeling that the real issues have not yet been addressed – the bureaucrats’ first instinct is to reassure the public rather than admit genuine uncertainties and uncontrollable risks. This is somewhat borne out by the latest meeting, prior to which the outside agencies had been able to get rare access to information about the Los Alamos Lab’s ‘Potential Release Sites’ – the nuclear waste dumps on LANL property of which some 350 burned in the fire. These are areas which could still be vulnerable, despite ‘control measures’, to increased runoff and erosion caused by the fire. IFRAT’s interest and resources seem to be waning just as this risk reaches its height during the summer monsoons. Amigos Bravos will continue to monitor this process carefully.

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