A mile-long plume of toxic cancer-linked chromium in New Mexico has spread, raising health concerns for tribal community members and questions about water safety.
The underground body of contaminated water, which has existed for decades and is the result of water coolant from a power plant, has now spread onto Pueblo de San Ildefonso – a Native community – for the first time.
Contamination levels of the heavy metal are exceeding state groundwater standards, the New Mexico Environment Department announced, with recent sampling showing levels of hexavalent chromium at 53 to 72.9 micrograms per liter — markedly over the 50 micrograms per liter standard.
Discovered in 2004, the chromium comes from beneath the U.S. Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory, a central site to developing the first atomic bomb in World War II.
For nearly 20 years, from 1956 to 1972, workers flushed contaminated water from its non-nuclear power plant into Sandia Canyon, which borders the 1,900-mile-long Rio Grande River. The chromium was used as a way to prevent pipes from rusting in the plant’s cooling towers.
Since then, state and Energy Department officials have worked to install a network of dozens of wells to determine the extent and nature of the plume, as well as a water treatment system to remove hexavalent chromium from the Sandia Canyon regional aquifer.
"These new results are conclusive evidence that the U.S. Department of Energy's efforts to contain the chromium plume have been inadequate," Director of Compliance and Enforcement Bruce Baizel said in a press release. "While drinking water supplies are safe for now, the Department of Energy must take immediate and definitive actions."
The Department of Energy told The Independent that it agrees with the Environment Department that the plume is not currently near any known public or private drinking water wells and is working with officials, the Office of the State Engineer and Pueblo de San Ildefonso to assess, monitor and remediate the plume.
The Environment Department said there was no “imminent threat to drinking water on Pueblo de San Ildefonso or in Los Alamos County” and that it is working with officials to recommend next steps.
Separately, it said the department is “pursuing civil enforcement actions against the U.S. Department of Energy related to this matter.”
In 2018, a proposal from Los Alamos said it would take around two years to control the plume within the Los Alamos boundary. But a plant to pump and treat the contaminated water and then inject it back into the plume was stopped in 2023, when increases in chromium were discovered in monitoring wells.
An independent review recommended that partial treatment resume, and it did earlier this year.
But that is how it is believed the plume has spread, Environment Department Deputy Cabinet Secretary John Rhoderick told The Independent. He said that the Department of Energy had “ceased injection” following a Tuesday letter from the Environment Department.
Rhoderick said that the solution to the problem still remains the same: pumping and treating. But it needs to be done with strategic locations and much more aggressively.
That’s not something they say they’re seeing from the Department of Energy.
“It has to be much more aggressive. It has to be a dedicated effort. Unfortunately, the Department of Energy has not prioritized this,” he said.
Whatever happens next, Rhoderick said none of the water systems or wells in the surrounding communities of Pueblo de San Ildefonso, Los Alamos and White Rock have seen chromium contamination at this point.
The communities of Los Alamos and White Rock are home to nearly 20,000 people.
The Pueblo de San Ildefonso – known also as “Where the water cuts through” – is a federally recognized tribe that is home to around 750 people and consists of 39,000 acres, with a history dating back to 1300 A.D.
The plume remains around five miles from the neighboring Rio Grande, which also flows across Colorado and Texas and near the Santa Fe National Forest.
"We will be taking all action necessary to ensure cleanup and accountability for this contamination," Pueblo's governor Christopher Moquino said in a statement shared with KOAT 7. "No level of chromium above natural background levels in our water is acceptable to the Pueblo."
Long-term chromium exposure can increase the risk of cancer.
Inhaled hexavalent chromium can result in nose, windpipe and lung cancer, whereas oral exposure via drinking water or food may lead to an increased risk of stomach and digestive cancers, according to the Oregon Health Authority.
The Environmental Protection Agency has a drinking water standard of 0.1 milligrams per liter per billion of total chromium, and all water systems are required to test for total chromium.
Potential implications for the health of the surrounding communities and their inhabitants remain unclear at this point — but New Mexico has a longstanding history of health impacts related to energy practices, including cancer cases tied to uranium mining. These impacts disproportionately affect native communities.
They also suffer frequent drought and water shortages, made worse by human-caused climate change. By the time a Class of 2024 high school graduate reaches retirement age, New Mexico will have 25 percent less water than the state does today, according to Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham.
“Water is so scarce and so precious in our state that to hear that the resource that we need for the future has been contaminated and we’ve known about this contamination for 20 years and it’s still migrating is just unacceptable,” Rachel Conn, Deputy Director of New Mexico water conservation organization Amigos Bravos, told The Independent.
The news comes as the Environment Department and the New Mexico Department of Health warned residents of the northern Mora County about groundwater with high levels of chromium and nine other metals, some of which can damage the kidneys, skin, cardiovascular and nervous systems. The metals were potentially related to firefighting efforts during the 2022 Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak Fire.
Recently, University of New Mexico research found levels of forever chemicals, or PFAS, at Holloman Lake were the highest concentrations recorded anywhere.
“It is almost a nightmare the way things are going and it’s unfortunate,” said Rhoderick. “The really unfortunate piece is the common thread through all of it is it’s related to federal facilities or federal actions.”
