PROTECTING COMMUNITY WATERS
PROTECTING COMMUNITY WATERS
Protecting community waters impacted by the Los Alamos National Laboratory
Toxic waste from Los Alamos National Laboratory continues to enter the waters of the Rio Grande watershed—including drinking water shared by tribal communities, Santa Fe, Española Valley, Albuquerque, Los Alamos, and other surrounding communities.
Communities for Clean Water (CCW) works to safeguard clean water in the Rio Grande watershed. Our mission is to ensure that community waters impacted by Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) are kept safe for drinking, agriculture, sacred ceremonies, and a sustainable future.
Who We Are
Communities for Clean Water is a coalition of organizations whose mission is to ensure that community waters impacted by Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) are kept safe for drinking, agriculture, sacred ceremonies, and a sustainable future. Our growing coalition includes Amigos Bravos, Breath of My Heart Birthplace, Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety, Honor Our Pueblo Existence, New Mexico Acequia Association, Partnership for Earth Spirituality, and Tewa Women United.
CCW brings together the vast expertise and commitment of widely respected and well-tested advocacy groups from culturally diverse backgrounds. Collectively, we represent the only community-based coalition in Northern New Mexico that is monitoring toxic threats from LANL and driving public policy changes informed by scientific evidence.
The Problem
Toxic waste from Los Alamos National Laboratory continues to enter the waters of the Rio Grande watershed—including drinking water shared by tribal communities, Santa Fe, Espanola Valley, Albuquerque, Los Alamos, and other surrounding communities.
In the early 1990s, the Department of Energy (DOE) identified over 2,100 unlined dump sites at LANL containing harmful toxins. These toxins readily bind to soil, and each time there is a rainstorm or snowstorm, they are washed into the many canyons on LANL property. From the canyons, the toxins flow into wetlands, streams, rivers, and to groundwater. Fast-moving toxins have reached the Rio Grande in a matter of years, traveling from unlined dumps to springs that flow to the river. When disturbed by stormwater, forest fires, or human activity, toxins are also released into the air and enter the water of downwind and downstream communities.
Image credit: Sacred Trust map by Deborah Reade
What We Do
Communities for Clean Water (CCW) works to safeguard clean water in the Rio Grande watershed. Our mission is to ensure that community waters impacted by Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) are kept safe for drinking, agriculture, sacred ceremonies, and a sustainable future.
We amplify community voices and empower collective action in order to stop LANL’s toxic discharges from polluting the waters of Los Alamos County, tribal communities surrounding LANL,the City of Santa Fe, Santa Fe County, the Espanola Valley, the City of Albuquerque, Bernalillo County, and other downstream communities. As part of our work, CCW also prepares young people to become leaders and champions for clean water.
“All people and our communities are intricately tied to the health of rivers, acequias and other waters. Historical and ongoing activities at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) threaten our cultural, spiritual and ecological survival. It is imperative to ensure the good health of watersheds downstream and downwind from LANL and the good health of the Río Grande and its tributaries to provide safe drinking water, clean water for irrigation and pure natural water for sacred ceremony now and in the future.”
— Communities for Clean Water