Steinborn urges feds to sign Los Alamos chromium cleanup deal

State Senator Jeff Steinborn told federal officials on Thursday that the state may pass its own law to force a cleanup of a chromium plume at Los Alamos National Laboratory if current negotiations stall. Steinborn, a Democrat from Las Cruces and chair of the Legislature's Radioactive and Hazardous Materials Committee, held a hearing to review the pace of waste cleanup at the laboratory.

The committee examined a specific environmental issue involving hexavalent chromium. From 1956 to 1972, workers at a gas-fired power plant at the laboratory flushed contaminated water from cooling towers into Sandia Canyon. An underground plume of the pollutant has since migrated to San Ildefonso Pueblo.

Steinborn stated that he believes the United States government, the New Mexico Environment Department, and San Ildefonso Pueblo reached a settlement agreement nine weeks ago. However, he noted the document has not yet been signed. Stanley Pyram, the acting manager of the Department of Energy's Office of Environmental Management Los Alamos Field Office, testified that federal officials will sign off on the agreement.

"Whenever we finally sign it, we're still going to need a technical solution to fix it," Pyram said during his testimony.

Steinborn indicated he is considering a bill that would create a state law mandating the federal government to clean up the plume within a set timeframe. He cited the plume's movement toward the tribe and the exposure risks to surrounding counties and the Rio Grande. "So I would just ask, please, push your people as hard as you can. Let's get that agreement signed," Steinborn said.

Federal officials stated that the chromium plume does not currently pose a danger to public health. The hearing also covered the shipment of legacy transuranic waste. Brad Smith, president and general manager of Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos, told lawmakers that waste shipments increased by 107 percent compared to the previous year. In fiscal year 2026, the company delivered 89 shipments, totaling 403 cubic meters of waste, to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in Carlsbad.

Smith noted that more than 90 percent of the above-ground transuranic waste inventory at Los Alamos has already been shipped. He described the site as safe and stated that his team's safety record is better than the industry average. Steinborn criticized the current presidential administration as anti-safety and anti-environment. Pyram responded by noting that an unsafe site is eventually shut down. Steinborn pointed to several fires at Los Alamos facilities in the past year, stating that a catastrophe may be in the making.

The committee will continue to review the cleanup progress as the parties work toward finalizing the settlement agreement.