The U.S. Department of Energy’s Environmental Management Los Alamos Field Office recently participated in Los Alamos County’s annual infrastructure and policies tour, which included discussions about the county’s cleanup priorities.
Office of Environmental Management
November 3, 2026
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During Los Alamos County’s annual infrastructure and policies tour, Environmental Management Los Alamos Field Office (EM-LA) Acting Manager Stanley Pyram discusses EM-LA’s role in the legacy cleanup at Technical Area 21 (TA-21), a National Nuclear Security Administration site at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Pyram explains the detailed analysis required at TA-21 to safely address the remaining waste at the site.
LOS ALAMOS, N.M. — The U.S. Department of Energy’s Environmental Management Los Alamos Field Office (EM-LA) recently participated in Los Alamos County’s annual infrastructure and policies tour, which included discussions about the county’s cleanup priorities.
EM-LA and legacy cleanup contractor Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos LLC (N3B) showed the tour group Technical Area 21 (TA-21) near the Los Alamos townsite, and interim measures to reduce or prevent migration of the hexavalent chromium plume in Mortandad Canyon at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Attendees included county elected officials, leadership and staff; New Mexico state Sen. Roberto Gonzales; New Mexico state Rep. Christine Chandler; Eric Chavez, field representative for U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján’s office; the county’s federal lobbyists; and legislative consultants.
Brad Smith, left, president and general manager for legacy cleanup contractor Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos LLC (N3B), talks with tour attendees about the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act corrective action process the Environmental Management Los Alamos Field Office and N3B follow under a consent order between the U.S. Department of Energy and the New Mexico Environment Department. Building 21-257, pictured in background right, is the former Radiological Liquid Waste Facility at Technical Area 21, which will be removed as part of the legacy cleanup.
Philo Shelton, center, manager for Los Alamos County Department of Public Utilities, addresses the tour group during a visit to Mortandad Canyon to see the interim measures for the hexavalent chromium plume at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
TA-21 is a former Manhattan Project and Cold War era complex of 125 buildings that housed plutonium processing facilities and groundbreaking energy, environment and weapons research. Currently, EM-LA and N3B conduct soil, groundwater and vapor sampling and monitoring to protect the public and environment.
In November 2025, the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) directed EM-LA to immediately cease all injection operations associated with the chromium interim measures, which necessitated shutdown of the measures. EM-LA continues to engage with NMED, Los Alamos County, the New Mexico Office of the State Engineer and Pueblo de San Ildefonso to collaborate on a path forward for the interim measures.
Decades ago, workers at a nonnuclear power plant at LANL periodically flushed chromium-contaminated water from the plant’s cooling towers into Sandia Canyon. At the time, potassium dichromate, with active ingredient hexavalent chromium, was commonly used as a corrosion inhibitor. It has not been used at LANL since the 1970s.
-Contributor: Stephanie Gallagher
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