Members of Communities for Clean Water
Amigos Bravos has been calling for cleanup of water contamination at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) since 2003. Today, much of our LANL work is done with our partners, Communities for Clean Water. (CCW) Amigos Bravos serves as a backbone organization for Communities for Clean Water (CCW), a coalition of organizations including Honor Our Pueblo Existence (HOPE), the New Mexico Acequia Association, Partnership for Earth Spirituality, Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety and Tewa Women United. CCW’s 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.
Amigos Bravos has been working with our CCW for years to hold Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) accountable for historic and ongoing discharges of toxic pollutants into the waters of the Parjarito Plateau and Upper Rio Grande. Currently, this work is focused on advocating for a strong regulatory oversight of stormwater discharges from over 400 toxic industrial sites at LANL as well as from urban stormwater sources from LANL and Los Alamos County. This work entails engaging in technical meetings and preparing technical comments on draft permits and ensuring regulatory compliance with existing regulations.
In December of 2019, after years of advocacy from Amigos Bravos, the Environmental Protection Agency made a final determination that urban storm water discharges on the Pajarito Plateau needed to be regulated and controlled. Since that EPA determination, Amigos Bravos has been involved in defending this determination against efforts from Los Alamos County to reverse this decision and avoid requirements to clean up their discharges.
On December 9, 2024, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a final designation decision that stormwater discharges from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and Los Alamos County are contributing to violations of water quality standards and that these discharges require a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit under the federal Clean Water Act. The exceedances for some pollutants are tens of thousands of times greater than water quality standards. This action comes as a result of 10 years of advocacy and legal challenges brought by Amigos Bravos, represented by Western Environmental Law Center, to force the agency to address extremely high urban stormwater pollution in Los Alamos County.
“After almost a decade of advocacy we are pleased that EPA has responded to our petition and determined that toxic storm water discharges to tributaries to the Rio Grande on the Pajarito Plateau must be more strictly regulated,” said Rachel Conn, deputy director of Amigos Bravos. EPA has taken an important step in regulating toxic discharges into the Upper Rio Grande which will protect the communities that depend on clean water for drinking, recreation, and ceremonial purposes.”
Conn added, “While we are pleased about the final designation, EPA is limited in what they can do by the 2023 US Supreme Court’s Sackett vs EPA decision which leaves many of the smaller waterways across the state inadequately protected.”
The voice of Amigos Bravos during these technical proceedings is strengthened by our collaborative work with Communities for Clean Water to create a space for community voices and traditional knowledge in technical settings and negotiations. We continue to hold monthly meetings with our partners, submit technical comments on water permits, and present materials at various community events to advocate for strong permitting decisions and close out and closure activities.