Testing the waters: Feds stop paying to sample LANL runoff

The Buckman Direct Diversion is now picking up the tab to test drinking water from the Rio Grande after the federal government stopped paying to sample Los Alamos National Lab runoff

By: Alicia Inez Guzmán

Outlets: Source New Mexico

Published: June 12, 2026

Words: 1,668

Last Updated: 3 weeks, 2 days ago

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With every spring snowmelt or heavy summer monsoon comes the chance that radioactive particles and toxic chemicals could run down the lobed canyons that are etched into the sides of the Pajarito Plateau and outside the boundaries of Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Evidence of Cold War experiments have been detected at high levels in these stormwaters, including traces of high explosives, metals and other radioactive particles, which dispersed across multiple watersheds when …

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