CCNS Update

Roger Kent Snodgrass passed peacefully in his sleep very early on Saturday,

July 18th with his partner, Myra, at his side.

Roger was a great friend and colleague of CCNS. We met Roger when he was a

reporter, then assistant editor and finally the editor of the Los Alamos Monitor. We had

mutual respect for the work we each did to inform the public about Los Alamos National

Laboratory (LANL) operations and impacts on communities, land based peoples, and

the environment.

On Sunday, July 19th, the Secretary of the New Mexico Environment

Department, James C. Kenney, was the keynote speaker at the 81st Anniversary of the

Trinity Atomic Bomb Test in central New Mexico. The event took place at the St.

Michael’s High School in Santa Fe.

There are two opportunities to commemorate historic events in New Mexico this

weekend. On Saturday, July 18 th , the Commemoration of the Church Rock Uranium Mill

Tailings Spill begins at 6 am, and on Sunday, July 19 th , the Commemoration of the

Trinity Test begins at 2 pm. Details included.

On Monday, July 6 th , a South Carolina Environmental Law Project lawyer made a

needed request for three Department of Energy and National Nuclear Security

Administration (DOE/NNSA) documents that should have been available at the start of

the current public comment period for the draft Plutonium Pit Production Programmatic

Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS). Public comments about the draft PEIS are

due to DOE/NNSA on or before Thursday, July 16 th .

Mark your calendar for some important upcoming events: the PEIS comments

are due on Thursday, July 16 th , then on Saturday, July 18 th , the Commemoration of the

Church Rock Uranium Mill Tailings Spill, and on Sunday, July 19 th , the Commemoration

of the Trinity Test. Details for each of these follows.

By June 22 nd , hundreds of New Mexicans submitted comments in support of the

New Mexico Environment Department’s strong stand to protect the People of New

Mexico by requiring Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) to remove plutonium-

contaminated waste “Off the Hill.”

The New Mexico Environment Department has taken a strong stand to protect

the People of New Mexico by requiring Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) to

remove plutonium-contaminated waste “Off the Hill.” On April 23rd, the Environment

Department released an essential modification to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP)

Permit requring the cleanup of legacy waste stored at LANL in fabric tents on top of the

mesa near the community of White Rock. The proposed modification also requires the

disposal of legacy waste at WIPP, a nuclear bomb dump located east of Carlsbad, New

Mexico.

On Monday, May 8th, 2026, at a press conference in front of La Cieneguilla

Petroglyphs, U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich, Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Energy

and Natural Resources Committee and co-founder of the U.S. Senate Stewardship

Caucus, and U.S. Representative Teresa Leger Fernández, Ranking Member of the

U.S. House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs, unveiled

their Caja del Rio Protection Act legislation to permanently protect the Caja del Rio

Plateau.

Dr. Ghassan Shahrour, a medical doctor and human rights advocate, considers

the need to choose limits over expansion of new weapons systems and provides

historical examples.

On April 23rd, the New Mexico Environment Department issued an important

permit modification to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in order to speed up

cleanup of Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and focus on the disposal of legacy

waste at WIPP. The draft Hazardous Waste Act permit modification proposes to require

a minimum percentage of legacy waste shipments from LANL to WIPP during specific

timeframes beginning soon on January 1, 2027.