Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) developed a draft watershed-management plan that pertains to the 43-mi(sup 2) area within the LANL boundaries. The watershed-management plan was started in 1996 with a number of overall goals: (1) to be a good steward of the natural resources entrusted to the laboratory, (2) to provide long-term evaluation regarding success of the Environmental Restoration Project in acceptably cleaning up sites, (3) compliance with the storm water National Pollution Discharge Elimination System program, and (4) upgrading the LANL environmental surveillance program that has been ongoing since the 1940s. LANL has an extensive network consisting of 53 surface-water-monitoring stations located in every major canyon, upstream and downstream of LANL, and at most confluences. Monitoring of the network has been ongoing for about 20 years. The stations are equipped with ultrasonic transducers that trip automated samplers to collect water samples from every flow event. These data have been reported every year in the report series Environmental Surveillance at Los Alamos, but have not been used to analyze watershed health. The focus of the LANL watershed-management plan is to use water quality data to monitor watershed health and to implement management actions when LANL activities, past or present, adversely impact the health of the watershed.
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