Fire danger: Extreme

Lab Foundation has financial assistance for uninsured Cerro Grande Fire victims

The not-for-profit Los Alamos National Laboratory Foundation has made its fire relief account funds available to uninsured residents who suffered losses in the Cerro Grande fire.

"Over the past three weeks, more than 90 uninsured residents have applied for fire relief through Self Help of Los Alamos. Responding to these needs, the board of directors has designated Los Alamos Fire relief funds to include the uninsured who have sustained fire related loss and damage," said Susan Herrera, the foundation's executive director.

The fund was initially created to provide financial assistance to underinsured residents who sustained catastrophic loss and damage to their home, Herrera explained.

More than 400 Los Alamos families lost their homes in the fire; about 300 were Laboratory employees.

Nicolla Covey of the Laboratory foundation said checks for $500 are available through Self Help of Los Alamos, a United Way agency. Affected residents can call help Self Help of Los Alamos at 662-4666 to make an appointment. The office is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and located at 2390 North Road in the Bethlehem Evangelical Lutheran Church.

Covey said $175,000 has been donated to the foundation's Los Alamos Fire Relief fund. "This generous response has enabled [more than] $80,000 in $500 checks to be handed out to underinsured residents who lost their homes," said Covey.

"The balance of funds donated will be handed out as well to the uninsured who sustained fire-related loss and damage," she said.

The fire relief fund will continue to accept donations until July 31. On Aug. 1, the fund will be turned over to the Interfaith Council of Los Alamos.

The philanthropic entity of the Laboratory established in 1997, has its offices in Santa Fe.

For more information, contact Nicolla Covey of the foundation at 992-0685.

-Steve Sandoval

Construction continues in lower Los Alamos Canyon

Protect Laboratory facilities and infrastructure
Los Alamos and Pueblo Canyons

• Construction continues today on the low-head weir in lower Los Alamos Canyon, near the intersection with State Road 4. Crews continue earth-moving work and the installation of rock gabions (mesh wire baskets filled with large rocks). Corps teams continued surveying Pueblo Canyon today to finalize the location of a weir there. The weirs will be low walls, constructed of rock gabions that will stretch across the canyons and will act to dissipate flow and trap sediment in the event of flooding.
• Another Army Corps team continues work on the Los Alamos Reservoir. Crews continue to install additional articulated concrete mats, concrete blankets designed to reinforce the structure. The mat installation on the upstream slope of the spillway is almost complete and crews are starting today to install on the downstream slope.

Pajarito and Two-Mile Canyons

• Crews from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers continue work on the flood retention structure in Pajarito Canyon, upstream from Technical Area 18 (the Laboratory's criticality facility) and White Rock. Workers with the Corps will be operating 24 hours-a-day, seven days-a-week starting today. Crews have cleared a site for the concrete batch plant on the edge of Pajarito Mesa above the dam site. Today, crews continue to dig the foundation and construct portions of the plant. The batch plant will produce all of the concrete that will be sent down to the site by a conveyor belt. The goal of the concrete structure is to allow a normal flow of runoff down Pajarito Canyon, but prevent significant flooding downstream. The structure is designed so that water will not remain pooled for more than 96 hours.
• Further down Pajarito Canyon (just upstream from TA-18), crews have made additional progress driving steel sheet piles into the ground to build a protective fence around facilities at TA-18. Approximately 66 steel piles ("H" beams) and 115 metal sheets (the sheets of metal connect to the beams to create the barrier) have been installed. The wall is designed to prevent debris from hitting structures at TA-18. Additionally, the crews continue work on the diversion channel at TA-18. Today, crews are building a "trash rack" in the channel to reduce debris flows.
• Laboratory workers today started moving containers of uranium solutions from Kiva One at TA-18. Prior to the moving of materials, Laboratory teams went through a dry-run of the operation with officials from the Los Alamos Area Office of the Department of Energy and reviewed all appropriate safety issues. The containers are being moved to another location at TA-18 to avoid potential impacts from severe flooding in Pajarito Canyon.
• An additional Corps of Engineers crew is doing strengthening work at the intersection of Two-Mile Canyon and the abandoned Anchor Ranch Road land bridge. The land bridge is being strengthened so that it does not wash out during potential flooding. Crews today continue to apply shotcrete, sprayed concrete designed to prevent water from leaking into the soil, to the land bridge.
• Crews are also armoring and strengthening utility poles and lines in Pajarito Canyon.

Minimize movement of contamination off Laboratory property

• Laboratory officials have a schedule (see below) for the placement of erosion control efforts, called Best Management Practices, around known contamination sites, called potential release sites. BMPs include the placing of protective jute matting, rock gabions, log-silt barriers and straw wattles.
• Monday, crews installed BMPs at TA-5, 9 and 15.
• Today, crews continued the removal of shrapnel from some of the firing sites (locations where explosive, non-nuclear tests took place) on Laboratory property. Laboratory officials decided to remove the shrapnel now because the vegetation and brush that used to cover it were destroyed in the fire. The shrapnel is being removed now to take advantage of the unique circumstances and meet the Laboratory's goal of environmental stewardship. Once the shrapnel is removed, it will be analyzed to determine where it should be properly disposed.

Projected BMP Implementation Schedule
The following table shows the number of PRSs, their locations by technical area, start and completion dates for the implementation of BMPs and the number completed:

No. of PRSs	PRS Locations	Start Date	Completion Date	No. of PRSs Completed
10	TA-11	5/21/00	5/24/00	10
29	TA-6, 14, 15, 22, 36, 40, 49	6/14/00	7/15/00	27
34	TA-16, 46, 15 (R-44)	5/29/00	7/15/00	32
18	TA-4, 5, 42, 48	6/27/00	7/15/00	18
Total: 91 PRSs				Total: 87 PRSs

'A exchange of ideas'

Left to right: Sara Martinez-Tucker, left, president and chief executive officer for the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, shares a light moment with Project Management (PM) Division Director Walt Kirchner, center, and Teresa Trujillo, assistant to Joe Salgado, deputy Laboratory director for business administration and outreach. Martinez-Tucker recently visited the Lab to share ideas with the Lab on how the two organizations can work together in getting more Hispanics involved in the sciences. The working lunch, sponsored by PM Division, was attended by Janet Young, chief of staff for Lab Director John Browne; Diversity (DV) Office Director Lisa Gutierrez; Los Alamos National Laboratory Foundation Executive Director Susan Herrera; Floyd Archuleta of the Community Relations Office (CRO); and many others. The HSF is the largest Hispanic scholarship-granting organization in the nation. Founded in 1975, the HSF has awarded more than 40,000 scholarships totaling nearly $48 million. Additional information on the HSF is available online at www.hsf.net. Photo by Ternel Martinez

Street maintenance work at two Lab locations to begin on July 17

Beginning July 17, Johnson Controls Northern New Mexico Roads Section will begin major street maintenance work at two locations in the Laboratory. The first location is Pecos Drive starting at the Pajarito Road and Pecos Drive intersection, going north and east to the west side of the large parking lot that serves buildings 2, 68, 85 and 87 at Technical Area 35.

The second location is the Bikini-Mercury Road west loop in TA-3 from West Jemez Road to Pajarito Road. The work will consist of removing by milling the top 2.5 inches of existing pavement surface and replacing it with a new 2.5 inches bituminous concrete pavement overlay.

JCNNM plans to complete the major work of milling the existing pavement surface after hours from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. during the week of July 17 through 21 in order to minimize the impact on traffic. During the actual milling process, the roads will be reduced to only one lane of traffic alternating in each direction where possible or closed and/or rerouted as required. Short delays at the project locations may be expected. During the regular Laboratory work hours, construction will be limited to minor work with minimal interruption to traffic.

JCNNM would like to complete the repaving phase of the work during the weekends of July 22, 29 and if necessary Aug. 5. The impacts to traffic during repaving will be similar to that described above for milling.

JCNNM will provide traffic control signs, barricades, markers, flagmen, pilot cars, etc., to ensure the safety of the workers, pedestrians and motorists. Motorists are advised to use alternate routes to avoid congestion and possible delays through the construction zones.

For questions or concerns, contact Richard Fox of Utilities and Infrastructure (FWO-UI) at 7-9116 or the JCNNM Roads Section at 7-6111.

Brown Bag Lunch to assist those affected by fire is Thursday The Laboratory's Ombuds Program Office is presenting the third in a series of brown bag lunch sessions to assist those directly or indirectly affected by the fire on Thursday. The meeting is from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the Physics Building Auditorium at Technical Area 3. Each of the brown bags have a specific topic and a subject-matter expert to provide information. The July 13 brown bag will discuss "Insurance Issues." For more information, see Thursday's Daily Newsbulletin. --Judy Goldie

Facility Management Work Control job types and work order types

The implementation of the computerized maintenance management system's tool, PassPort, has garnered a wide spectrum of interpretations of and discussions over the types of work orders in PassPort and the types of work in LIR 230-03-01, Facility Management Work Control.

The Facilities and Waste Operations (FWO) Division has issued a notice to notify CMMS users of changes in the Facility Management Work Control LIR and PassPort that will promote simplicity and consistency in the use of job types and work order types in the work control process.

Additional information is available in the online notice at
http://labreq.lanl.gov/pdfs/ops/alerts/Notice0049.pdf (Adobe Acrobat required).

This 15-speed mountain bike is up for grabs as part of ARAMARK's new monthly prize giveaway. No purchase is necessary and anyone can register multiple times, in either the Otowi, LANSCE or TA-55 cafeterias. The bike is perfect for the rough terrain of Los Alamos. It has a shock-absorbing front-fork, front and rear cantilever brakes and a deluxe frame with a box down tube. The drawing will be held on July 31. Photo by Michael Carlson

ARAMARK to give away a mountain bike

A drawing at the Laboratory will be held July 31 for a 15-speed mountain bike to be given away by ARAMARK Corp. Currently, 1,400 hundred patrons from the Lab's three major cafeterias have registered to win. The last day to enter is July 28.

ARAMRK, the Philadelphia based contractor that provides prepared food to schools, universities, private industries, correctional facilities and federally owned buildings, is giving away a monthly prize as part of an effort to increase customer interest.

ARAMARK's Bruce Reed, director for food services at the Lab, is considering a gas grill for the drawing in August. Each food service director throughout the nation decides what item would be best to give away in his or her area, he noted.

For more information contact ARAMARK at 7-3591.

--Michael Carlson

On today's bulletin board
Commuter's Corner | Parking areas around TA-3 | Parking shuttle routes (pdf) or jpeg
Information Assets Management, Inc. Anthro Corporation will participate in Information Technology Expo Lost: set of house/car keys Found: two black keys Pool memberships available at prorated rates Sportmen's Club hold Co-Ed Introductory Shooting class Federal Business Council host information technology expo on July 26 Found: a set of government keys Found: key in parking lot Training Center to offer "Fast Feedback: The Four Best Practices of Coaching Style Managers" ESH-5 sponsors Ergonomic Expo on July 20 BUS Division host fundraising event today Solder Training Workshop offered July 17 through 20 Found: private Star Tac cell phone Research Library looking for donations of books destroyed by fire Research Library offers electronic access to journals published by IEEE and IEE Fidelity representative will be at the Lab on July 11 through 13	Wellness Center offers Healthy Start class Los Alamos Historical Society needs photos, essays, etc. YMCA hosts ninth annual Pajarito Punishment mountain bicycle race Los Alamos Symphony Orchestra looking for strings, winds and brass players ESH-14 sponsors preparation class for Certified Quality Manager examination 'Project Management Toolbox' scheduled Aug. 1 through 3 Project Recovery assisting foreign nationals Notice issued concerning compression fitting testing and acceptance International English Manual available from CIC-1 Leadership Center to offer 'Orientation to Management' Mesa Public Library sponsors summer reading program TA-53 special program for its fire victims continues North Mesa Riders needs volunteers to help provide horseback-riding therapy to Los Alamos residents Franklin Covey coming in July and Aug.