The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant is the United States' first permanent repository for radioactive waste. WIPP contains transuranic waste from atomic bomb-making. ('Transuranic' means heavier than uranium.) The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) predicts that 24,000 truckloads containing 625,000 cubic feet of waste will be deposited in WIPP over the next thirty-five years. Much of this waste is plutonium-laden. Plutonium is often termed the most dangerous substance known to man. Inhaling a miniscule amount of plutonium leads inevitably to lung cancer. Ingesting plutonium can lead to leukemia and other cancers of the bone and bone marrow. This plutonium-laden waste travels from numerous sites through 23 states to reach its destination in SE New Mexico near Carlsbad and Loving NM--not far from Carlsbad Caverns, the region's most famous geological feature.

After eleven other states rejected the WIPP project, in 1978 the old Atomic Energy Commission (precursor to the Department of Energy) made a deal with a failing potash company to buy land and locate WIPP in New Mexico. No geological investigation was held before WIPP was sited. Unfortunately, WIPP is located in one of the world's largest karstlands as evinced by Carlsbad Caverns, 'bottomless lakes', appearing and disappearing rivers such as the Rio Negro, near Loving, sinkholes and many other regional geologic features. Here, streams of water run underground instead of above ground, dissolving the soft rock and old salt deposits as they flow, making the WIPP site an unsuitable location for permanent disposal of radioactive wastes. Independent earth scientists believe that WIPP will contaminate the nearby Pecos River, used for irrigation and drinking water in the arid lands of west Texas and Mexico, down gradient from the repository.

Citizens for Alternatives to Radioactive Dumping (CARD) was founded in 1978 by Hispanic activists and community members from SE New Mexico who were concerned about the threat to their communities' health and welfare. In the 1980's CARD expanded its mission to protecting the people and land of New Mexico from radioactive contamination. In the 1990's CARD became involved with Coalición Binacional contra Tiraderos Tóxicos y Radioactivos, a coalition whose mission encompasses halting the widespread practice of dumping toxic and radioactive waste along the US/Mexico border.

CARD is a mostly volunteer organization that works through committees to accomplish goals agreed upon during its annual retreat. CARD's current projects include research into WIPP's geological instability; a legal suit against the Department of Energy emphasizing its use of false science and concealed science while composing its environmental impact statements concerning WIPP; an education program for fourth through twelfth graders, including a presentation on "The Nuclear Industry in Our World" focusing on New Mexico, and the development of curriculum on radiation and health; an outreach project to share resources with communities in our region dealing with nuclear threats; support of the on-going work of Coalición Binacional; coordination of research and dissemination of information on radioactive contamination at Sandia National Laboratories; and direct action, which is currently focused on human rights and environmental abuses along the US/Mexico border.

This web site is dedicated to the honest earth scientists who worked directly for DOE or Sandia National Labs as employees or contractors on the WIPP site investigation. Eventually, each of these scientist spoke up about the site's instability, after which they were let go, transferred to inappropriate positions, or fired, while their reports were disregarded and at times concealed. Afterwards, they were sometimes harassed or unable to get government-related work. Upon their courage and the courage of others like them is based our best hope for maintaining the tattered and beleaguered fabric of life which we, along with countless others, work so diligently to pass on to the following generations.

Dr. Snow's research was supported by a grant from the Citizens' Monitoring and Technical Assessment Fund.