Consistency among methods of assessing concerns about the Los Alamos National Laboratory

In making environmental remediation and restoration decisions, risk assessors and managers need to take into account the environmental concerns of people living around an industrial facility, as well as those residing in the general region. Yet such information is usually anecdotal rather than quantitative, and rarely compares perceptions among different alternatives methods. The concerns of individuals living in Santa Fe, NM, near the Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) were characterized. On an open-ended question, the public's greatest concerns were for contamination (35%), ecological health (16%) and human health (14%). When asked to rate their level of concern from a list of possible concerns, people rated accidents/spills and storage of additional nuclear material the highest, and changes in property values the lowest. Unexpectedly, ethnicity, education, and income did not explain variations in ratings for most concerns about LANL. There was generally agreement between the concerns expressed on the ratings and on the open-ended question, although on the latter individuals expressed concern for larger issues, rather than specific issues. Preferences for future land use reflected their concerns for maintaining a safety buffer of an ecosystem around the site.