New Mexico and the Department of Energy this week asked for 90 more days, until Oct. 10, to continue monthslong negotiations about new cleanup rules for the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
In a joint status report filed Tuesday with U.S. Magistrate Judge John Robbenhaar in New Mexico, DOE and the New Mexico Environment Department, said they are still going through the time-consuming process of making “redline” edits to revisions the 2016 Compliance Order on Consent.
The parties have been in court about changes to the order since 2021 and began settlement negotiations in late spring.
Since receiving the 75-page the redline in early May, DOE “has been diligently reviewing that document and is preparing a detailed response” to the state, according to the joint filing.
“The parties believe that continued direct negotiation is most likely to lead to progress toward a possible settlement,” according to the filing. “They would like to continue to focus on direct negotiations, which they believe is the most efficient and productive use of the Court’s and the parties’ resources.”
The filing included a draft order for Robbenhaar to consider, and a final version with the magistrate judge’s signature was posted late Tuesday.
On May 8, NMED sent Energy a redline draft of proposed revisions to the 2016 consent order that was negotiated between DOE and the state during the administration of then-Gov. Susana Martinez (R).
The 2016 version, which replaced an earlier agreement on Los Alamos legacy remediation, lacked enough hard deadlines and regulatory teeth to satisfy NMED under Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) and the state sued DOE in September 2021 in an effort to bring the feds to the table.
The New Mexico U.S. District Court has stayed the litigation several times to enable negotiations to continue.
