New Mexico and the federal government this week asked a federal magistrate to give them until Oct. 3 to resolve litigation about the 2016 consent order governing legacy nuclear-weapons cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
The Department of Justice, on behalf of the Department of Energy, and the attorney general’s office for New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) filed the joint request Tuesday with U.S. Magistrate Judge John Robbenhaar.
The parties cited progress on “a proposed framework for settlement,” but said NMED managers have been occupied with wildfires. The Tuesday filings included an unsigned one-page draft order for the magistrate to extend the 90-day stay.
The U.S. District Court for New Mexico issued a prior 90-day stay for settlement talks April 5. But in the weeks afterward, a trio of wildfires combined to burn over 500 square miles in-state and required NMED’s Hazardous Waste Bureau management to be “heavily involved in the state’s response,” according to the joint motion.
In particular, the Cerro Pelado fire, which started April 22, came within 3.5 miles of the perimeter of the DOE’s Los Alamos complex at one point, according to the motion. The fire was largely under control and no longer posed a threat to structures as of early June, according to local fire authorities.
“The unanticipated diversion of resources at NMED and DOE due to these wildfires has affected the timing of the technical evaluation in the parties’ settlement discussions,” according to the motion. The parties “believe that their discussions to date have been productive, and that at this stage, continued direct negotiation between them is most likely to lead to progress toward a possible settlement here” on a revised Compliance Order on Consent.
After New Mexico sued DOE seeking to terminate the 2016 consent decree, which replaced a 2005 version, the litigation was removed to federal court in March 2021 and settlement talks got underway in the fall of 2021.
The 2016 consent order was reached with DOE during the administration of New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez (R). The lawsuit was filed by current Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s (D) administration.
