New Mexico and the Department of Energy will get until July 8 to continue settlement talks on revising a 2016 consent order governing legacy waste cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, a federal court said this week.
U.S. Magistrate Judge John Robbenhaar issued a Monday order extending the timeline following the latest joint status report, in which DOE and the New Mexico Environment Department said a deal could be imminent.
The parties have met 20 times since September 2023, according to the court filing. “After their most recent meeting, on April 4, 2024, the parties are optimistic that they will be able to reach an agreement-in-principle on the entire consent order within the next month.”
“Once the parties reach such an agreement, they expect to focus on completing a companion settlement agreement and to expeditiously secure all necessary client approvals to enter into such agreements,” the report filed Monday goes on to say.
Settlement talks have been ongoing for a couple of years and the prior extension in the case was issued Jan. 9. Negotiations slowed in 2022 due to an outbreak of wildfires in New Mexico, which demanded attention of state and DOE officials in the region.
The Environment Department under Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) sued DOE in September 2021 seeking to replace a 2016 consent order reached during the administration of the prior governor, Susana Martinez (R). The current NMED management prefers a Los Alamos cleanup consent order with firmer deadlines, more akin to the one in effect prior to the 2016 version.
The Lujan Grisham administration has said cleanup has moved too slow since the 2016 consent order took effect.
