A federal judge in New Mexico has granted an additional 100 days for the Department of Energy and the New Mexico Environment Department to continue settlement talks over a 2016 compliance order on consent that governs legacy nuclear cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
U.S. Magistrate Judge John Robbenhaar granted the request Oct. 3 after the parties sought the extension in a status report filed earlier in the day.
Previously, the parties have been granted 90-day extensions of the stay on the state’s legal challenge to the 2016 order, the sides said in an Oct. 3 status report filed with the U.S. District Court in New Mexico.
But the typical 90-run extension would end Jan. 1, 2023, the parties said. “Given expected unavailability of personnel during the winter holidays, the parties ask for a slightly longer extension this time, to January 11, 2023.”
Bargaining sessions which date to fall 2021 have been productive, the parties said in last week’s status report. The lawyers and technical staff met Sept. 28 and are starting to lay down specific details of potential revisions to the 2016 consent order.
“To that end, the parties plan to exchange conceptual proposals as to potential revisions to the consent order,” according to the Oct. 3 filing. “The parties believe that continued direct negotiation is most likely to lead to progress toward a possible settlement.”
Extensive wildfires across much of the state this spring, including one that came within a few miles of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, tied up DOE and New Mexico Environment Department bosses who otherwise would have been part of the settlement talks, the parties have said.
State environment officials under the administration of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s (D) sued DOE in 2021 over the 2016 order, negotiated under predecessor Gov. Susana Martinez (R). The 2016 order replaced a 2005 version that critics say had more enforcement teeth.
