New Mexico
Legislature looks to address ramifications of Sackett decision – NM Political Report
Legislation that would help protect waters in New Mexico after a U.S. Supreme Court hearing last year removed federal protections advanced on Thursday. Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling in the Sackett v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency case that officials say place many waters in New Mexico at risk. The ruling resulted […]
Legislation that would help protect waters in New Mexico after a U.S. Supreme Court hearing last year removed federal protections advanced on Thursday.
Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling in the Sackett v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency case that officials say place many waters in New Mexico at risk. The ruling resulted in a loss of protection for most ephemeral waterways.
Now the legislature is considering a bill that would address some of those concerns.
SB 111 passed the Senate Conservation Committee on a 5-3 vote.
The legislation would appropriate $840,000 to the New Mexico Environment Department for additional monitoring and enforcement of existing regulations and also for mapping efforts that will help understand how the Supreme Court decision may impact water in New Mexico.
Rachel Conn with Amigos Bravos said the funding is necessary to support interim protections and said “our waters are at risk now.”
“This special appropriation would give the agency the resources to be able to monitor the impacts from the Sackett decision and to implement existing regulations in the near term,” she said.
She said the Sackett decision left much of New Mexico’s waterways without federal protections.
Conn said that while the New Mexico Water Quality Act gives the state the authority to regulate discharges of pollutants into waterways, the state currently only has a permitting program for groundwater. It is, however, in the process of developing a permitting program for discharges into surface waters.
But the allocation of $840,000 to help NMED protect waters in the state is not without opposition, including from agriculture groups like the New Mexico Farm and Livestock Bureau and the New Mexico Cattle Growers Association.
Abby O’Connor, a Stanley resident, spoke on behalf of the cattlegrowers.
“New Mexico farmers and ranchers provide our state and nation in the world with healthy, wholesome and nutritious products,” she said. “We rely on food and water for our families, our livestock and the wildlife that we support. Sustaining and enhancing our waters in the land is a commitment the agriculture producers take seriously. We simply have no choice.”
But she argued that the agricultural producers are faced with burdensome regulations and said they are already “overwhelmed with regulation, permits, paperwork, and remote bureaucrats who don’t understand that we often work multiple jobs from daylight to dusk, not just the nine to five.”
She argued that the legislation would create more bureaucracy and more burdensome regulations.
Meanwhile, the New Mexico Acequia Commission supports the legislation. Ralph Vigil, a farmer and chairman of the acequia commission, spoke about the continued acid drainage from mines in the Pecos River watershed that impacts both surface and groundwater quality. He said that while the mining occurred nearly a century ago, it still impacts people.
“This uncertainty from the Sackett decision leaves our communities at risk for contamination of water. And I’m just concerned about what can come out of this, for the future of our children and the quality of water that they will inherit from us,” he said.
Also on Thursday, the House Agriculture, Acequias and Water Resources Committee discussed two bills related to water and passed one of those two bills.
The first, HB 201, provides an extra $150 million to address water projects in New Mexico. According to the fiscal impact report, this would help bridge an approximate $161 million funding gap.
“If this is the year that we’re going to have a $10.8 billion budget, it’s probably the time to get started on these water projects that have been vetted, approved. They’re shovel ready. They’re ready to go. And so that’s what this bill is really about,” said bill sponsor Rep. Susan Herrera, D-Embudo.
The committee also discussed HB 211, Water Project Prioritization, however the members chose to delay the vote on that legislation for a future meeting.
SANTA FE, N.M. – Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham asked Attorney General Raúl Torrez to investigate whether any Drug Enforcement Administration agents broke state law when pills reached New Mexico streets.
In a statement, Lujan Grisham said, “make no mistake: the DEA knew people would die if these pills made it into New Mexico communities.”
The governor also shared a timeline from 2022 to 2025 that she said shows when she asked federal officials for help with New Mexico’s fentanyl crisis and violent crime.
Lujan Grisham said the first request came on June 21, 2022, when she wrote to then-Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Christopher Wray and asked for 50 additional federal agents.
She said she wrote to then-Attorney General Merrick Garland on Sept. 15, 2022, asking for more agents, resources and support for New Mexico law enforcement.
Lujan Grisham said she wrote Garland a second time on Aug. 8, 2023, with the same request.
What came next?
About a month later, Lujan Grisham said she sent Garland a third letter and said New Mexico needed more federal law enforcement to curb violent crime, drug trafficking and human trafficking.
She said her most recent request came on Sept. 4, 2025, when she wrote to former Attorney General Pam Bondi and again asked for additional agents and resources.
The governor’s statement says those requests span several years as she pressed the federal government for more help in New Mexico.
Full statement from Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham:
“I am appalled by reporting this week by the Associated Press and Albuquerque Journal that revealed federal authorities made a deliberate decision to let hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills flood into New Mexico communities, despite knowing that fentanyl is so lethal the White House has designated it a weapon of mass destruction.
Let me say that again: the Drug Enforcement Administration watched as 74,000 fentanyl pills were delivered to a mobile home park in Albuquerque, and they did nothing. And that’s just one transaction. Shockingly, the federal government stood by while monitoring shipments, tallying exact pill counts, and watching as these deadly drugs hit the streets.
There are no words to describe how reckless and dangerous these decisions were. Make no mistake: the DEA knew people would die if these pills made it into New Mexico communities, and the agency let it happen anyway. The result: hundreds of New Mexican parents burying their kids. Hundreds of New Mexican kids growing up without stable parents. All while the federal government stood by.
If the justification for letting these pills flood our communities was that it would somehow make New Mexico safer down the road through bigger eventual busts, the results say otherwise. New Mexico now leads the nation in the increase in overdose deaths for the second straight year, despite deaths dropping nationwide.
Today, I wrote to Attorney General Raúl Torrez and asked him to investigate whether any federal agents broke state law when they allowed lethal drugs to remain on our streets, and to prosecute anyone responsible — regardless of whether they are a federal agent or not.
I have spent years working across two administrations — writing letters, traveling to Washington, meeting directly with President Joe Biden and his cabinet, pushing for accountability, asking for more federal agents to be deployed to New Mexico to help fight this crisis.
- On June 21, 2022, I wrote to FBI Director Christopher Wray, imploring the FBI to assign no less than 50 additional agents to New Mexico to stem escalating drug trafficking and violent crime.
- On September 15, 2022, I wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland, requesting that the Department of Justice provide additional federal agents, resources and support to New Mexico law enforcement. We asked the department to match the level of investigative, analytical, and technical resources the FBI had deployed in its Buffalo, NY surge.
- On August 8, 2023, I wrote again to Attorney General Garland, renewing my request that the DOJ expeditiously assign more federal agents to New Mexico.
- On September 7, 2023, I wrote to Attorney General Garland for a third time, reiterating my request once more federal law enforcement support to curb violent crime, drug and human trafficking.
- On September 4, 2025, I wrote to Attorney General Pam Bondi, once again requesting additional agents and resources.
I have declared the surge of drugs like fentanyl to be a public health emergency. I have deployed the National Guard to both Albuquerque and Española. While my administration was doing everything we could to stem the tide of fentanyl coming into our state, the federal government deliberately allowed it to flood in.
New Mexican lives are not the federal government’s cost of doing business.
I plan to hold the federal government accountable for this disaster and will explore every possible avenue of action against the federal government to right these wrongs.”
The Canyon Venado Fire has grown to 852 acres east of Clines Corners and crews say wind farms in the area are threatened.
CLINES CORNERS, N.M. – The Canyon Venado Fire has grown to 852 acres east of Clines Corners and crews say wind farms in the area are threatened.
The fire is burning just east of Clines Corners, south of Interstate 40.
It forced the closure of eastbound Interstate 40 at Clines Corners on Tuesday night. I-40 reopened Tuesday night. I-40 is back open but smoke still affects visibility.
“We’re on the side of I-40 so drivers have to be pretty cautious. As far as our establishment itself we’re pretty isolated by the freeway itself as a nice fire break,” said Lincoln Tarantino, Clines Corner general manager.
The fire has burned around 852 acres, up from just 20 at this time Monday.
Crews say the fire is not contained and wind farms in the area are threatened.
New Mexico
Feds allowed millions of fentanyl pills to ‘walk’ on New Mexico streets: DEA Whistleblower
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