New Mexico
New Mexico gets $18.9 million to clean up ‘forever chemicals’ in state’s water systems
Study finds ‘forever chemicals’ increase risk of thyroid cancer
New research shows a link between PFAS, or forever chemicals, and increased risk for thyroid cancer.
Scripps News
Toxic “forever chemicals” present in New Mexico’s water supplies could be cleaned up thanks to millions of dollars in federal funds offered to the state as it grapples with industrial contamination.
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are synthetic chemicals resulting from several industrial practices like manufacturing and recently linked to oil and gas production in New Mexico. The chemicals do not break down in the environment, and are believed the cause of several health impacts including cancer from long-term exposure. Because of nationwide contamination and exposure, PFAS are found in the blood of most people, read an EPA report.
The New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) petitioned the federal government in 2021 to designate PFAS as hazardous material and strengthen state oversight on their use and remediation, in response to contamination found around the state’s Air Force bases and believed leeched into groundwater from firefighting foam. To that end, the U.S. Environment Protection Agency (EPA) announced May 23 it would provide $18.9 million to New Mexico to fund efforts analyzing the extent of PFAS contamination, and other “emerging contaminants” in the state while identifying strategies to protect ground and surface water sources.
The program will focus on “disadvantaged communities,” read a news release, and was developed via the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act signed by President Joe Biden in November 2021.
More: ‘Forever chemicals’ found in Pecos River – What does that mean for your health?
Using the funds, NMED will conduct a series of public water sampling for PFAS throughout New Mexico over about two years, evaluating which communities are the most in need of assistance. NMED said it also planned public outreach in those communities where it finds the worst contamination to aid in clean up strategies.
The funds are available for five years, the EPA said, and will help devise a plan to identify PFAS contamination sites in public water systems, removing the substances and educating communities before implementing its plans for remediation.
“Clean, safe drinking water is something every person in New Mexico deserves,” said EPA Regional Administrator Earthea Nance, in a statement. “With this funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the New Mexico Environment Department will be able to take crucial steps to safeguard New Mexico’s drinking water from PFAS and other emerging contaminants.”
U.S. Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM) who participated in a ceremony at the Roundhouse in Santa Fe celebrating the funds May 23, said cleaning up PFAS contamination in New Mexico and across the U.S. should be a priority of the federal government.
“Combating per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as forever chemicals or PFAS, in our public water systems is essential to provide safe water for communities in New Mexico,” Stansbury said in a statement. “New Mexicans know water is life, and they also know the state’s Democratic leaders are dedicated to cleaning the water supply for generations to come.”
U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) said the federal dollars would augment ongoing efforts at the state level to investigate PFAS contamination and hold polluters accountable.
“Contamination and pollution from forever chemicals like PFAS threaten clean drinking water supplies that New Mexico communities depend upon,” he said.
“I am proud to welcome $18.9 million that we secured through the Infrastructure Law to ramp up New Mexico’s urgent efforts to detect pollution and protect our precious water resources from PFAS and other emerging contaminants.”
More: New Mexico called on to ban ‘forever chemicals’ in oil and gas, as feds push restrictions
In the 2021 petition, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham called on the EPA to strengthen its PFAS restrictions, leading to a Feb. 1 proposal from the agency to list the contaminants federally as hazardous waste. This allowed the State and federal agencies more authority in restricting the release of PFAS into local water supplies and requiring clean up by entities responsible. These federal regulations came amid calls from environmental groups to see PFAS banned from fluids used in hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking” used by oil and gas operators to reach underground shale deposits containing fossil fuels.
The presence of PFAS in oil and gas drilling operations was suggested in a 2023 study by Physicians for Social Responsibility. The report showed since 2013 two chemicals categorized as PFAS were found in fracking operations, along with three categories of chemicals that could be PFAS but were shrouded by “trade secrets,” said the study’s lead author Dustin Horwitt, upon releasing the study on April 11, 2023.
The use of PFAS in fracking was refuted by Missi Currier, president of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association in a column published in the Carlsbad Current-Argus on May 3. She responded to an April 10 study by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) that found PFAS in all rivers in New Mexico, including the Pecos River in the southeast Permian Basin region.
The USGS study indicated the contamination was slightly higher in sample wells conducted in the southern portion of the Pecos, after flowing through urban areas and the Permian Basin oilfields.
Currier contended the contaminants were introduced into the Pecos River before it reached the oil and gas region.
“Concerns that the oil and gas industry introduces per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances – or PFAS – into its produced water are unwarranted,” she wrote. “To be clear, the oil and gas industry is not a source of PFAS in produced water.”
Adrian Hedden can be reached at 575-628-5516, achedden@currentargus.com or @AdrianHedden on the social media platform X.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Country Music Hall of Fame inductee Tanya Tucker will perform at the 2026 New Mexico State Fair, officials announced Tuesday.
Tucker will take to the stage Friday, Sept. 18, after the Chevron PRCA rodeo. The Grammy Award-winning icon has racked up 10 No. 1 country hits since her first hit, “Delta Dawn,” at age 13.
“We couldn’t be more thrilled to bring the legendary Tanya Tucker to the New Mexico State Fair,” said Dan Mourning, general manager of the New Mexico State Fair. “Tanya is one of the greatest icons in country music history and is the perfect fit for the Fair.”
Tucker has 23 Top-40 albums and 56 Top 40 singles on the Billboard country music charts. She has won two Country Music Association awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, three CMT Awards and two Grammys for Best Country Album and Best Country Song.
Tickets are set to go on sale on Friday at 10 a.m.
Here is the full 2026 New Mexico State Fair rodeo-concert lineup:
Friday, Sept. 11
Turnpike Troubadours with Chevron PRCA Xtreme Bulls
Saturday, Sept. 12
Ian Munsick with Chevron PRCA Xtreme Bulls
Wednesday, Sept. 16
Chevron PRCA Standalone Rodeo
Thursday, Sept. 17
Everclear with Chevron PRCA Rodeo
Friday, Sept. 18
Tanya Tucker with Chevron PRCA Rodeo
Saturday, Sept. 19
The Warning with Chevron PRCA Rodeo
Sunday, Sept. 20
Chevron PRCA Rodeo – Matinee
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — State investigators began searching a secluded ranch in New Mexico on Monday where financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein once entertained guests amid allegations that the property may have been used for sexual abuse and sex trafficking of young women.
The office of state Attorney General Raúl Torrez announced that the search was being done with the cooperation of the current ranch owners.
Torrez last month reopened an investigation of the ranch. New Mexico’s initial case was closed in 2019 at the request of federal prosecutors in New York, and state prosecutors say now that “revelations outlined in the previously sealed FBI files warrant further examination.”
Epstein purchased the sprawling Zorro Ranch in Stanley, New Mexico, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Santa Fe, in 1993 from former Democratic Gov. Bruce King and built a hilltop mansion with a private runway.
The property was sold by Epstein’s estate in 2023 — with proceeds going toward creditors — to the family of Don Huffines, a candidate in Texas for state comptroller who won the Republican primary last week.
“The New Mexico Department of Justice appreciates the cooperation of the current property owners,” the agency said in a statement. Prosecutors “will continue to keep the public appropriately informed, support the survivors, and follow the facts wherever they lead.”
Additionally, New Mexico state legislators have established a new commission to look into past activities at the ranch.
Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan jail while awaiting trial in 2019 on charges that he sexually abused and trafficked dozens of underage girls.
Epstein never faced charges in New Mexico, but the state attorney general’s office in 2019 confirmed that it had interviewed possible victims who visited Epstein’s ranch.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
It is the 110th anniversary of Mexican revolutionary Gen. Francisco “Pancho” Villa’s attack on Columbus, New Mexico, on March 9, 1916.
The “Battle of Columbus,” as the raid is also known, was a pivotal moment in U.S.-Mexico border history and the first foreign ground invasion of the continental U.S. since 1812.
Camp Furlong Day
Pancho Villa State Park will commemorate the history surrounding Pancho Villa’s 1916 raid on the Village of Columbus on Saturday, March 14, during its Camp Furlong Day activities.
The annual event offers visitors an opportunity to explore the site where U.S. and Mexican history collided, shaping military strategy, border relations and life in southern New Mexico for generations.
Park visitors can participate in ranger-led tours and view exhibits highlighting Camp Furlong’s role during the Villa Raid.
Special guest presentations:
- At 10 a.m., historian Glenn Minuth will present, “The Importance of Cootes Hill on the Raid on Columbus.”
- At 1 p.m., Minuth returns with, “Mexican Death Train: The Santa Ysabel Massacre.”
- At 2 p.m., historian Mike Anderson will present, “Tracks Through History: The Story of the El Paso and Southwestern Railroad.”
The Cabalgata Fiesta de Amistad includes the Memorial Ride from the border into Columbus, recognized as Luna County’s longest horse parade. Festivities continue in the downtown plaza with mariachis, folklorico dancers, and community gatherings honoring the shared cultural history of the border region.
Pancho Villa State Park is located at 228 W. Highway 9 in Columbus, New Mexico, approximately 30 miles south of Deming via Highway 11 or 70 miles west of Santa Teresa via Highway 9.
All activities are free and open to the public. Visitors are encouraged to arrive early. For details, visit www.emnrd.nm.gov/spd/find-a-park/pancho-villa-state-park/ or call 575-531-2711.
Pancho Villa’s raid on Columbus, New Mexico
Here is an article by Chris Roberts that originally ran in the El Paso Times on Nov. 7, 2010.
COLUMBUS, N.M. — A moonless night of mayhem in 1916 that left hundreds of Mexican revolutionaries and a smaller number of U.S. cavalry soldiers and civilians dead opened wounds that still haunt this small border town nearly a century later.
Francisco “Pancho” Villa’s raid on Columbus began just after 4 a.m. on March 9. It was the last major invasion of the continental United States by a foreign armed force, according to New Mexico state historians.
Eight U.S. soldiers were killed in the fight and another died later of his injuries. Ten Columbus residents and one Mexican national died. Villa lost nearly 200 men, and about 75 more were killed as soldiers chased them back over the border immediately after the raid.
“It was kind of a rag-tag army, if you want to call it an army,” said Richard Dean, a Columbus historian whose great-grandfather was killed in the raid. “Many of them were peons. He could have wiped Columbus off the map in 30 minutes if he had an army.”
A hotel was torched by the Villistas, which turned out to be a significant tactical blunder. The fire spread to a grocery store and two smaller buildings. The town was looted.
In response, U.S. officials formed the “Punitive Expedition,” which was headed by then-Brig. Gen. John “Black Jack” Pershing. Pershing’s mission was to enter Mexico; hunt down the raiders, particularly Villa; and bring them back to face trial.
Columbus’ economic losses from the raid were quickly offset as thousands of soldiers arrived for the expedition, which ended on Feb. 5, 1917. The garrison was not abandoned until 1924.
The expedition allowed the U.S. military to test its newfangled mechanized vehicles in battle conditions just before the nation entered World War I. That included Curtiss JN-3 “Jenny” biplanes, four-wheel drive trucks, Dodge touring cars and Harley-Davidson motorcycles.
“The first batch (of eight Jennys) were out of commission in the first month,” said John Read, a heritage educator at Pancho Villa State Park in Columbus. “One was brought down by a dust devil.”
Expedition soldiers faced harsh conditions in the Chihuahuan desert — dehydrated by day and frozen at night. Most infantry soldiers wore canvas and glass goggles to protect their eyes.
“The dust down there was just horrendous,” Dean said.
Soldiers went as far as Parral, Mexico, but never found Villa. In the immediate aftermath of the raid, 14 wounded Villistas were captured, Dean said, with only six surviving. Five were hanged in Deming a few months after the raid. One received executive clemency, escaping the hangman’s noose with a life sentence.
Accounts of the raid have been numerous and often conflicting. And the perceptions of Villa run from national hero to terrorist, depending on who is speaking.
What follows is a re-creation of the raid drawn from historical reference works with heavy reliance on the Army’s staff ride, a teaching tool based largely on reports from the time. Other sources include interviews with Columbus historians, relatives of people involved, articles from the El Paso Times and other publications, and a New Mexico park service movie capturing oral histories from some who were there at an early age.
Trouble brews
In early 1916, Columbus was a growing town of about 400 residents. It had a school with 12 grades, three hotels, a bank, two mercantile stores, a grocery store, two drugstores, a hardware store, two churches, a lumberyard, a blacksmith shop and restaurants.
The modern age had arrived, represented by a Ford automobile dealership and a Coca-Cola bottling plant.
With revolution raging to the south, rumors of attack had become common. Townspeople prepared by conducting drills, finding the shortest route from home to the town’s more substantial brick and adobe buildings where family members could find a measure of safety.
The U.S. government, taking defensive measures, had established military camps along the Southwest border.
In Columbus, Army tents for enlisted soldiers in the 13th Cavalry were lined up across the railroad tracks from the town’s southern border. Col. Herbert J. Slocum, who lived in Columbus with most of the officers, had about 350 soldiers in camp.
Slocum was prevented from sending soldiers into Mexico by presidential policy. So, he and his soldiers scoured newspapers, questioned travelers from Mexico, pumped Mexican border guards and even paid a Mexican cowboy to find Villa’s force and report its location. Unfortunately for Slocum, most of his intelligence indicated Villa was moving away from Columbus.
In fact, Villa had targeted the town.
Villa’s motives are not entirely clear. However, historians agree that a number of factors likely contributed to his resolve.
President Woodrow Wilson had allowed Villa rival Venustiano Carranza to use U.S. railroads for troop transport. Carranza’s forces had traveled through Columbus into Arizona and on to Agua Prieta, Mexico, to hand Villa a significant defeat — one of many he was suffering at the time.
“It was a huge blow to his ego,” Dean said.
Some historians believe Villa was trying to provoke war between Carranza’s Mexico and the United States.
Villa felt he had protected U.S. residents and businesses in northern Mexico and saw Wilson’s move as a betrayal. And, after the mounting losses, Villa was reportedly low on provisions — weapons, ammunition, horses, food and other supplies.
Personal revenge may even have played a role. Sam Ravel, who owned a hotel and a general store in Columbus, allegedly accepted money from a Villa agent in 1913 for arms and ammunition. When Wilson banned the sale of those items to Mexican nationals, according to some accounts, Ravel kept the money without supplying the merchandise.
Whatever his motivation, Villa sent two spies to walk the streets of Columbus the day before the raid. They informed Villa his army would face only about 30 to 50 soldiers.
“Pancho Villa would never have done this if he had the correct intelligence,” Dean said.
The attack begins
Under clear skies, the Mexican soldiers prepared to attack. A sliver of moon set just after 11 p.m. on March 8, leaving only faint starlight to illuminate the desert landscape.
Reports vary as to whether Villa himself crossed into the United States, but most accounts put him at a staging area a little more than a mile southwest of town.
On horseback, nearly 500 Villistas approached the town from the west, north and south in a pincer movement.
At about 4:15 a.m., 1st Lt. John P. Lucas, who lived on the southwest side of town, heard the beat of horse hooves through his open window.
“I looked out, and although the night was very dark, I saw a man wearing a black sombrero riding towards camp,” Lucas reported. “From the sounds I heard, it seemed to me that he had quite a few companions and that my house was completely surrounded.”
Pvt. Fred Griffin, guarding regimental headquarters a stone’s throw from Lucas’ house, had spotted the raiders and called for them to halt. They shot him in the stomach. Griffin killed his assailant and two others. That commotion drew the Mexican soldiers away from Lucas’ house.
“I … have always felt that I owed him a great debt of gratitude,” Lucas wrote. “Unfortunately, he was killed.”
Officer of the day Lt. James P. Castleman, at his post as the staff duty officer, heard the gunshots and grabbed his pistol. As he wheeled around the corner of the duty shack, he collided with a Villista. Castleman fired first and killed the raider.
A barrage of gunfire erupted.
The main Villista attack moved into the center of town. Another wave hit the Army barracks and stables to the south. The rest attacked through residences and businesses on the north end of town.
At the barracks, Sgt. Michael Fody rounded up about 25 troopers armed with Springfield rifles. Castleman arrived and took command.
“On account of the darkness it was impossible to distinguish anyone, and for a moment I was under the impression that we were being fired upon by some of our own regiment,” Fody wrote. “The feeling was indescribable and when I heard Mexican voices opposite us, you can imagine my relief.”
Castleman directed his troops to the southeast side of Columbus and set up a firing line pointed back through the center of town.
Meanwhile, Lucas, with two of his gunners, broke into the locked weapons shed and armed themselves with 1916 Benet-Mercie “machine rifles.”
Lucas set up the guns at strategic locations on the south side of Columbus, firing northwest, also into the center of town. The two-man guns were unreliable and jammed at first.
Lucas and Castleman had set up a crossfire that raked the downtown area. By starlight, however, they could barely see.
The Villistas were all over the town, looting stores and looking for Ravel, whom Villa believed had cheated him. Ravel was in El Paso recovering from dental surgery.
Unable to find Ravel at his store, the Villistas went to a hotel he owned just north of Lucas’ gun emplacements. They killed some of its occupants and set it on fire. The fire spread to three other buildings, which illuminated the Villistas’ movements. The soldiers now were firing with deadly accuracy. For more than two hours, the fight continued until the Villistas began a retreat as the sun began to glow in the east.
Trish Long may be reached at tlong@elpasotimes.com.
3 Top Texas Longhorn Recruiting Targets Were Blown Away By Their Visits to Austin
What to know about the Alabama man granted clemency two days before his execution
Alaska High School Girls Basketball 2026 ASAA State Championship Brackets – March 10
WATCH: How Helping One Woman provides hope and support with ‘Girl’s Night Out’
Congressional subcommittee to hold hearing in Little Rock on ‘failures’ of local housing authority | Arkansas Democrat Gazette
Florida High School Football Rankings: Top 25 teams – Oct. 21
Cleary's 21 help Le Moyne down Central Connecticut State 69-64 in OT
How old is Bo Nix? What to know about Oregon quarterback ahead of 2024 NFL Draft
99th annual Pony Swim held in Virginia
Indiana Members Credit Union announced as new anchor tenant at Bottleworks District
Map: 2.3-Magnitude Earthquake Reported North of New York City
Trump stirs GOP primary drama with visit to Massie’s Kentucky home turf
Israeli air strike targets building in south Lebanon
Ed Martin, outspoken Justice Department lawyer, is formally accused of ethical violations | CNN Politics
Trump reveals top issues GOP should focus on to secure midterms victory: ‘I’ve never been more confident’
-
Wisconsin1 week agoSetting sail on iceboats across a frozen lake in Wisconsin
-
Massachusetts1 week agoMassachusetts man awaits word from family in Iran after attacks
-
Maryland1 week agoAM showers Sunday in Maryland
-
Pennsylvania5 days agoPa. man found guilty of raping teen girl who he took to Mexico
-
Florida1 week agoFlorida man rescued after being stuck in shoulder-deep mud for days
-
Detroit, MI5 days agoU.S. Postal Service could run out of money within a year
-
Miami, FL6 days agoCity of Miami celebrates reopening of Flagler Street as part of beautification project
-
Sports6 days agoKeith Olbermann under fire for calling Lou Holtz a ‘scumbag’ after legendary coach’s death