Natural Resources Trustee outlines PFAS, LANL and mining claims; committee moves LFC recommendation with staff follow‑up

The Appropriations & Finance subcommittee heard an extended briefing from Maggie Hartstevens, New Mexico’s Natural Resources Trustee, on the office’s assessment and restoration work, including ongoing claims and multiyear damage assessments for Los Alamos National Laboratory, PFAS contamination and legacy mining in the Grants Mining District. The committee moved the LFC recommendation for the office’s FY26 budget.

Hartstevens described the office’s two funds under the Natural Resources Trustee Fund: an assessment fund used to develop and pursue claims and a restoration fund restricted to restoration projects funded by settlements. “The polluter pays,” Hartstevens said, summarizing the trustee’s guiding principle while outlining why damage assessments are costly and multiyear. She listed active and anticipated assessments including Los Alamos National Laboratory contamination, the White Sands test facility, Grants mining district work and PFAS cases; she also described $13 million from the Gold King Mine settlement allocated to restoration projects.

Why it matters: Assessments and restoration work can involve technical studies, legal fees and long timelines. Hartstevens told members that the office’s special appropriation request — reported in the presentation as $10,470,000 — combines general fund authority and fund balance use to support ongoing and anticipated assessments. She emphasized that assessment work often requires sustained funding to pursue claims against well‑resourced defendants.

Committee members asked how prior settlements were allocated. Representative Chatfield asked specifically about a PCB claim settled previously by the attorney general; Hartstevens said that because that claim was not brought by the trustee the settlement did not flow into the trustee fund and she did not have specific knowledge of how the resulting dollars were spent. The committee asked staff to follow up and provide details on settlement landing spots and any legislative appropriations tied to them.

Action: The committee moved the LFC recommendation for the Office of the Natural Resources Trustee; the motion passed with a recorded opposition noted on the transcript (Representative Pettigrew registered a “no” on the motion). The committee also directed staff to provide additional detail on prior settlements and how funds were allocated so the subcommittee can consider appropriate follow‑up.

Hartstevens described restoration projects funded from the Gold King Mine settlement and emphasized outreach to affected communities and tribal governments. She described urgent issues around groundwater contamination and PFAS release, including recent sampling results at Holloman Lake that identified high PFAS concentrations in wildlife tissue, and said the trustee participates in the state’s litigation against PFAS releasers.