MON: New Mexico Attorney General Torrez says feds wrongly denied his request for fentanyl records, + More
By KUNM News
August 3, 2026 at 9:07 AM MDT
New Mexico Attorney General Torrez says feds wrongly denied his request for fentanyl records
—Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez on Monday announced that the United States Department of Justice had denied his office’s requests for records relating to allegations that federal drug agents allowed large quantities of fentanyl to enter New Mexico communities without seizing them.
The New Mexico Department of Justice in early July demanded a wide array of records regarding the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s fentanyl investigations between 2022 and 2025. That’s the time period in which a whistleblower alleged in recent media reports that the DEA was regularly allowing shipments of fentanyl to go unseized as agents pursued prosecutions of high-level drug dealers.
The NMDOJ’s formal demand for materials, known as a Touhy request, sought the DEA’s policies, investigative reports, communications between agents and prosecutors, court filings, whistleblower complaints and other records that could shed light on the operations. The five-page letter urged the DEA to provide the records by July 31 in recognition of the “urgency and gravity of this matter.”
However, on July 29, according to a letter the NMDOJ released Monday, the USDOJ and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Mexico denied Torrez’s request. The letter says the NMDOJ failed to identify a federal or state lawsuit related to the records, and inadequately explained the relevance of particular records to its investigation.
The denial letter goes on to say that the USDOJ is willing to consider future requests and also that it takes the New Mexico fentanyl problem seriously.
Torrez, in a response letter Monday to the federal agencies, said no federal regulation exists that requires a lawsuit before federal agencies can fulfill requests like the one his office made for DEA records.
Tessa Duberry, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Mexico, did not immediately respond to Source NM’s emailed request for comment Monday about Torrez’s argument that no regulations prohibit the federal agencies from producing the records.
Torrez’s response letter also elaborates on why each of the records he seeks are relevant to his investigation and issued a new deadline of Aug. 17 by which the DEA must provide them. If the NMDOJ does not hear back by then, Torrez’s office will consider suing the agencies over the records, he wrote.
“The federal government cannot hide behind procedural excuses when New Mexicans deserve answers,” Torrez said in a statement. “Instead of engaging with the merits of our request, the U.S. Attorney’s Office issued a denial that misstates its own regulations and applies legal standards that simply do not exist.”
New Mexico plugs record number of abandoned oil and gas wells, thanks to Biden-era funding
—Joshua Bowling, Source New Mexico
New Mexico environmental officials plugged a record number of abandoned and orphaned oil and gas wells last year, thanks in large part to funding from Biden-era grants, they told a panel of state lawmakers Monday.
Nonetheless, across the state, approximately 1,600 wells remain that are designated for cleanup but have yet to be plugged or fully remediated, EMNRD Deputy Secretary Ben Shelton told lawmakers on the interim Economic and Rural Development and Policy Committee.
In the most recent fiscal year, which concluded in June, EMNRD’s Oil Conservation Division plugged a record 114 wells — a significant increase from its previous annual average of 25-50, Shelton said, largely crediting multimillion-dollar grants from the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
That improved funding stream should help to plug more wells in the coming years, he added.
“They should probably break that record just about every single year for the next few years with the way that the funding is going,” Shelton said.
A 2025 Legislative Finance Committee report found that plugging and cleaning up abandoned wells could cost the state between $700 million and $1.6 billion. Currently authorized clean-up sites will cost the state about $200 million, Shelton said Monday.
Plugging 114 wells last year cost $28.4 million, Shelton said. Going forward, environmental leaders like Shelton hope that a newly approved measure will keep taxpayers from footing as much of the bill as they have in recent years.
The Oil Conservation Commission — a three-member governing body that oversees rulemaking — recently passed new bonding requirements, a term that refers to the minimum amount of money oil and gas operators have to post upfront for cleanup costs.
Historically, the state has only plugged about 5% of abandoned wells that end up plugged and private industry operators have handled the rest. That still costs taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, though. The goal of raising those bonding requirements, Shelton said, is to shield taxpayers from the multimillion-dollar burden of cleaning up these sites.
While conservationists praised the decision to raise the bonding requirement at the time of the vote, some Republican lawmakers Monday scrutinized it.
State Sen. Crystal Brantley (R-Elephant Butte) told Shelton she was concerned the new rules could unnecessarily penalize responsible oil and gas operators.
“I understand that there are bad apples in oil and gas,” she said. “When we raise those bonding minimums so high, who we seem to hurt are New Mexico businesses and New Mexico families…the bigs who are based out of Midland or Dallas or Houston can afford to pay those minimums.”
Shelton told her that the newly approved rules took that concern into account. In particular, oil and gas operators that do not own a high number of non-productive wells can get discounted “blanket bonds,” he said.
“We are talking about a minority of the wells in the state. Mostly the industry is plugging its own wells as it’s supposed to,” he said. “Why does the state tackle orphaned wells? It’s because they are, by definition, wells that do not have a responsible party who you can pursue to get them to clean up. At the end of the day, if you just leave a well, the community is the one that’s going to suffer.”
Four bears killed on Interstate 25 south of Santa Fe
—Santa Fe New Mexican
It’s been a tough summer to be a black bear in New Mexico.
Last week, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported that two adult black bears and two cubs were found dead on Interstate 25 about five miles south of Santa Fe. The bears were found last Wednesday between La Cienega and La Bajada.
A state Department of Wildlife spokesperson told the New Mexican one of the adult bears was found on an overpass with a creek running beneath it, which suggests the animals might have been seeking water.
Those bear deaths followed an incident earlier in July in which a bear climbed an electric utility pole in northeastern New Mexico and was fatally electrocuted. Videos of the incident went viral.
The New Mexican reports there have many bear sightings this summer on the edges of cities and towns. Near Santa Fe, a popular hiking preserve off Canyon Road was closed for a while in July after three bears were spotted in the area.
The Taos News reported in late June, a large black bear spent hours sitting in a tree in downtown Taos. And in Albuquerque, KOAT-TV reported that at a least a dozen bears have been spotted this summer in neighborhoods near the Sandia Mountains.
Despite the start of monsoon season, New Mexico remains in severe drought, causing wildlife to search for water and food outside of their usual habitats.
Hundreds of fish reported dead at Monastery Lake amid heat, drought
—KOAT
Monastery Lake is in Northern New Mexico, situated along the Pecos river, just north of the village of Pecos.
KOAT-TV reports hundreds of fish have died at Monastery Lake in recent weeks. State wildlife officials have linked the deaths to warm water temperatures and low oxygen during the current severe drought.
New Mexico Department of Wildlife staff conducted a site visit to the lake last week and found 120 dead rainbow trout during their observations.
Department officials say that’s not a total count of all the fish that might have died.
Rainbow trout are especially sensitive to elevated water temperatures. Warmer water also holds less dissolved oxygen, making it harder for fish to survive. Staff observed the fish clustered near the lake’s inlet, where cooler and more oxygenated water from the Pecos River flows into Monastery Lake.
'Crazy intense': Secret military exercise in Española took residents by surprise
—Santa Fe New Mexican
In Española, locals have learned the reason for the low-flying helicopters and loud noises that alarmed residents on the night of July 23.
It was a military training exercise. And, because the exercise was secret, people in Espanola had no idea what was going on.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reports that the training exercise surprised and confused people in Espanola, and also in Abiquiu, about 25 miles to the northwest.
Low-flying helicopters were also accompanied by simulated gunfire and flash-bangs. One resident described the scene as “terrifying.”
The New Mexican reports that some city and county officials who agreed to the secret exercise said they would think twice about agreeing to such an exercise in the future.
Rio Arriba County Manager Jeremy Maestas said the event was organized by Miguel Gutierrez. The New Mexican reports that Gutierrez is listed as the director of operations for the defense contractor Asymmetric Solutions, which hosts a military training facility in the region.
New Mexico environment officials propose another delay on heat safety protections for workers – Joshua Bowling, Source New Mexico
The New Mexico Environment Department has proposed delaying the process to create and adopt rules aimed at protecting workers from heat-related illness and injuries to early 2027.
In a recent filing with the state’s Environmental Improvement Board, NMED lawyers wrote that it hasn’t been able to reach consensus on the proposed heat protection standards with the many stakeholders on this issue — including labor organizations, employers and public health advocates — ahead of the current rulemaking hearing, which had been scheduled to begin Sept. 21.
State environment officials first proposed the rulemaking in early 2025 and floated the possibility of requiring employers to provide rest periods, shaded areas and drinking water in hot conditions. Within months, however, the rulemaking was postponed.
Groups representing a number of industries — including livestock, oil and gas and utilities — have pushed back on some of the proposed rule’s requirements.
The latest delay is the fourth since the rulemaking was announced.
Environmental advocates lamented NMED’s latest filing and pointed to the region’s recent bout of triple-digit temperatures as evidence that workers need heat-related protections as soon as possible.
“Regardless of whether a job is in the field or the classroom, heat has the same impacts on the human body. All workers need protections,” Healthy Climate New Mexico Senior Program Consultant Shelley Mann-Lev said in a statement.
The state Environmental Improvement Board is made up of seven members who are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the state Senate. If the rulemaking advances in March, as NMED requested, New Mexico’s next governor will have a chance to install the board overseeing the proceedings.
“As the state moves forward under a new administration, we hope we will see new standards forworker protections adopted,” Conservation Voters New Mexico Chief Operating Officer Molly Taylor wrote in a statement. “Federal worker heat safety standards stalled under Trump. We believe this is an opportunity for New Mexico to lead the nation and show that we can protect our people in the wake of climate change.”
Bernalillo County agrees to pay $2 million to families of first responders killed in helicopter crash – Nakayla McClelland, Albuquerque Journal
Bernalillo County has agreed to pay $2 million to settle two lawsuits filed in state district court by the families of three men who died in a 2022 helicopter crash in northern New Mexico.
The settlement, reached on June 19, according to court records, came nearly four years after the crash that killed Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office Undersheriff Larry Koren, deputy Michael Levison, Lt. Fred Beers and Bernalillo County Fire Rescue Specialist Capt. Matthew King.
The county agreed to pay a lump sum to settle both cases, and the money will be split equally among the plaintiffs.
“I want to go on with my life, so I’m OK with it, but to be honest with you, I wish it was $200 million because maybe they would have changed some of their policies,” said Daniel Levison, father of Michael Levison. “Maybe it would open their eyes to safety issues.”
The lawsuits — one filed by the Levison family and the other by the Beers and King families — alleged that the July 16, 2022, helicopter crash was “entirely preventable” and was the result of poor maintenance.
Additionally, one of the suits states that the county and sheriff’s office knew the Vietnam-era “death trap” Bell UH-1H had numerous engine fatigue cracks before the crash.
“For two years, the Levison family has fought to hold the County accountable for the preventable tragedy that took Michael’s life,” said Elizabeth Harrison, one of the attorneys for the Levison family. “Nothing can ever ease the pain of his loss, but this settlement marks a step toward making the future safer for deputies like him.”
The Beers and King families could not be reached for comment.
Brian Egolf, attorney for the families, said the crash was a serious and tragic accident.
“They perished in a horrible crash,” he said.
In a statement posted on Facebook on the anniversary of the crash, BCSO said July 16 was a date that forever changed the sheriff’s office.
“Today, we remember not only how they died but also how they lived,” BCSO wrote. “Their service, their laughter, their leadership, their friendships, and the impact they left behind still carry through the people who knew them and the agencies they helped shape.”
The crash
The four men were returning home from providing bucket drops on the 75-acre East Mesa Fire when the helicopter crashed 25 miles south of Las Vegas. The helicopter’s engine suddenly lost power roughly 500 to 600 feet in the air and plummeted to the ground.
A report from the National Transportation Safety Board stated that an engine failure ultimately cost the four men their lives. It was later learned that the main generator had been removed.
The low altitude, along with flying into a setting sun, “may have contributed to the unsuccessful autorotation following the total loss of engine power,” according to the report.
Where does the unit stand today?
BCSO’s Metro Air Support Unit — which provided aid in search and rescue operations, helped fight fires and assisted BCSO in arrests — has since gone through drastic changes.
The program initially halted because Koren was the agency’s sole helicopter pilot. BCSO later purchased a new helicopter and relaunched the program in December 2023.
In December 2025, Sheriff John Allen removed Bernalillo County Fire and Rescue from the unit due to a policy that allowed firefighters to smoke marijuana while off-duty.
Allen cited the crash as his main reason to oust the firefighters, stating BCSO “owed it to the families we lost … to rebuild MASU the right way,” according to previous Journal reporting.
The lawsuits filed after the crash made no mention of marijuana usage or impaired flying. Levison’s father said he believed the decision was made due to ongoing issues within the program and not due to the marijuana policy.
“There is so much that they knew on that program that is being swept under the table,” Daniel Levison said. “They had to have a way out to save face, so they blame it on the fire department.”
Federal plan spares New Mexico from mandatory Colorado River water cuts — Karmine Conde, Albuquerque Journal
New Mexico will avoid mandatory water cuts from the Colorado River under a proposal released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
The Albuquerque Journal reports that the proposal exempts New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Wyoming – the four Upper Basin states — from mandatory reductions for the time being.
the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada — could face cuts of up to 3 million acre-feet through 2036. That’s enough water to serve more than 25 million people annually.
The Bureau of Reclamation released its environmental study Friday.
Under the proposed 10-year federal framework, water management decisions would be made every two years to adapt to changing climate conditions.
The Colorado River supplies water to northwestern New Mexico, recharges the aquifer beneath Albuquerque and provides San Juan-Chama Project water imported from the Colorado River Basin into the Rio Grande Basin.
Hearing for Project Jupiter data center’s air quality permit application rescheduled to September 14 — Joshua Bowling, Source New Mexico
A public hearing over whether the New Mexico Environment Department should issue an air quality permit for the controversial Project Jupiter data center is being rescheduled to September 14.
Source New Mexico reports the hearing officer presiding over the matter had previously scheduled the hearing to begin in October. At a scheduling meeting this week, attorneys representing Project Jupiter’s developers requested that the hearing begin earlier.
They argued that the October hearing date would risk giving New Mexico Environment Department staff too little time to make a final decision on whether to issue the permit before their Nov. 23 deadline.
Max Shepherd, the hearing officer, told attorneys gathered at the scheduling hearing that he was not going to reschedule it. He said he would keep the October hearing date and examine his options to push ahead the Nov. 23 deadline.
However, two days later when the state environment department published his written scheduling order on its website, it showed he rescheduled the hearing by more than a month. It is now set to begin Sept. 14 and “continue as necessary” at the Sunland Park Multi-Generational Center.
Feds reinstate $15.4M for Northern NM microgrid projects — Taos News
Kit Carson Electric Co-op has successfully persuaded the federal government to reinstate nearly $16 million in green energy infrastructure and wildfire mitigation grants canceled last year by the U.S. Department of Energy under President Donald Trump.
The Taos News reports the federal government pulled nearly $8 billion in funding from 16 states, including New Mexico, that voted for Democratic candidate Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.
The grants include funding for what’s called microgrid development. That would allow some areas served by Kit Carson Electric Co-op to keep their electrical service even as the electricity is shut off to other areas to mitigate fire risk during events such as wind storms.
The grant money will also assist utilities that partner with Kit Carson, including those serving Picuris Pueblo, Peñasco, El Rito, and Taos Ski Valley.
—Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez on Monday announced that the United States Department of Justice had denied his office’s requests for records relating to allegations that federal drug agents allowed large quantities of fentanyl to enter New Mexico communities without seizing them.
The New Mexico Department of Justice in early July demanded a wide array of records regarding the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s fentanyl investigations between 2022 and 2025. That’s the time period in which a whistleblower alleged in recent media reports that the DEA was regularly allowing shipments of fentanyl to go unseized as agents pursued prosecutions of high-level drug dealers.
The NMDOJ’s formal demand for materials, known as a Touhy request, sought the DEA’s policies, investigative reports, communications between agents and prosecutors, court filings, whistleblower complaints and other records that could shed light on the operations. The five-page letter urged the DEA to provide the records by July 31 in recognition of the “urgency and gravity of this matter.”
However, on July 29, according to a letter the NMDOJ released Monday, the USDOJ and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Mexico denied Torrez’s request. The letter says the NMDOJ failed to identify a federal or state lawsuit related to the records, and inadequately explained the relevance of particular records to its investigation.
The denial letter goes on to say that the USDOJ is willing to consider future requests and also that it takes the New Mexico fentanyl problem seriously.
Torrez, in a response letter Monday to the federal agencies, said no federal regulation exists that requires a lawsuit before federal agencies can fulfill requests like the one his office made for DEA records.
Tessa Duberry, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Mexico, did not immediately respond to Source NM’s emailed request for comment Monday about Torrez’s argument that no regulations prohibit the federal agencies from producing the records.
Torrez’s response letter also elaborates on why each of the records he seeks are relevant to his investigation and issued a new deadline of Aug. 17 by which the DEA must provide them. If the NMDOJ does not hear back by then, Torrez’s office will consider suing the agencies over the records, he wrote.
“The federal government cannot hide behind procedural excuses when New Mexicans deserve answers,” Torrez said in a statement. “Instead of engaging with the merits of our request, the U.S. Attorney’s Office issued a denial that misstates its own regulations and applies legal standards that simply do not exist.”
New Mexico plugs record number of abandoned oil and gas wells, thanks to Biden-era funding
—Joshua Bowling, Source New Mexico
New Mexico environmental officials plugged a record number of abandoned and orphaned oil and gas wells last year, thanks in large part to funding from Biden-era grants, they told a panel of state lawmakers Monday.
Nonetheless, across the state, approximately 1,600 wells remain that are designated for cleanup but have yet to be plugged or fully remediated, EMNRD Deputy Secretary Ben Shelton told lawmakers on the interim Economic and Rural Development and Policy Committee.
In the most recent fiscal year, which concluded in June, EMNRD’s Oil Conservation Division plugged a record 114 wells — a significant increase from its previous annual average of 25-50, Shelton said, largely crediting multimillion-dollar grants from the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
That improved funding stream should help to plug more wells in the coming years, he added.
“They should probably break that record just about every single year for the next few years with the way that the funding is going,” Shelton said.
A 2025 Legislative Finance Committee report found that plugging and cleaning up abandoned wells could cost the state between $700 million and $1.6 billion. Currently authorized clean-up sites will cost the state about $200 million, Shelton said Monday.
Plugging 114 wells last year cost $28.4 million, Shelton said. Going forward, environmental leaders like Shelton hope that a newly approved measure will keep taxpayers from footing as much of the bill as they have in recent years.
The Oil Conservation Commission — a three-member governing body that oversees rulemaking — recently passed new bonding requirements, a term that refers to the minimum amount of money oil and gas operators have to post upfront for cleanup costs.
Historically, the state has only plugged about 5% of abandoned wells that end up plugged and private industry operators have handled the rest. That still costs taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, though. The goal of raising those bonding requirements, Shelton said, is to shield taxpayers from the multimillion-dollar burden of cleaning up these sites.
While conservationists praised the decision to raise the bonding requirement at the time of the vote, some Republican lawmakers Monday scrutinized it.
State Sen. Crystal Brantley (R-Elephant Butte) told Shelton she was concerned the new rules could unnecessarily penalize responsible oil and gas operators.
“I understand that there are bad apples in oil and gas,” she said. “When we raise those bonding minimums so high, who we seem to hurt are New Mexico businesses and New Mexico families…the bigs who are based out of Midland or Dallas or Houston can afford to pay those minimums.”
Shelton told her that the newly approved rules took that concern into account. In particular, oil and gas operators that do not own a high number of non-productive wells can get discounted “blanket bonds,” he said.
“We are talking about a minority of the wells in the state. Mostly the industry is plugging its own wells as it’s supposed to,” he said. “Why does the state tackle orphaned wells? It’s because they are, by definition, wells that do not have a responsible party who you can pursue to get them to clean up. At the end of the day, if you just leave a well, the community is the one that’s going to suffer.”
Four bears killed on Interstate 25 south of Santa Fe
—Santa Fe New Mexican
It’s been a tough summer to be a black bear in New Mexico.
Last week, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported that two adult black bears and two cubs were found dead on Interstate 25 about five miles south of Santa Fe. The bears were found last Wednesday between La Cienega and La Bajada.
A state Department of Wildlife spokesperson told the New Mexican one of the adult bears was found on an overpass with a creek running beneath it, which suggests the animals might have been seeking water.
Those bear deaths followed an incident earlier in July in which a bear climbed an electric utility pole in northeastern New Mexico and was fatally electrocuted. Videos of the incident went viral.
The New Mexican reports there have many bear sightings this summer on the edges of cities and towns. Near Santa Fe, a popular hiking preserve off Canyon Road was closed for a while in July after three bears were spotted in the area.
The Taos News reported in late June, a large black bear spent hours sitting in a tree in downtown Taos. And in Albuquerque, KOAT-TV reported that at a least a dozen bears have been spotted this summer in neighborhoods near the Sandia Mountains.
Despite the start of monsoon season, New Mexico remains in severe drought, causing wildlife to search for water and food outside of their usual habitats.
Hundreds of fish reported dead at Monastery Lake amid heat, drought
—KOAT
Monastery Lake is in Northern New Mexico, situated along the Pecos river, just north of the village of Pecos.
KOAT-TV reports hundreds of fish have died at Monastery Lake in recent weeks. State wildlife officials have linked the deaths to warm water temperatures and low oxygen during the current severe drought.
New Mexico Department of Wildlife staff conducted a site visit to the lake last week and found 120 dead rainbow trout during their observations.
Department officials say that’s not a total count of all the fish that might have died.
Rainbow trout are especially sensitive to elevated water temperatures. Warmer water also holds less dissolved oxygen, making it harder for fish to survive. Staff observed the fish clustered near the lake’s inlet, where cooler and more oxygenated water from the Pecos River flows into Monastery Lake.
'Crazy intense': Secret military exercise in Española took residents by surprise
—Santa Fe New Mexican
In Española, locals have learned the reason for the low-flying helicopters and loud noises that alarmed residents on the night of July 23.
It was a military training exercise. And, because the exercise was secret, people in Espanola had no idea what was going on.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reports that the training exercise surprised and confused people in Espanola, and also in Abiquiu, about 25 miles to the northwest.
Low-flying helicopters were also accompanied by simulated gunfire and flash-bangs. One resident described the scene as “terrifying.”
The New Mexican reports that some city and county officials who agreed to the secret exercise said they would think twice about agreeing to such an exercise in the future.
Rio Arriba County Manager Jeremy Maestas said the event was organized by Miguel Gutierrez. The New Mexican reports that Gutierrez is listed as the director of operations for the defense contractor Asymmetric Solutions, which hosts a military training facility in the region.
New Mexico environment officials propose another delay on heat safety protections for workers – Joshua Bowling, Source New Mexico
The New Mexico Environment Department has proposed delaying the process to create and adopt rules aimed at protecting workers from heat-related illness and injuries to early 2027.
In a recent filing with the state’s Environmental Improvement Board, NMED lawyers wrote that it hasn’t been able to reach consensus on the proposed heat protection standards with the many stakeholders on this issue — including labor organizations, employers and public health advocates — ahead of the current rulemaking hearing, which had been scheduled to begin Sept. 21.
State environment officials first proposed the rulemaking in early 2025 and floated the possibility of requiring employers to provide rest periods, shaded areas and drinking water in hot conditions. Within months, however, the rulemaking was postponed.
Groups representing a number of industries — including livestock, oil and gas and utilities — have pushed back on some of the proposed rule’s requirements.
The latest delay is the fourth since the rulemaking was announced.
Environmental advocates lamented NMED’s latest filing and pointed to the region’s recent bout of triple-digit temperatures as evidence that workers need heat-related protections as soon as possible.
“Regardless of whether a job is in the field or the classroom, heat has the same impacts on the human body. All workers need protections,” Healthy Climate New Mexico Senior Program Consultant Shelley Mann-Lev said in a statement.
The state Environmental Improvement Board is made up of seven members who are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the state Senate. If the rulemaking advances in March, as NMED requested, New Mexico’s next governor will have a chance to install the board overseeing the proceedings.
“As the state moves forward under a new administration, we hope we will see new standards forworker protections adopted,” Conservation Voters New Mexico Chief Operating Officer Molly Taylor wrote in a statement. “Federal worker heat safety standards stalled under Trump. We believe this is an opportunity for New Mexico to lead the nation and show that we can protect our people in the wake of climate change.”
Bernalillo County agrees to pay $2 million to families of first responders killed in helicopter crash – Nakayla McClelland, Albuquerque Journal
Bernalillo County has agreed to pay $2 million to settle two lawsuits filed in state district court by the families of three men who died in a 2022 helicopter crash in northern New Mexico.
The settlement, reached on June 19, according to court records, came nearly four years after the crash that killed Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office Undersheriff Larry Koren, deputy Michael Levison, Lt. Fred Beers and Bernalillo County Fire Rescue Specialist Capt. Matthew King.
The county agreed to pay a lump sum to settle both cases, and the money will be split equally among the plaintiffs.
“I want to go on with my life, so I’m OK with it, but to be honest with you, I wish it was $200 million because maybe they would have changed some of their policies,” said Daniel Levison, father of Michael Levison. “Maybe it would open their eyes to safety issues.”
The lawsuits — one filed by the Levison family and the other by the Beers and King families — alleged that the July 16, 2022, helicopter crash was “entirely preventable” and was the result of poor maintenance.
Additionally, one of the suits states that the county and sheriff’s office knew the Vietnam-era “death trap” Bell UH-1H had numerous engine fatigue cracks before the crash.
“For two years, the Levison family has fought to hold the County accountable for the preventable tragedy that took Michael’s life,” said Elizabeth Harrison, one of the attorneys for the Levison family. “Nothing can ever ease the pain of his loss, but this settlement marks a step toward making the future safer for deputies like him.”
The Beers and King families could not be reached for comment.
Brian Egolf, attorney for the families, said the crash was a serious and tragic accident.
“They perished in a horrible crash,” he said.
In a statement posted on Facebook on the anniversary of the crash, BCSO said July 16 was a date that forever changed the sheriff’s office.
“Today, we remember not only how they died but also how they lived,” BCSO wrote. “Their service, their laughter, their leadership, their friendships, and the impact they left behind still carry through the people who knew them and the agencies they helped shape.”
The crash
The four men were returning home from providing bucket drops on the 75-acre East Mesa Fire when the helicopter crashed 25 miles south of Las Vegas. The helicopter’s engine suddenly lost power roughly 500 to 600 feet in the air and plummeted to the ground.
A report from the National Transportation Safety Board stated that an engine failure ultimately cost the four men their lives. It was later learned that the main generator had been removed.
The low altitude, along with flying into a setting sun, “may have contributed to the unsuccessful autorotation following the total loss of engine power,” according to the report.
Where does the unit stand today?
BCSO’s Metro Air Support Unit — which provided aid in search and rescue operations, helped fight fires and assisted BCSO in arrests — has since gone through drastic changes.
The program initially halted because Koren was the agency’s sole helicopter pilot. BCSO later purchased a new helicopter and relaunched the program in December 2023.
In December 2025, Sheriff John Allen removed Bernalillo County Fire and Rescue from the unit due to a policy that allowed firefighters to smoke marijuana while off-duty.
Allen cited the crash as his main reason to oust the firefighters, stating BCSO “owed it to the families we lost … to rebuild MASU the right way,” according to previous Journal reporting.
The lawsuits filed after the crash made no mention of marijuana usage or impaired flying. Levison’s father said he believed the decision was made due to ongoing issues within the program and not due to the marijuana policy.
“There is so much that they knew on that program that is being swept under the table,” Daniel Levison said. “They had to have a way out to save face, so they blame it on the fire department.”
Federal plan spares New Mexico from mandatory Colorado River water cuts — Karmine Conde, Albuquerque Journal
New Mexico will avoid mandatory water cuts from the Colorado River under a proposal released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
The Albuquerque Journal reports that the proposal exempts New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Wyoming – the four Upper Basin states — from mandatory reductions for the time being.
the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada — could face cuts of up to 3 million acre-feet through 2036. That’s enough water to serve more than 25 million people annually.
The Bureau of Reclamation released its environmental study Friday.
Under the proposed 10-year federal framework, water management decisions would be made every two years to adapt to changing climate conditions.
The Colorado River supplies water to northwestern New Mexico, recharges the aquifer beneath Albuquerque and provides San Juan-Chama Project water imported from the Colorado River Basin into the Rio Grande Basin.
Hearing for Project Jupiter data center’s air quality permit application rescheduled to September 14 — Joshua Bowling, Source New Mexico
A public hearing over whether the New Mexico Environment Department should issue an air quality permit for the controversial Project Jupiter data center is being rescheduled to September 14.
Source New Mexico reports the hearing officer presiding over the matter had previously scheduled the hearing to begin in October. At a scheduling meeting this week, attorneys representing Project Jupiter’s developers requested that the hearing begin earlier.
They argued that the October hearing date would risk giving New Mexico Environment Department staff too little time to make a final decision on whether to issue the permit before their Nov. 23 deadline.
Max Shepherd, the hearing officer, told attorneys gathered at the scheduling hearing that he was not going to reschedule it. He said he would keep the October hearing date and examine his options to push ahead the Nov. 23 deadline.
However, two days later when the state environment department published his written scheduling order on its website, it showed he rescheduled the hearing by more than a month. It is now set to begin Sept. 14 and “continue as necessary” at the Sunland Park Multi-Generational Center.
Feds reinstate $15.4M for Northern NM microgrid projects — Taos News
Kit Carson Electric Co-op has successfully persuaded the federal government to reinstate nearly $16 million in green energy infrastructure and wildfire mitigation grants canceled last year by the U.S. Department of Energy under President Donald Trump.
The Taos News reports the federal government pulled nearly $8 billion in funding from 16 states, including New Mexico, that voted for Democratic candidate Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.
The grants include funding for what’s called microgrid development. That would allow some areas served by Kit Carson Electric Co-op to keep their electrical service even as the electricity is shut off to other areas to mitigate fire risk during events such as wind storms.
The grant money will also assist utilities that partner with Kit Carson, including those serving Picuris Pueblo, Peñasco, El Rito, and Taos Ski Valley.