Work to repair a highway that runs past a nuclear waste repository began Oct. 1, using $10 million in federal funds.
The money came via the federal Energy and Water Development Act of 2026, which finances water and energy projects at several federal agencies for fiscal year 2026.
Federal fiscal years run from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30 and are named for the calendar year in which they end.
U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, sponsored the funding’s inclusion in the bill. He announced Monday, Sept. 28, that the money was delivered to New Mexico after the legislation passed the U.S. Senate on Jan. 15.
That meant the New Mexico Department of Transportation and U.S. Department of Energy signed a contract for work to begin Oct. 1 on U.S. Highway 285 near the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.
The state of New Mexico has one year to spend the money on the work.
At WIPP, the Energy Department disposes of transuranic (TRU) nuclear waste, which is clothing materials, equipment and other debris irradiated during nuclear activities.
The waste is buried at WIPP in a salt deposit about 2,000 feet underground. The salt gradually collapses on the waste, burying the refuse and blocking radiation from escaping.
But before it can be buried at WIPP, the waste is transported by truck using an approved series of highway routes that also are used to move empty trucks to the generator sites.
Those routes include U.S. Highway 285, which connects to Interstate 25 at a junction near Santa Fe in northern New Mexico, heading southeast toward Carlsbad. Another, shorter section of U.S. Highway 128 can carry waste to the WIPP site west from New Mexico’s southeast border with Texas.
Heinrich also pointed to the WIPP Economic Assistance Assurance Act, which would designate $20 million annually to maintain all the approved WIPP roads. That bill was introduced and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on March 26.
The bill would restore yearly payments that were in place for the first 14 years of WIPP operations – from 1999 to 2012 – via the WIPP Land Withdrawal Act, a federal bill that established how WIPP would operate and be regulated.
“Last appropriations cycle, I fought like hell to secure this funding – to get New Mexico more of the funding we deserve for our role in maintaining the nation’s only deep geologic repository for radioactive defense waste,” Heinrich said in a statement announcing the $10 million.
“I’ll keep fighting to increase the federal government’s support of road and infrastructure improvements in New Mexico, including through my WIPP Economic Assistance Assurance Act.”
A report filed by the Senate Appropriations committee reported that 59% of WIPP roads were rated in “fair” or lower condition by the Department of Energy, with 21% of the roads receiving a “poor” grade
Carlsbad Mayor Pro Tem JJ Chavez said the federal funds were critical to improve those conditions and keep WIPP operating safely for the next several decades. Federal officials estimated the facility could remain open until 2083.
Chavez also works as a Mine Safety Health Administration compliance manager at WIPP and serves as vice chair of the Energy Communities Alliance, a national group of local officials from communities that host Department of Energy projects such as national laboratories and other facilities.
He argued that U.S. 285 and other roads used by WIPP drivers also carry traffic generated by other industries, including oil and gas and commuters heading north from Carlsbad to Albuquerque or back south.
“Everybody uses these roads from northern New Mexico to southern New Mexico. Everyday citizens use those roads. We all benefit from using those roads,” Chavez said.
And that use was unlikely to slow down, he said, which is why Chavez argued the funding should come annually.
“We used to get that money continuously. Once that funding stopped, it didn’t allow us to maintain our roads like we would like,” he said. “Once we lost that funding, it takes a toll.”
Managing Editor Adrian Hedden can be reached at 575-628-5516, or @AdrianHedden on the social media platform X.
