Adrian Hedden

The Savannah River Site in South Carolina will begin shipping highly radioactive, remote-handled transuranic waste to New Mexico’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant after containers passed flammable-gas testing. The shipments revive debate over WIPP’s capacity and priorities, as state officials push for more legacy waste from Los Alamos while federal regulators oppose proposed disposal requirements.

City administration offices and certain other city facilities will be closed Monday, Sept. 7, in observance of Labor Day. Some city services will have an adjusted schedule for that Monday or that week.

Roswell police arrested Christian Analla, 34, on Sept. 1 after he allegedly fled an Aug. 25 traffic stop in a reportedly stolen Chevrolet Malibu. Court records say he drove through a yard and residential streets after being warned he would face additional charges. Analla faces aggravated fleeing and resisting arrest charges, alongside multiple outstanding warrants.

Nuclear waste shipments from Washington’s Hanford Site to New Mexico’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant will resume after a 15-year pause. The move renews debate over WIPP’s priorities, as New Mexico officials and watchdogs argue that waste from Los Alamos National Laboratory should receive greater attention under the state’s 2023 permit requirements.

An August Bureau of Land Management auction generated about $139 million from oil and gas leases, led by three Eddy County parcels with a combined value exceeding $115 million. The sale included acreage in New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma, bringing New Mexico’s 2025 federal lease-sale revenue to roughly $4.4 billion amid debate over lower royalty rates.

An environmental group has appealed a federal court ruling that vacated endangered species protections for the dunes sagebrush lizard, a tiny species native to the Permian Basin in New Mexico and Texas. The fight centers on whether federal safeguards are needed to curb oil and gas development and prevent the lizard’s extinction.

After public scoping, a 30-day public comment period will be opened amid publication of an environmental assessment. Next will be a protest period where those opposed to the sale can submit their final comments.

The guilty pleas were entered July 15 by Gyardo Gonzalez, 47, Mario Mendoza, 40, and Miguel Soto, 41, of Lovington along with Diana Marquez Rojo, 47 and Jesus Martin Hernandez-Borja of Hobbs. Luis Rojo, 51, of Seminole, Texas also pleaded guilty.

Notably, the proposal would establish a “Super Emitter Program” that would define such a facility as one emitting at least 50 kilograms per hour in a single event. The proposal also includes language allowing the use of third-party data taken from satellite readings or other sources outside of state agencies in identifying such emissions.

Santa Fe County resident Cynthia Weehler raised the issue during a Wednesday, Aug. 5, town hall held by the U.S. Department of Energy in Hobbs to give a public update on operations at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.

Bottomless Lakes State Park, located 15 miles southeast of Roswell, is a series of eight lakes surrounded by rocky red buffs.

Jonathan Sequeira, 19, was charged with extreme cruelty to animals.