N.M. legislators tackle funding for WIPP road repair

Just before the end of the federal government's 2026 fiscal year, members of New Mexico's congressional delegation announced $10 million in funding to repair roads used to transport waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, near Carlsbad, N.M.

Press releases from Sen. Ben Ray Luján and Rep. Gabe Vasquez on September 29 followed an initial announcement from Sen. Martin Heinrich on September 28. All three legislators celebrated the funding, which Heinrich explained had initially been awarded in January through federal appropriations bills and was the first such funding to be awarded for WIPP-related road maintenance since 2014.

The federal fiscal year concluded on September 30. On October 1, the Department of Energy signed a contract with the New Mexico Department of Transportation to allow repairs to U.S. 285 to begin using funds from the allotted $10 million, the Carlsbad Current-Argus reported.

The funding complements another effort instigated by Heinrich in March, when he introduced a bill to amend the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant Land Withdrawal Act that Congress passed in 1992 and revised in 1995. Heinrich's update, the WIPP Economic Assistance Assurance Act of 2026, seeks to reinstate $20 million in annual funding for infrastructure projects to support WIPP's continuing operations. The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources entered an order on September 30 for the bill to be reported without amendment to the entire Senate.

Funding WIPP infrastructure projects: The WIPP Land Withdrawal Act assigned New Mexico $20 million every fiscal year for 14 years, starting in 1998, to support activities at WIPP. Section 15(b) of the law still allows for further appropriations to be made at Congress's discretion.

According to a one-page explainer on the WIPP Economic Assistance Assurance Act of 2026 released earlier this year by the ENR Committee, "though WIPP operations are expected to continue for decades, subsequent appropriations have been inconsistent-leaving New Mexico communities to carry the cost of maintaining this operational infrastructure."

In considering the Energy and Water Development appropriations bill that included the $10 million for road repair, legislators suggested that funding for WIPP-related road maintenance was direly needed, saying that a 2023 DOE report "found that 59 percent of WIPP routes are rated as 'fair' or lower, with 21 percent rated as 'poor.' The deteriorated roadway conditions near WIPP pose a safety risk to both WIPP staff and transuranic shipments."

The WIPP Economic Assistance Assurance Act of 2026 attempts to address this by removing the language in the WIPP Land Withdrawal Act that limited the $20 million annual payments to New Mexico to 14 years, replacing it with language that would require those payments to be made as long as shipments of TRU waste to WIPP continue.

Shipment paused, shipments completed: The state of WIPP's infrastructure became a matter of note this summer when shipments of TRU waste to WIPP were halted due to problems with underground hoists at the facility. The facility temporarily stopped receiving shipments on May 16 and resumed on July 8 with the startup of a utility shaft hoist that allowed operations to progress while repair work was performed.

Despite maintenance issues and funding concerns, shipments to WIPP continued apace in FY 2026. In a September 15 press release, the DOE announced that its Environmental Management field office and a contractor at Los Alamos National Laboratory had sent 82 shipments of TRU waste to WIPP throughout the year, a 91 percent increase from the prior fiscal year.