In Depth One-On-One with Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, Our Land Visits a Superfund Site in Socorro, The Line

This week on New Mexico in Focus, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham sits down for one of her first one-on-one, in-depth interview since the start of the legislative session. The governor talks about her legislative strategy, criticism of her approach and the controversial gun safety measures she’s endorsed and lobbied to get to her desk. Producer Matt Grubs also asks her about education reform, tax increases and tying New Mexico’s renewal energy standards to a bill that helps electricity provider PNM recoup costs from shuttering its coal-fired generating station in San Juan County.

On March’s installment of Our Land, environmental correspondent Laura Paskus travels to Socorro and a Superfund cleanup site where a plume of toxic groundwater from an old battery plant is seeping underneath homes. The Eagle Picher site has been a federally designated cleanup project since 2007, and the state has been aware of the problem since the 1980s. Paskus asks state officials about the holdup on one of the state’s 16 designated Superfund sites.

Gene Grant and the Line opinion panelists discuss the Senate-approved bill to create a new Early Childhood Education and Care Department and examine a Senate-approved resolution that would reshape the Public Regulation Commission by turning it into a three-member body appointed by the governor after vetting by an independent nominating committee. The Line panelists also look at a recent study that finds the rate of prisoners held in solitary confinement is more than double the 4 percent that state officials claim.

Host: Gene Grant

Correspondents:
Matt Grubs
Laura Paskus

Field Guest(s):
Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham
Cheri Lerew, Socorro homeowner
Sabino Rivera, New Mexico Environment Department

Line Panelists:
Carolyn Carlson, reporter, The Weekly Alibi
Dan Foley, former NM House minority whip
Eric Griego, former NM state senator
H. Diane Snyder, former NM state senator