Downwinder Advocates present on compensation information

It was standing room only with over 70 in attendance at the informational presentation on Downwinder’s compensation at Socorro City Hall chambers.

Last month, the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium (TBDC) successfully lobbied Congress to expand the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA). This expansion allows New Mexico residents who lived in the area from 1944 to November 1962, or their surviving family members, to file claims for illnesses related to the Trinity Test.

Although not all requests from the Downwinders were included, the expansion is part of the “Big Beautiful Bill” and extends compensation that was previously available only to Downwinders from the Nevada Test Site.

Advocates Tina Cordova and Luisa Lopez of the TBDC led the presentation on the inclusion of the Downwinders in the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) on Thursday.

“We are going to take this win and we’re going to capitalize on it. We’re not going to stop fighting. We’re not going to stop raising our voices for justice,” Cordova said.

The expansion encompasses 19 types of cancer and the compensation for downwinders has been increased to a one-time payment of $100,000. However, these compensation opportunities have unfortunately resulted in a concerning amount of scams, according to Lopez.

Cordova and Lopez shared stories of people receiving phone calls and home visits from individuals claiming to be lawyers and requesting personal information with promises of filing claims for a small fee.

“Don’t give anybody anything unless you know that it’s legitimate and if you don’t know, you can call us,” Lopez said.

Cordova encouraged applicants to be patient and recommended that they wait until the application was available online and they had volunteers trained to help applicants.

“Be patient,” Cordova said, “Right now, the claims process is open, but it’s only open to mail-in claims. Imagine sending those kinds of documents in the mail. I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

She said to start gathering necessary records for the application, including birth, marriage, death, tax, school and medical documents.

“So records are going to be very important if you want to work on it right now, that’s what you should work on,” Cordova said, “You can start getting your records together so that when the claims process electronically, we can then do it to start filing a claim.”

She recognized that while some records are accessible, others—especially older ones—can be very difficult to find, and alternative documentation may be necessary. Cordova said they are hoping that, in some cases, they’ll allow affidavits.

“Don’t be discouraged, folks, when we put people through the training, we will train them on where to go to get records,” Cordova said. “We will turn over every stone to try to find those records. It’s not going to be easy for some.”

The Trinity nuclear test in 1945 and subsequent Nevada tests exposed the entire state of New Mexico to significant radiation, contrary to government claims that only a few counties were affected, said Cordova. Fallout from these tests led to widespread contamination of the environment, including soil, water, crops, and livestock, resulting in long-term health consequences such as high rates of cancer and other diseases.

“Two years is not an adequate time to fix an 80-year-old problem. It’s ridiculous. So we’re going to ask for a longer extension. We’re going to ask for health care coverage, which they stripped out to get this bill passed,” Cordova said.

The effects have spanned generations, with both immediate and delayed health impacts, including cases of cancer in very young children and adults decades after exposure.

“It’s not like it happened. If you were present that day, you got exposed, and then it was over,” Cordova said.

She said New Mexico experienced the highest infant mortality rate in the country in 1945, and the state continues to face high medical debt and heavy reliance on Medicaid due to the health consequences of radiation exposure.

“What we’ve said all along is, if you’re gonna set aside that sort of budget for nuclear weapons, you have to set aside something to take care of the people that are being targeted, because we are just getting innocent victims of a process,” Cordova said.

For more information and to sign up to help on the application, please call local advocate Luisa Lopez at 575-835-8146 or visit www.trinitydownwinders.com