CVNM Board Director
Charles de Saillan, is an environmental attorney in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He moved to New Mexico in 1993 to work for then Attorney General Tom Udall. Since June 2018, he has been a staff attorney with the New Mexico Environmental Law Center, a non-profit, public-interest environmental law firm.
Before moving to New Mexico, Charlie worked at the Environmental Protection Agency and the Justice Department in Washington, D.C., handling enforcement litigation under federal hazardous waste laws, the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act. At the New Mexico Office of the Attorney General, Charlie helped develop the state’s natural resource damage program. He also led a national attorney general work group on amendment of the Superfund law, urging Congress to retain strong liability and cleanup provisions. In 1999, Charlie moved to the Environment Department where he handled enforcement and permitting actions involving air quality, water quality, hazardous wastes and site remediation. He successfully took on hard rock mines, petroleum refineries, electric power plants and national nuclear weapons laboratories. He negotiated a settlement agreement for comprehensive investigation and cleanup of pollution at Los Alamos National Laboratory.