There were over 38,000 oil and gas spills in New Mexico last year. That’s according to a report released yesterday at the Legislature by environmental advocacy group WildEarth Guardians along with over 20 other organizations. While that number has declined over time, the volume of these spills is actually increasing.
Melissa Troutman is the lead author of the 2025 New Mexico Oil and Gas Spill Report and says that this should be a lesson to the government and to companies.
"Concentrating toxic waste does not make it safer, it actually increases the stakes,” Troutman said.
The report categorizes spills into gaseous and liquid and was compiled based on self-reported data from oil and gas companies. The majority of spills – 98% –occurred in Lea and Eddy counties.
According to Troutman, the datasets were often incomplete or not specific, with some values being totally empty. Due to this, she says the report likely underrepresents the actual impact of oil spills in New Mexico.
“So the truth is, we don’t actually know how much oil and gas pollution there is,” Troutman said. “All we can do is take the public data and put numbers to the best of our ability.”
WildEarth Guardians called on the Legislature to hold oil and gas companies accountable for spills. They and other groups specifically called out produced water, a byproduct of oil and gas production, as being the primary material that was spilled.
Currently, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is pushing for an easing of regulations surrounding produced water in order to address the state’s water shortage. A bill in the legislature, HB 207, would allow companies to dispose of this treated water into surface and groundwater after it has been decontaminated. However, environmental groups say that research concludes that there is no way to fully decontaminate produced water, and that these contaminants are not fully known due to oil and gas trade secrets. The House Agriculture, Acequias And Water Resources Committee tabled the bill Saturday, which could mean it won’t go anywhere this session.
Report co-author Rebecca Sobel says that this report can give guidance to lawmakers who are trying to tackle the issue of pollution from oil and gas.
“Those debates are happening right now in this building, but often in the abstract,” Sobel said. “What this report does is ground those decisions in reality.”
WildEarth Guardians is focused on defeating HB 207 and getting the Clear Horizons Act passed, which would establish statewide emission reduction goals in law. It passed two Senate committees and is now waiting to be heard on the Senate floor.
