New Mexico

COVID-19 recovery meant more oil spills in New Mexico, study says

Published

2 years ago

April 18, 2022

Oil and also gas business splashed regarding 658,000 gallons of oil right into New Mexico’s atmosphere in 2015, in addition to 657,720 gallons of wastewater, per a current research study.

These contaminants originated from a document 1,368 overall spills, reported the Facility for Western Priorities, which authored the research study, in addition to “billions” of cubic feet of methane launched right into the air.

That noted a boost from 2020’s overall of 1,217 and also much more than 1,352 reported in 2019 – a year recognized for record-high oil manufacturing in the state, the research study checked out.

Much More: Oil and also gas air contamination manages accepted by New Mexico authorities, work in springtime

Splashes boosted because the Facility for Western Top priorities started tracking them in New Mexico in 2013, when just 934 were reported.

They came to a head in 2014 at 17,66 spills, one more year recognized for an oil boom, and also showed up to rise and fall in addition to development in manufacturing for the following 6 years.

Information revealed previous boom years 2017 and also 2018 had 1,522 spills and also 1,523 spills, specifically.

Much More: New Mexico has a month to obtain $25 million to tidy up deserted oil and also gas wells

The decrease in 2020 was credited to the COVID-19 pandemic, when public wellness limitations caused a decrease in gas need and also therefore manufacturing of nonrenewable fuel sources.

As need regrew in 2015 on the heels of the pandemic, so did manufacturing therefore did reported spills.

New Mexico consists of component of the Permian Container in the southeast edge of the state, the U.S.’ most energetic oil area generating nearly half, regarding 5 million barrels a day, of the countries regarding 11.6 million barrel outcome.

Much More: Oil and also gas moving from Permian Container on heels of COVID-19, Russia-Ukraine dispute

Higher and also down swings in the international gas market can have large ramifications for New Mexico and also its atmosphere, and also market movie critics insists times of greater manufacturing must be harder oversight on the market.

An additional instance of this partnership in between manufacturing degrees and also spills was shown by Wyoming, the research study checked out, which dropped its oil manufacturing by 14 percent in 2015 and also spills by 20 percent in between 2019 and also 2021.

Kate Groetzinger, writer of the spill record at the Facility for Western Priorities stated the markets proceeded use public land for removal must be fulfilled by better interest to stop spills.

Much More: Deserted oil and also gas wells expanded via New Mexico’s Permian, San Juan containers

“As oil business once more promote even more accessibility to public land for exploration, it’s clear the market still has a means to head to tidy up its act,” she stated.

“Oil and also gas spills consistently influence water wells and also neighborhoods in the West, while methane gas remains to gush right into the environment at a high price. Citizens and also regulatory authorities must not merely approve this as the expense of working.”

New Mexico regulatory authorities look for more powerful regulations to battle oil and also gas contamination

In an initiative to attend to contamination from the market, the State of New Mexico lately took on brand-new regulations both at the Power, Minerals and also Natural Resources Division (EMNRD) and also New Mexico Atmosphere Division (NMED).

Much More: Permian Container the website of oil and also gas development to reduced gas rates in the middle of Russia dispute

Brand-new guidelines consisted of banning spills both fluid and also aeriform – indicating such occasions would certainly sustain prompt penalties also prior to removal initiatives started – in addition to boosted gas capture criteria, exhaust coverage and also retrofitting demands for tools at oil and also gas centers to decrease their ecological influence.

EMNRD’s regulations, additionally consisting of a restriction on regular flaring – the burning of excess gas – entered into impact last springtime and also NMED’s regulations were accepted by the Environmental Renovation Board Wednesday and also were anticipated to enter into plan this summertime.

The exhaust controls were slammed by oil and also gas campaigning for teams, in spite of the market’s participation in the rulemaking procedure as placing a stress on smaller sized manufacturers that might battle to satisfy boost expenses of conformity compared to bigger, global companies pumping oil and also gas in New Mexico.

Much More: Oil and also gas development on state possessed residential property rises Swirl Region’s land tax obligation worths in 2022

“The Independent Oil Organization of New Mexico (IPANM) thinks the objective of the New Mexico ozone forerunner methane regulation must have been to decrease exhausts while maintaining well business economics and also decreasing prospective work losses,” stated John Winchester, executive supervisor of IPANM.

He tainted the State for eliminating stipulations to enable even more adaptability for low-volume or “pole dancer” wells in adhering to the regulations.

“IPANM is let down by stipulations in the last regulation that overmuch target reduced quantity manufacturers, which will certainly bring about early connecting of still-productive wells that are currently ecologically risk-free and also add considerably to state profits,” Winchester stated.

Much More: Heinrich, U.S. legislators advise Biden to change from oil and also gas in the middle of Russia dispute

Winchester stressed the State’s even more limiting guidelines would certainly operate in combination with possibly harder government regulation to threaten oil and also gas manufacturing in New Mexico and also throughout the nation.

The U.S. Epa was considering its very own collection of oil and also gas exhaust controls, possibly permitting the firm to keep track of and also limit exhausts not just from brand-new, however existing oil and also gas websites in all 50 states.

Included federal government guideline might suggest greater power expenses for New Mexicans, Winchester advised, as gas rates were currently more than typical in the middle of Russia’s intrusion of Ukraine that caused the assailant country – the second-highest oil generating worldwide – being eliminated from the international market.

Much More: Permian Container land demanded by oil and also gas business Russia dispute expands gas need

“The mix of these brand-new government and also state oil & gas limitations will certainly remain to penalize New Mexicans at the gas pump, threaten our residential safety, raise our reliance on international foes at once when we must be raising residential manufacturing,” Winchester stated.

Yet ecologists stated boosted guidelines were required to attend to the market’s contamination and also influence on environment adjustment.

Kayley Shoup, a local of Carlsbad in the Permian Container and also participant of neighborhood ecological team People Taking care of the Future, stated frontline neighborhoods such as her very own would certainly be more secure as a result of more stringent demands for oil and also gas manufacturers.

Methane leakages, airing vent and also flaring are an everyday danger to our wellness, and also New Mexico has actually developed a basic to lead government companies in reinforcing securities from oil and also gas contamination,” Shoup stated.

Adrian Hedden can be gotten to at 575-628-5516, achedden@currentargus.com or @AdrianHedden on Twitter.

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New Mexico

New Mexico School Cuts Feather From Lakota Student's Graduation Cap

Published

2 hours ago

May 21, 2024

Press Room

New Mexico School Cuts Feather From Lakota Student's Graduation Cap

A New Mexico high school senior—and Hunkpapa Lakota of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe—was denied the opportunity to celebrate her graduation with a traditionally decorated cap, advocates say. Video from the Farmington High School commencement ceremony on May 13 shows two staffers approaching Genesis White Bull, taking her graduation cap, which was decorated with beadwork and a white feather plume, and handing her a plain cap in return. “That’s part of our culture, when we reach a milestone in our life, we as Lakotas decorate, do our beadwork and place our plume on them,” White Bull’s mother tells the Tri-City Record, adding that the family had prayed over the plume, known as an aópazan, before placing it on White Bull’s head.

When her mother saw what happened, she approached the staff members and asked to be allowed to remove the aópazan herself; instead, she says, they cut it from the cap with scissors. Per the Guardian, the school district initially said the staffers were “following district guidelines” before ultimately apologizing in a later statement. “To learn from this experience and to improve our school community, we will continue to collaborate with groups within the Navajo Nation and other community stakeholders to begin the healing process and figure out the best ways to move forward,” it says. The first lady of the Navajo Nation and the ACLU of New Mexico both issued statements supporting White Bull. (More New Mexico stories.)

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New Mexico

New Mexico State Police Investigate Homicide In Chimayo

Published

9 hours ago

May 21, 2024

Press Room

NMSP NEWS RELEASE

New Mexico State Police Investigations Bureau were called to investigate a homicide that occurred at a residence in Chimayo.

The investigation began on May 14, 2024, when New Mexico State Police officers were executing a felony warrant on County Road 86 for Christopher Serrano (41). His charges included multiple aggravated battery on a household member to include great bodily harm by strangulation, kidnapping, criminal sexual contact, and interference with communications from a previous incident that had occurred on May 7, 2024.

Upon arrival at the residence, officers observed a deceased male lying face down with apparent trauma to his body. Believing a noise was heard inside the residence, a perimeter was set up around the residence, and the NMSP Tactical Team arrived to clear the residence. No one was located inside.

The deceased male was later positively identified as Christopher Serrano. This case remains under investigation by the New Mexico State Police.

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New Mexico

Protecting the Rivers of New Mexico

Published

17 hours ago

May 20, 2024

Press Room

New Mexico’s rivers were recently named most endangered rivers in the country, but Audubon Southwest is working with partners to help improve the health and water in our rivers.

The national non-governmental organization American Rivers has been listing endangered rivers annually for years in a way to highlight priority actions needed to address the health of our nation’s most imperiled rivers. New Mexico rivers have been highlighted in recent years including the Rio Gallinas (2023), Pecos River (2021) and Gila River (2019, 2014). This year New Mexico holds the number one spot, and it’s not just for a single river, rather all our rivers. This is the first time American Rivers has listed an entire state’s rivers as being “most endangered,” and it highlights the vulnerability of our rivers to pollution and dewatering as the result of the May 2023 U.S. Supreme Court opinion in the case of Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency. 

 Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency 
The “Sackett” case reintroduced the question of what constitutes protected “waters of the U.S.,” defining these as “a relatively permanent body of water connected to traditional interstate navigable waters.” This definition leaves desert streams and wetlands vulnerable.

Audubon Southwest partnerships to protect the rivers
A number one spot in the American River’s endangered rivers list is a wakeup call for our rivers. Through our partnerships with other non-profits such as Amigos Bravos, we advocate for the development of a state-base surface water-quality permitting program that would help buffer the protection of our streams from pollution and dewatering that will result from lax federal standards.

Audubon Southwest is focused on activities that improve the health and water in our rivers—an activity that was direly needed even before the recent Sackett ruling. We focus on both policy initiatives and on-the-ground projects to protect our beautiful yet vulnerable rivers. For example, we have been defining and protecting the water needs of the Rio Grande in New Mexico along with a collective of other environmental non-governmental organizations in support of the Rio Grande Basin Study in New Mexico (Basin Study). A scientifically defensible framework for defining and protecting environmental flow targets in the Rio Grande of New Mexico is long overdue. Aridification (less precipitation) is increasing across the American West, exacerbating existing water management challenges, and increasing conflict among competing water uses as water availability diminishes. The Basin Study was initiated on January 24, 2023.

The Basin Study is a WaterSMART-funded initiative led by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District, with the participation of more than 36 signatories representing multiple sectors and areas of expertise. The Basin Study aims to develop management resiliency strategies for the Rio Grande in New Mexico under climate warming scenarios. As part of this effort, water-use “sectors” are quantifying water needs that will be placed into tradeoff models and tools. The non-governmental organizations (NGO) Sectoral Committee of the Basin Study, co-led by Audubon Southwest and New Mexico Wild, is comprised of 12 national, regional, and statewide environmental organizations as well as associated partners. The NGO Sectoral Committee is embracing this opportunity to quantify environmental flow needs and associated feasible targets for the Rio Grande in New Mexico.

Through this NGO collective, we are defining how much water the Rio Grande needs in six reaches of Rio Grande and Rio Chama in New Mexico. These flow targets are being compared against current conditions and future predicted conditions to understand how much water is needed in each reach and when this water is needed most.

The understanding of these “environmental flow deficits” is being used to compile tested strategies and develop new strategies to keep our Rio Grande Through the engagement of our NGO partners, we have collectively developed a network of informed and ready-to-fix-it environmental flow practitioners. Many of these groups are directly engaged with on-the-ground activities that are improving river flows as you read this. This network is paired with a similar coalition that is focused on policy fixes to improve the stream flow of our rivers.

In the face of grim climate predictions and unfavorable court rulings, our New Mexican river-protector community has never been so engaged with finding on-the-ground solutions as well as policy fixes. It is through these deep-reaching partnerships that I hold hope for the future of New Mexico’s rivers.

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