New Mexico officials contend that at least 60% of the Permian Basin oil and gas operations they inspected  were in violation of EPA air quality standards.

The New Mexico Environment Department announced the results of a six-month inspection initiative done in partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. It found 75 of the 124 facilities investigated had emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and could be subject to monetary penalties and other actions necessary to comply with requirements pursuant to federal Clean Air Act and state Air Quality Control Act.

Suspected criminal violations will be referred to New Mexico’s Environmental Crimes Task Force for further investigation and potential criminal prosecution of companies or individuals.

During this time, EPA and NMED analyzed data from satellites, regulatory reports and other sources to identify specific sites in the Permian Basin prior to conducting on-site inspections. In April 2024, 14 EPA inspectors and five NMED inspectors took part in joint investigations.

“The results of our federal and state oil and gas investigations are cause for alarm, with a meager 40% compliance rate,” Environment Department Cabinet Secretary James Kenney said. “With the impacts of climate change ravaging our state and air quality degrading, we have no choice but to increase sanctions on polluters until we see a commitment to change behavior.”

The on-site investigations took place at multiple companies’ operations in the Permian Basin. These companies include Chevron U.S.A. Inc, Earthstone Energy, Inc, Franklin Mountain Energy, Inc, Kaiser Francis Oil Company, Marathon, Permian Resources, Tap Rock and XTO Energy, Inc. Approximately 112 facilities are located in communities with environmental justice concerns due to exposure to higher levels of ozone pollution.

VOCs contribute to the formation of ozone, which causes health problems for New Mexicans, including asthma, lung infections, bronchitis and cancer. Air quality has degraded to unsafe levels in several New Mexican counties, including Lea and Eddy Counties in the Permian Basin. This could result in federal sanctions by the EPA on these counties that will require NMED to institute more restrictive regulations on New Mexico’s industry.

NMED currently regulates over 55,000 facilities with 30 permitting staff and six enforcement staff which results in an untenable workload. In fact, it would take NMED 9.6 years to inspect all permitted sources in New Mexico which is why the Department is currently seeking to raise permit fees and hire additional staff.

Given NMED’s lack of adequate permit fees to expand air quality staff, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the EPA will lead in resolving these enforcement matters. For such cases, at least half of the civil penalties collected in these matters by the DOJ and EPA are paid to the U.S. Treasury as opposed to the New Mexico general fund. In short, if NMED had appropriate resources to take on more cases itself, more money would be going back to the New Mexico legislature for the benefit of New Mexicans.

“Currently, six people are now managing over 114 active enforcement matters which take thousands of hours, so I welcome the resources provided to us by the EPA and DOJ to hold these polluters accountable,” Compliance and Enforcement Section Chief Cindy Hollenberg said.

 “As of today, 15% of New Mexico’s Permian Basin oil and gas production is under a federal settlement.”

“NMED has not raised its air quality permit fees in two decades, yet our permitting workload has increased a staggering 2,234 percent,” Director of the Environmental Protection Division Michelle Miano said.

“Our proposal to increase fees paid by the industry is our best chance to help the one in seven New Mexicans who suffer from respiratory ailments to breathe clean air.”

As part of NMED’s efforts to avoid federal sanctions resulting from degrading air quality, the Department has increased its oversight of the oil and gas industry. As a result, NMED has observed compliance rates of around 50%, meaning roughly one out of every two facilities inspected is in violation of federal and state rules. Settlements with the oil and gas industry include the following:

• April 2024 – Ameredev II LLC agreed to pay $24.5 million to settle alleged violations of state air regulations. This is the largest civil penalty collected by the Department with an oil and gas company and the total civil penalty was deposited in the state’s general fund as the DOJ and EPA did not assist in this matter.
• February 2024 – Apache Corporation agreed to pay $4 million in civil penalties and undertake projects expected to cost at least $5.5 million to ensure 422 of its oil and gas well pads in New Mexico and Texas comply with state and federal clean air regulations and offset past illegal emissions. Under the federal/state settlement, the U.S. Treasury received $2 million of the civil penalty and state’s general fund received $2 million.
• December 2023 – Oxy USA, Inc. agreed to pay $1.2 million in civil penalties for operating its facility at major source levels without applying for and obtaining a Title V permit and for exceeding federal standards for oil and gas facilities.
• August 2023 – Mewbourne Oil Company agreed to pay a $5.5 million penalty and to spend at least $4.6 million for projects to ensure 422 of its oil and gas battery pads in New Mexico and Texas comply with state and federal clean air regulations. Under the federal/state settlement, the U.S. Treasury received $2.75 million of the civil penalty and state’s general fund received $2.75 million.
• March 2023 – Matador Production Company agreed to pay $1.15 million in civil penalties and undertake projects expected to cost at least $5.05 million to ensure compliance with both state and federal clean air regulations at all 239 of its New Mexico oil and gas well pads to resolve liability alleged in a civil complaint filed today under the Clean Air Act and state regulation Under the federal/state settlement, the U.S. Treasury received $650,000 of the civil penalty and state’s general fund received $500,000.

The EPA’s inspection reports are available online here: https://www.epa.gov/nm/enforcement-and-compliance-assurance-documents-new-mexico.

Source: press release

Lightning is blamed for causing one of the two devastating wildfires that tore through parts of southeastern New Mexico last month.

Federal, state and tribal officials said they identified where the South Fork Fire started, and “human activity and factors did not contribute to the cause.”

The South Fork Fire and the Salt Fire broke out on June 17 in the same general area, near the village of Ruidoso. Thousands were forced to flee their homes as the fire closed in on the village.

Two people died and more than 1,400 structures were damaged in the fires, which are both now about 90% contained.

President Joe Biden approved a major disaster declaration for New Mexico, freeing up federal funds that will assist affected individuals, households and businesses in the area.

“This federal assistance will help affected residents receive the necessary aid to begin to recover and rebuild their lives,” New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said.

Related story: Yes, wildfires are actually becoming more intense and more common, study says

Firefighting efforts have considerably drawn down since the fires’ peak. There are now only three crews, six engines and one helicopter tending to the fires.

“Fire activity remains limited on the South Fork and Salt fires,” fire officials said on Thursday. “Hot spots remain within dense large, dead/down fuel, dense conifer stands and snags. These heat sources do not threaten containment lines.”

While the cause of the South Fork Fire has been determined, officials are still investigating how the Salt Fire started.

If it’s determined the fire was caused by a person, the FBI is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of that individual.

I don’t skip over any words in the Declaration of Independence. 

I find and lose meaning in the words that give Americans this day, this Independence Day, the ability to pop out and show the entire neighborhood how much they paid for the booms some of us light freely into the sky.

For me the Fourth is a day off work to barbecue and watch a few artillery shells explode over Albuquerque that someone may have brought from Texas or Oklahoma.

These are the truths I made self-evident in my Indigenous American life as I read the words from the declaration that colonists used to become U.S. royalty and mark its enemy, i.e. people like me, to westward expansion. 

The declaration that set out to create the destructive government on this day in 1776 wanted to control new territories on the continent. The British monarchy, which wanted to move west from the Atlantic itself, needed to get out of the way.

The Declaration of Independence lists “a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.”

This is the part where Americans build an identity of separation from British rule. To remove oneself from an oppressive government. Ideas about taxation without representation. A belief that a common enemy is harming the progress of those free men in their pursuit of their God-given fortune.

And in true American xenophobia, the founders used the last line in its statement of “Facts” to blame a group of people it exploited, marginalized and rendered voiceless.

“He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.”

With that part included in its Declaration of Independence, the U.S. declared to the people living on this continent for millennia that any deviance from this new government would contribute to domestic insurrection, and those people would be marked as “merciless Indian Savages.”

It became the very foundation for Native American people’s relationship with the federal government — from the battles for our very existence to the rights we should receive after U.S. citizenship was established in 1924: access to health care, land and education to build the societies we are working on now.

I just read “merciless Indian Savage” again to myself and looked around at the people sitting in my living room in Albuquerque, New Mexico, right now who are from Zuni, Jemez, Laguna, Diné, Comanche, Cherokee, Kewa and Taos. 

I read it to them. A mix of sadness, anger and laughter filled the room, because sometimes that’s all you can do when faced with this country’s hypocrisy.

I see mercy in all their faces. They show it in the work they do in education, law enforcement, arts and health care. They pray to it with songs and ceremonies once banned and punished under the authority of documents like the Declaration of Independence.

Call me and all my relations merciless when you read the Declaration of Independence today. Read it out loud. Say the words. Do not skip them. Live with them.

Then seek the truth.

We merciful NDNs exist in this country, some of us thrive in it publicly and privately. Many of us are like you and doing our best. We do this despite the objectification, justification for genocide and general degredation of our Indigenous being in a document that forms a hypocritical government meant to give rights to all men. 

We’re not the only ones living with ultra-resilient DNA, this country’s foundation of injustice makes a lot of us built differently, Native or not.

I won’t tell you too much about what this country is or where it will go. I’m trying my best to figure it out. The Fourth of July can be a space for reflection on the values we want, but that is also so warped that I don’t even think we know how to define “value” beyond what a store would print on a receipt.

Truth is a value I will always stand by. It’s core to my soul. My truth in the Fourth of July is a celebration of the merciless Indians slandered when this country started, and our persistence for truth and justice. 

And for myself, that is clearly evident.