New findings build on WildEarth Guardians’ ongoing analysis of state oil and gas spill records
Contacts
Melissa Troutman, Climate & Health Advocate, [email protected] Rebecca Sobel, Climate & Health Program Director, [email protected]
PAGUATE, N.M. – Oil and gas companies have reported spilling more than 1.9 million gallons of toxic oil and gas waste that polluted New Mexico so far in 2026, with more than half of that pollution occurring on public and Tribal lands, according to new data presented today by WildEarth Guardians to state lawmakers.
Melissa Troutman, Climate & Health Advocate for WildEarth Guardians, presented a report on the findings to the New Mexico Legislature’s Radioactive and Hazardous Materials Committee ahead of its September 11 meeting in Paguate.
The new findings build on Guardians’ ongoing analysis of state oil and gas spill records, which has documented chronic pollution by repeat offenders, inadequate penalties and disproportionate impacts to public lands. The analysis builds on Guardians’ earlier presentation to the committee, finding that industry’s toxic and radioactive waste, euphemistically called “produced water” is the most commonly spilled liquid polluting New Mexico’s land and water, while produced water reuse facilities are associated with larger, more damaging spills.
“New Mexico doesn’t make oil and gas companies follow the same hazardous and radioactive standards as other industries, and these toxic materials are being spilled every day,” said Troutman. “Before lawmakers entertain new ways to spill and dump oil and gas waste around New Mexico, we need to close loopholes to ensure companies, not taxpayers, are the ones paying for the full cost of clean up.”
Produced water is not simply salty water, despite industry’s claims. It is known to contain salts, hydrocarbons, heavy metals, radioactive materials and more than 1,400 chemicals, including PFAS, chemicals without toxicity data and chemicals withheld from public disclosure as trade secrets.
The report comes as New Mexico policymakers are considering increasingly consequential questions about the treatment and reuse of produced water. Guardians is warning lawmakers that expanding the movement, treatment or reuse of this waste without first closing existing regulatory gaps is guaranteed to increase both the geographic reach of contamination and the public’s financial liability.
The risks of are known and severe. In the presentation, Guardians highlighted the ongoing federal cleanup of the Fairmont Brine produced water treatment facility in West Virginia, where EPA has removed more than 1,000 tons of radioactive solids, 72,000 gallons of radioactive liquids and 46,000 gallons of hazardous liquids. Federal taxpayers have already contributed $3.1 million toward the response after the operator folded.
“The oil and gas industry’s waste crisis is no silver bullet for New Mexico’s water shortage,” said Rebecca Sobel, Climate & Health Program Director for WildEarth Guardians. “If companies want to produce billions of gallons of contaminated waste, the liability belongs to them. It should not be transferred to taxpayers, communities or the public lands and waters New Mexicans depend on.”
Guardians also identified significant gaps in New Mexico law that leaves oil and gas waste outside protections applicable to other industrial wastes. Oil and gas drilling and fracking wastes benefit from the federal hazardous-waste exemption incorporated into New Mexico law, while produced water also receives an exemption from certain state radiation-protection requirements.
Guardians is urging lawmakers to pursue concrete reforms, including removing hazardous and radioactive waste exemptions, prohibiting undisclosed chemicals and remaining PFAS uses in oil and gas operations, strengthening liability requirements, consistently imposing penalties on repeat polluters, and considering operators’ compliance histories when issuing new permits and approvals.
“New Mexico has spent decades passing on the environmental costs of resource extraction to taxpayers while private corporations rake in the profits,” Troutman said. “We know how that story ends. The answer is not another loophole for the next generation to clean up. Make pollution count, and make polluters pay.”
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