New Mexico State Land Office cracking down state land misuse by oil and gas, others

New Mexico State Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard said she is leading a shift at the New Mexico State Land Office to better hold oil and gas operators and other users of state-owned land accountable for spills and cleaning up public land after it used.

Oil and gas operators and other users of New Mexico’s state-owned land could face more aggressive enforcement for requirements that land lessees clean up spills and remediate the environment after operations conclude under the Land Office’s new initiative announced in a Thursday news conference.

Garcia Richard said the program already resulted in the plugging of nine oil wells — two in Eddy County, three in Lea County and four in Chaves County.

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Nine other lease sites were reclaimed on more than 7,000 acres of State Trust Land in the three counties, and nine separate enforcement lawsuits were filed against lessees Garcia Richard described as “bad actors” that allegedly refused to act.

The Land Commissioner urged land users to work with the Land Office as had operators of the land that was reclaimed and wells plugged, rather than face legal action.

Grizzly Operating was listed as the owner and operator for eight of the reclamations, for six well sites in Chaves County and one in Eddy County. The lands operated by Grizzly were reclaimed between Aug. 14 and Oct. 30.

Three of the wells in Chaves County were previously plugged.

Mack Energy Corp. plugged a well under the program on Sept. 22 in Lea County, while three wells operated by Grizzly but owned by Occidental Petroleum were plugged between Aug. 21 and Sept. 16, with the land reclaimed between Oct. 15 and Oct. 23.

Operators that required legal action, meaning they refused to comply with remediation requirements in their contract with the Land Office included Nordstand Engineering, Barry Lee Investments and M&M Production and Operation.

Other defendants were Smith and Marrs Inc., Zachary Zimmerman, WPX Energy Permian, Wespac Energy, Permian Radiator Service and Supply and Basin Broadcasting Company.

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“From Day One of my administration, I have promised a culture shift in the Land Office to hold industry accountable for the clean-up of your state trust land,” Garcia Richard said during the conference. “This program represents just the tip of the iceberg in what will be a long process to do just that.”

She said the program was intended to better protect New Mexico’ environment, particularly in the oil- and gas-rich Permian Basin region in the southeast and San Juan Basin in the northwest.

“The protection of our land, water, air, and wildlife is the primary focus of these efforts,” Garcia Richard said.

“The level of activity in the Permian Basin results in far too much abandoned infrastructure, contamination, and debris — and we are doing everything we can, as fast as we can, in order to protect these areas so that they can benefit future generations.”

Aside from oil and gas operations, the Land Office also announced it was auditing business leases, saltwater disposal facilities and other uses on State Trust land, with inspections beginning in early 2020.

The program is being coordinated by the State Land Office’s Legal Division using field staff to inspect developments and satellite imagery and enforcing legal obligations that users remediate spills and other incidents and reclaim the land when a lease is closed back to its natural state.

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State Land Office General Counsel Ari Biernoff, who heads the office’s Legal Division, said most operators follow the regulations and act responsibly but the immense volume of activity means even a few violators can have a major impact on the environment and health of public land.

“We are using all of the tools and data at our disposal in order to hold companies to account in hopes of encouraging industry to do what is right by this land and what is right for our environment,” Biernoff said.

“The majority of operators are acting responsibly but for those that aren’t or haven’t, we are being proactive in order to ensure they return the land back to its original state for the benefit of the citizens of New Mexico and for the beneficiary institutions that we support.” 

State trust land must be protected, Garcia Richard said, to ensure revenue flows to beneficiaries such as schools and other public services in New Mexico.

“We want to make sure that we are using this resource for future generations. Trust lands ensures that school children have future,” she said. “They can’t have that when sites are not remediated, and the resource is not protected. Today we are enouncing our intent to protect that future.”

Abandoned and unplugged wells could also pose a greater risk of pollution as they often continue to emit methane and other hazardous materials unmonitored by operators, Biernoff said.

“Wells that are left unplugged do have a climate change risk, they do leak methane. Not only is this the right thing to do, it’s essential,” he said.

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“The industry will not be around forever, but we want the land to be around forever. That long-term view is what is informing every aspect of our accountability and enforcement program.”

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