Copyright © 2021
BLANCO – Don Schreiber can see – and smell – multiple sources of natural gas from his ranch, which spans the counties of Rio Arriba and San Juan.
Inside his dusty truck are neatly labeled notebooks with air pollution data and the history of the regional oil and gas wells.
At a drilling site that was newly drilled this summer, he pauses and points to the dark green compressors, tanks and pipes that are working to extract natural gas from deep underground.
“Every point here is like every pipe in your house: Everything is prone to leaks or venting,” said Schreiber. “But sometimes the biggest discharges come on purpose. They are part of the design. “
For almost two decades, Schreiber has been campaigning for strict emissions regulations in industry at the state and federal level.
“Oil companies can intercept methane without regulation,” he said. “That is common sense. But it’s also about the end result. “
On September 20, a panel from the New Mexico Department of the Environment will begin hearing the agency’s proposed rules to combat ozone pollution in the oil and gas industry.
The latest version of the rule has been rejected by oil and gas companies who see the regulation as a threat to smaller producers and New Mexico’s budget.
A natural gas production facility near the house of the rancher and environmental activist Don Schreiber near Blanco. New Mexico’s proposed air pollution regulations for oil and gas sites have raised concerns among industry groups and the Legislative Finance Committee. But some, including scribes, say the rules may not be enough. (Eddie Moore / )
Environmental groups support the general objectives of the regulation, but many want the proposal to be stricter.
Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s Climate Change Implementing Ordinance mandates NMED to develop enforceable regulations to reduce industrial emissions.
NMED is empowered to regulate pollutants such as volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides that can react to form ozone.
Under the proposal, professional engineers would have to certify the emissions data calculated by each oil and gas operator.
“We can’t wait for our ozone levels to deteriorate,” said Environment Secretary James Kenney. “We currently have an unequal playing field between industry and government.”
Further inspections and fixes for equipment leaks are another proposed regulatory change.
Ozone pollution creates smog and can harm respiratory health, said JoAnna Strother, senior advocacy director of the American Lung Association.
“We have to ensure that air quality standards are tightened so that we can really be protected,” said Strother. “We still have a way to go before we make sure we breathe cleaner, healthier air.”
Five New Mexico counties received inadequate levels of ozone pollution in the ALA’s latest air quality rankings.
Eddy County was one of only two rural US counties that were among the 25 most ozone-polluted places.
The poor air quality in one of the world’s most productive oil basins may be due to industrial emissions or it may come from neighboring Texas.
San Juan County, a gas producing region, is also consistently showing ozone levels or is approaching US Environmental Protection Agency limits.
NMED estimates that the regulations would reduce ozone-forming pollutants by about 129,000 tons per year and also about 425,000 tons of methane.
The proposal is in addition to the Oil Conservation Division’s recent decision to ban routine venting and flaring and to set a target for gas recovery of 98%.
NMED regulations would apply to oil and gas sites in the ozone-rich counties of Chaves, Doña Ana, Eddy, Lea, Rio Arriba, Sandoval, San Juan, and Valencia.
The hearing of the Environmental Improvement Board is expected to last two weeks.
There is a natural gas source in the state near Blanco. The State Environment Department has proposed regulations to reduce air pollution in the oil and gas industry. (Eddie Moore / )
Industry and government experts as well as environmental groups will present technical statements along with public comments every day.
The rules could come into effect as early as March.
The comments submitted to the NMED panel include a list of concerns regarding the proposal from the New Mexico oil and gas companies.
Ryan Davis, president of the Independent Petroleum Association of New Mexico and operations manager of Merrion Oil & Gas Corp. in Farmington said there was typically a lack of “balanced approach to impact on smaller operators”.
“Requiring certification from a qualified professional engineer is not appropriate and places an unnecessary burden on operators,” wrote Davis as part of the 200-page technical opinion and recommendations of IPANM, adding that in-house engineers certify emissions data instead could.
Davis served on the state-appointed Methane Advisory Board. The group of industry and environmental experts helped draft the proposed regulations.
The leakage of certain pneumatic control devices was a sticking point in the rule-making process.
The devices control pressure and temperature in the oil and gas infrastructure. They can also be a major source of methane pollution.
Davis said replacing all gas-powered pneumatic controllers with bleed-free devices in the San Juan Basin is expensive, largely due to the lack of available power sources.
“It’s not just a simple plug-and-play upgrade,” he said.
The agency proposal has changed since the first drafts appeared last summer.
In May, NMED announced that the proposed rules would now also include lower-emission oil and gas infrastructure.
Kenney said lifting the exemptions was “the right thing” based on science and the need to protect public health and the environment.
Industry groups reject the lack of exceptions for small producers.
“Even if we had disagreements (with the industry), we worked them through,” said Kenney. “We also know that there is a cost to comply with this rule. This is something that, I think, our eyes are wide open, which is why we have built a lot of flexibility in the direction of innovation into the rule. “
John Smitherman, a senior advisor to the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, encouraged the NMED panel to address requirements that he believed would be “extraordinarily expensive, if not out of reach.”
“If this rule is implemented as described, it can result in a large number of wells ceasing to produce,” wrote Smitherman in the NMOGA testimony. “The economic impact on owners and operators, their employees, their families, the community and the state can be profound.”
Bipartisan leaders of the New Mexico Legislative Finance Committee wrote a letter to Kenney on Aug. 25 detailing their concerns about the tax implications of the NMED proposal.
“The equipment and operating costs required to comply with the rule are likely to be particularly burdensome for well-engineered wells that produce small amounts of oil and natural gas,” the legislators wrote.
The LFC letter cites an industry-backed analysis of the potential economic impact.
A study by John Dunham & Associates concludes that the cost of compliance for the industry could run to $ 3.85 billion over five years.
The analysis estimates that more than 1,200 industrial jobs could be lost as a result of the regulations, with a total of more than 3,200 jobs being lost across the country.
Don Schreiber drives down a dirt road that leads to dozens of oil and gas production sites near his home in northwest Rio Arriba County (Eddie Moore / )
For Schreiber, a “strong rule” that reduces pollution is to minimize damage to the land he calls home.
The stewards in his truck will share his comments at the NMED hearing later this month.
Schreiber has urged the San Juan Basin gas companies to drill new holes on existing wells rather than developing entirely new locations with more equipment and more emissions.
Sometimes he will point an optical gas camera at a pipe or tank to detect leaks.
He fears that the regulations provide too many exemptions for emissions when it comes to re-drilling or completing wells.
“It’s a rough landscape,” said Schreiber. “I can go to well locations that have been closed for 15 years and I can tell you exactly where it was. It just doesn’t heal. “
Theresa Davis is a member of the Report for America Corps, a water and environmental researcher for the .
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