Thousands of abandoned, polluting wells threaten New Mexicans’ public health, safety, and our environment.

There are already more than 3,300 illegally abandoned wells left unplugged in New Mexico, some of which have been that way for decades. These wells leak methane and other toxins, continuing to pollute New Mexico even though they are not producing. Unless the State steps up, the number of abandoned wells is set to explode: roughly 73,000 active fracking wells will soon need to be plugged and remediated, with more permitted every month. Cleaning up all these wells could take decades and cost New Mexicans billions of dollars if the State allows polluters to dump their cleanup responsibilities on the public.

The Oil Conservation Division could prevent this by taking proactive steps to ensure that operators clean up their messes and taking legal action when operators don’t comply with the law—but instead, the Division uses public dollars to cleanup industry’s mess rather than holding industry accountable to fulfill the cleanup obligations it legally agreed to undertake before doing business in our state.