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New Mexico

Active Leaking and No Further Action Sites

Agency New Mexico Environment Department
ASTM search distance 0.5 mile

The Petroleum Storage Tank Bureau of the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) handles petroleum releases from regulated storage tanks. Releases to the subsurface from regulated tank facilities are reported to the Bureau, which requires the corrective action that cleans them up. Its home page links a list titled Active Leaking and No Further Action Sites.

In a Phase I ESA

The Bureau's list is the New Mexico form of the state leaking storage tank records that ASTM E1527-21 lists as a standard source. The general reading of a leaking tank listing is on the LUST page. The list's title takes in both active leaks and sites given No Further Action, so check which one a listing is before reading anything into it. What is particular to New Mexico is who pays for the cleanup, who leads it, and where the documents are posted.

How a release reaches the Bureau

  • The Bureau's leaks page says to report a release in working hours to the staff member on its weekly Leak of the Week roster, to fill in its Initial Incident Report Form before calling, and to try someone else on the roster if that week's contact cannot be reached. For an emergency in the evening or on a weekend, the page gives NMED's emergency number, (505) 827-9329.
  • Test results are reported too. NMED's prevention FAQ says owners and operators submit failed results of required tests within 24 hours and passing ones within 60 days of the test (20.5.107.715 B NMAC). Ask whether the file holds the facility's test results as well as any release report.

Who pays and who leads

The state's Corrective Action Fund (see Corrective Action Fund (CAF)) pays corrective action costs at eligible releases: initial abatement, the minimum site assessment, soil and water investigation, monitoring, remediation with its operation and maintenance, and monitoring after remediation. NMED says the owner or operator generally pays the first $10,000 of the minimum site assessment, that a reduced $5,000 or a zero deductible can be sought for inability to pay, and that every cost must be approved by the department in advance to be paid.

NMED takes the lead itself on high priority sites where the owner and operator are unknown, unwilling or unable to do the corrective action. NMED's GoNM map shows the Bureau's facility data by priority and score.

For a number of sites where tanks leaked, the Bureau's Public Outreach, Reports and Lists page posts public involvement plans, public notices of final remediation plans, and the plans and monitoring or investigation reports themselves. If the property or a neighbor is among them, read those documents first.

Where to look a site up

Getting the file

NMED says the GoNM map's features link to Resource Space, where site documents can be reviewed and downloaded. For anything not posted there, NMED takes requests under the Inspection of Public Records Act through its Public Records Requests page: by its online portal, which needs no account, by mail to P.O. Box 5469, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87502, or by telephone at (505) 827-2855. The Public records requests page here gives what a request must hold and the fees.

Sources

New Mexico Environment Department pages, read October 13, 2026, no modified date shown:

Maintained by Barrow. General reference only, not legal or professional advice. Barrow is not affiliated with any government agency, and neither Barrow nor the information as presented here is endorsed by any state or government agency. See how Barrow drafts the report