New Mexico
Neglected Contamination Sites
Neglected Contamination Sites is the New Mexico Environment Department's (NMED) name for properties where contamination nobody has dealt with threatens soil and groundwater, or has already reached them, and no viable responsible party exists to pay for investigating and cleaning it up. NMED's page says amendments to the Water Quality Act in the 2025 legislative session gave NMED authority to investigate and remediate these sites, and created a fund for them.
In a Phase I ESA
ASTM E1527-21 does not name a state list of neglected or orphan sites among its standard record sources. The pages read do not call this a state Superfund list, and this handbook does not pair it with that record type, though it reads it as one of the nearest New Mexico records (see the overview). It matters because of the kinds of site it takes in.
- The former uses NMED names. NMED links the contamination at these sites to past operations such as electroplating, wood treating, dry cleaning, auto repair and service, oil processing, natural gas plants, power plants, manufacturing, farming, research facilities and the handling of chemicals, among others.
- Spills, dumps and old landfills count too. NMED says many spills, landfills from before regulation, and illegal dumps are also neglected sites.
- Reports and legislation. The page's reports run from October 2021 to November 2023: Orphan Sites in New Mexico (October 2021), the Orphan Site Investigation and Remediation Program Gap Analysis Report (May 2022) and the Neglected Contamination Sites Implementation Plan (November 2023). Excerpts of 74-6-9(D) and 74-6-5.3, the sections the page gives for the authority and the fund, are linked from the page.
Where to look a site up
- The Neglected Contamination Sites page has a section headed List of Neglected Contaminated Sites, with two tabs labeled Neglected Contamination Sites and Neglected Contamination Sites Limited Hazardous Waste Information. This handbook did not read the tabs' contents.
- The same page posts documents under the heading Site Activity, among them investigation reports, Phase I and Phase II environmental site assessments, remedial action plans and public notices of remediation, with a link to NMED's public comment portal. If the property or a neighbor is among them, read those documents first.
- The page links a contact page for the program, which this handbook did not open.
Getting the file
NMED takes records 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: