New Mexico
Risk Assessment Guidance for Site Investigations and Remediation
The New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) publishes its Risk Assessment Guidance for Site Investigations and Remediation in two volumes on soil screening, with a spreadsheet of screening levels that NMED labels Table A-1 (NMSSLs). The Hazardous Waste Bureau posts both on its Guidance Documents page. NMED's page on its laws and rules says its guidance documents cannot be enforced, though they underlie how its programs work. It is guidance, not a rule.
In a Phase I ESA
ASTM E1527-21 does not name state cleanup guidance among its standard record sources. It matters when a file shows a New Mexico cleanup, because it holds the screening values the work may have been compared with.
- Two volumes and two tables. Volume I covers soil screening for human health risk assessment and Volume II soil screening for ecological risk assessments; NMED says its ecological risk guidance was folded into Volume II, which both editions list as revised in March 2017. The spreadsheets are Table A-1 and Table A-4, the vapor intrusion screening levels (VISL). This handbook did not open the volumes or the spreadsheets and states no value from them.
- The editions change. NMED says its 2022 edition updates the 2021 edition, with Tables A-1 and A-4 revised, and its page keeps the November 2021 versions beside the 2022 ones. The Ground Water Quality Bureau's Clean-ups page names the guidance as the November 2021 edition. For a closed site, ask which edition and which version of each table the work was compared with, and see Old closure and today's cleanup criteria.
- EPA's tables fill the gaps. Where NMED's risk tables give no screening value for a chemical, NMED says facilities may use EPA's Regional Screening Levels, which it says replaced the older tables of EPA Regions 3, 6 and 9.
- Groundwater has standards of its own. Under the abatement rules, 20.6.2.4000 to 4115 NMAC, the Clean-ups page says abatement in the vadose zone and groundwater aims at the groundwater quality standards and the screening levels that apply.
What the record shows
The pages read give the record that closes a site program by program; none describes a closure under the guidance itself.
- State Cleanup Program. When abatement is finished, NMED tells the party in writing that the abatement plan is ended and no further action is required. See the State Cleanup Program (SCP).
- Voluntary Remediation Program. NMED issues a Certificate of Completion, which it says documents that the site meets applicable standards, or a Conditional Certificate of Completion where the site still needs monitoring, limits on land use, engineering controls or other care after closure. NMED tells a buyer to read which contamination and media the certificate covers. See the Voluntary Remediation Program (VRP).
- Permitted hazardous waste facilities. The Hazardous Waste Bureau, which posts the guidance, oversees RCRA permits and corrective action at the state's permitted hazardous waste facilities outside Indian lands, and reviews the corrective action plans and reports they submit. See Permitted hazardous waste facilities.
Ask whether the file holds the closing letter or certificate and the risk assessment behind it, and note which edition of the guidance it cites.
Where to look a site up
Site lists sit with the programs. The Ground Water Quality Bureau's Clean-ups page links its lists of State Cleanup Program, brownfield and Voluntary Remediation Program sites. The guidance and its spreadsheets are on the Hazardous Waste Bureau's Guidance Documents page; the Bureau's line is 505-476-6000.
Getting the file
The footer of every NMED page read links the department's Records Request page, and the Public records requests page here sets out how NMED takes a request and what it charges. For a permitted hazardous waste facility, the Bureau's Permitted Facilities page also links its Permit Management Program Electronic Files.
Sources
New Mexico Environment Department pages, read October 17, 2026, no modified date shown: