State Cleanup Program (SCP)

The State Cleanup Program (SCP) is part of the Ground Water Quality Bureau of the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED). It administers the parts of the state's Ground and Surface Water Protection Regulations, 20.6.2 NMAC, under which contaminated soil, soil vapor and groundwater must be cleaned up. NMED says the party responsible for groundwater contamination is usually the one that must clean it up, with NMED overseeing the work.

In a Phase I ESA

The pages read do not call the State Cleanup Program a state Superfund program, so this handbook does not pair it with the state Superfund equivalent records that ASTM E1527-21 lists as a standard source. The general reading of that record type is on the state Superfund equivalent page. This handbook reads the program's site lists as the nearest New Mexico has. Read the file for which of the two paths below a site took, and how far it got.

Two paths under the water quality rules

• A discharge that needs corrective action. NMED's Clean-ups page says that under 20.6.2.1203 NMAC a party responsible for an unauthorized discharge of oil or another water contaminant, whether it happened now or in the past, must report it and take corrective action. NMED says that where groundwater is affected or threatened, the State Cleanup Program often approves and oversees that corrective action.
• Abatement. The same page says that under 20.6.2.4000 to 4115 NMAC a party required to abate contamination prepares a Stage 1 and a Stage 2 abatement plan, each approved by NMED after public notice and participation. The plans deal with pollution in the vadose zone and in groundwater, aiming at the groundwater quality standards and the applicable screening levels. Stage 1 investigates the site, typically its history, its hydrology and geology, sampling and monitoring. Stage 2 chooses and designs the abatement that will meet the abatement standards. When abatement is done, NMED writes to say the abatement plan is ended and no further action is required.

Before NMED notifies a party that an abatement plan is required, a responsible party may choose to abate voluntarily, and a responsible party or a prospective purchaser may instead enter the Voluntary Remediation Program (VRP). For a closed abatement site, ask whether the file holds NMED's letter ending the abatement plan, and what standards and screening levels the work was measured against.

The Clean-ups page links NMED's 2021 Risk Assessment Guidance for Site Investigations and Remediation (November 2021). It also links a document it labels Delegation of Responsibilities to NMED and Oil Conservation Division, which this handbook did not open.

Where to look a site up

• The Ground Water Quality Bureau's Clean-ups page links a List of Active SCP Sites and a List of Closed SCP sites, both PDF files, which this handbook did not open.
• Abatement plans go through public notice. The Bureau's Permitting page sends readers to NMED's Public Notices page for its permit notices; the Clean-ups page does not say where abatement notices appear.
• The Bureau's line is 505-827-2900 and its general mailbox is gwqb.general@env.nm.gov.

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:

• Clean-ups
• Ground Water Quality Bureau
• Permitting
• Public Records Requests