Mewbourne Oil Company faces $5.5 million federal, state fines for New Mexico air pollution

Tyler, Texas-based Mewbourne Oil Company has been ordered to pay a $5.5 million federal fine for reported air pollution violations at its fossil fuel facilities in the Permian Basin of southeast New Mexico and West Texas.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency identified the violations in November 2019 through a joint investigation with the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED), according to a civil complaint filed Tuesday.

The violations were found via ground and aircraft inspections of Mewbourne facilities, and reviews of company-submitted documents.

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A subsequent settlement agreement required Mewbourne to spend at least $4.6 million on improvements at 422 oil and gas tank battery sites in the region to prevent future emissions violations.

Those activities will reduce air pollution in the region by more than 11,000 tons annually.

Mewbourne was found in violation of both state regulations and the federal Clean Air Act, and NMED Cabinet Secretary James Kenney said companies that choose to operate in New Mexico must follow its laws.

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“Compliance with air quality regulations is essential to ensure the health of our people and the protection of our environment,” Kenney said. “We will continue to conduct oil and gas investigations and aggressively enforce violations.”

In an emailed statement, Mewbourne General Counsel Regan Butts said the company worked since an inspection of its facilities in 2019 to reduce its environmental impacts by using new gas capture technologies and was committed to its operations in the Permian Basin.

“Mewbourne Oil Company has operated in a safe and environmentally responsible manner for more than 55 years, and we remain committed to doing so for decades to come,” Butts said.

“Following the NMED’s inspection of our facilities in 2019, we’ve proactively reduced the greenhouse gas intensity across all areas of operation and achieved industry‐leading gas capture efficiencies in New Mexico.”

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At more than 100 of Mewbourne’s production sites, the company failed to get state and federal permits required by law, did not properly contain emissions from storage vessels or comply with inspection and recordkeeping requirements, according to the complaint.

To address these concerns, the company will spend at least $3.6 million on designing and operating new monitoring systems intended to improve its response to leaks, and another $1 million to replace more than 2,000 pneumatic devices with new, no-emission valves.

This will reduce VOC emissions by 4,500 in the next 15 years, the report read.

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VOCs form ground-level ozone when interacting with sunlight.

That’s a cancer-causing pollutant that the Clean Air Act requires at concentrations lower than 70 parts per billion in an area under the National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS).

NMED recently found portions of the Permian Basin, in Eddy and Lea counties, in exceedance of the NAAQS, forced by state law to take action when an area is within 95 percent of the standard.

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This led to new rules at the NMED enacted last year, increasing requirements for operators to monitor, repair and report excessive emissions at facilities in the region.

Meanwhile, the EPA was considering designating the Permian Basin in both Texas and New Mexico in “non-attainment” of the NAAQS, a move that would slow oil and gas permitting by increasing federal requirements.

The complaint against Mewbourne was intended to reduce pollution in the Permian Basin and ensure compliance with federal law, said Larry Starfield, EPA principal deputy assistant administrator with the EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance.

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“Today’s settlement will eliminate 11,000 tons of harmful air pollutants annually and ensure that Mewbourne complies with the Clean Air Act,” he said in a statement. “The result will be cleaner, healthier air for communities in New Mexico and Texas.”

The case was being prosecuted by the U.S. Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, and Assistant Attorney Todd Kim said the federal government was committed to seeking out violations by oil and gas companies.

“Good air quality is essential to the health of our communities, and we need to ensure that oil and gas facilities are properly designed, maintained and monitored in order to meet national standards,” he said.

“We will continue to work to improve air quality and public health, including by holding oil and gas production operations like Mewbourne accountable for their violations of federal and state law.”

Adrian Hedden can be reached at 575-628-5516, achedden@currentargus.com or @AdrianHedden on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Carlsbad Current-Argus: Mewbourne Oil Company faces $5.5M fine for New Mexico air pollution