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Researchers report elevated methane, benzene and ozone exceedances in Permian Basin study; state officials point to rule-driven improvements
Summary
A year-long monitoring study in the Permian Basin found methane and ethane plumes tied to oil-and-gas activity, benzene above expectations near production, and dozens of ozone exceedance days; New Mexico regulators said recent rules and industry capture efforts are producing measurable declines but enforcement and resources remain constrained.
Researchers told a legislative committee in Artesia on Jan. 29 that a year-long, distributed monitoring campaign in the Carlsbad–Loving area of the Permian Basin found strong signatures of oil-and-gas emissions — including methane tightly correlated with ethane, elevated benzene in populated locations and dozens of days in which ozone exceeded the national standard.
Dr. Shaddai, presenting work sponsored by the Health Effects Institute, described long-term stationary and distributed “backyard” sampling that allowed the team to run a fingerprint analysis called non-negative matrix factorization to apportion emissions. "Methane is intensely discussed these days as a greenhouse gas," Dr. Shaddai said, and in this study methane co-occurred with ethane — a clear tracer of oil-and-gas activity — and with toxic hydrocarbons including benzene. The study identified five source factors they interpreted as fugitive emissions, produced-water signatures, traffic, flaring and a general combustion factor that included a small radioactivity component.
The monitoring captured strong diurnal and seasonal patterns: methane and radioactivity were typically higher at night and benzene showed a pronounced seasonality. The team reported 39 days in their measurement period with ozone above the national 70 parts-per-billion standard, noting 31 exceedances in 2023 and 44 in 2024. On radioactivity, the presenters said ambient readings were on average two to three times typical continental background at their site but well below EPA indoor radon action levels; the presentation cautioned those ambient radioactivity levels were "not immediately concerning."
State officials on the panel framed those findings alongside regulatory actions. Michelle Miano, director of the Environment Department's Environmental Protection Division, described the agency's ozone-precursor rule and other actions since 2021 and said the latest quarter of monitoring shows declines in some ozone design values and reductions in methane emissions in areas tracked by the department. "We're also seeing a decrease in methane emissions as well," Miano said, while noting that enforcement capacity and auditing resources are limited and the department plans to seek fee increases from the Environmental Improvement Board to expand monitoring and compliance work.
Ben Shelton of the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department stressed that his agency's waste rules are the tool used to reduce lost gas and that the state's final natural-gas waste rule targets 98% capture by 2026. He reported that about 88% of operators are reporting capture near that 98% threshold, while acknowledging work remains to close the gap on the remaining operators.
Committee members pressed presenters about comparability of methods and reported methane-intensity numbers. Miano cited a satellite-based Environmental Defense Fund analysis that found lower methane intensity in New Mexico than in Texas; Senator Scott and others asked whether basin-wide, aerial and satellite metrics are directly comparable to the local, long-term ground monitoring used in the HEI study. Presenters emphasized differences in methods and cautioned against simple one-to-one comparisons.
Toxicologist Deborah Caden, speaking remotely, urged care when comparing short-term peak measurements to health benchmarks that are averaged over 24 hours or longer. "The dose makes the poison," Caden said, adding that most risk-assessment and epidemiologic evidence does not show appreciable population-level risk at distances greater than about a half mile when conservative, long-term exposure metrics are used. She and other presenters recommended further risk assessments that use the year-long data to translate measured concentrations into exposure and health-risk metrics.
Next steps described to the committee included pending publication of a state Climate Action Plan and greenhouse-gas inventory, continued use of satellite and monitoring tools for enforcement, planned rule-implementation support for operators, and an agency request to the Environmental Improvement Board to adjust fee structures to sustain auditing and inspection capacity. The committee moved to questions and then to a separate panel on Project Jupiter.
