@oilfieldwitness.bsky.social:
Charlie found and reported an oil spill in New Mexico last month. It got some attention and was actually addressed. However, as you’ll see in this video, what the industry considers “clean” likely isn’t what you would if it was your land.
Permian Poco spill video 10 29 2025 – charlie barrett Nov 4, 2025
A few weeks ago I found some gnarly oil spills. This is one of them. This site is owned by Poco Resources LLC and is situated on state land. I have documented a lot of issues at their sites. Anything from gathering line leaks, air emissions, and oil spills like this one. Recently, I filed a complaint with the state land office and they responded almost immediately and requested that the operator address this situation. I was surprised to say the least.
First, I want you to see what their cleanup effort looks like, but I also wanted to show there are other problems associated with old sites like this. While it’s great Poco kind of cleaned up their site, there are a few glaring problems that persist. I noticed the soil had been mostly turned, so I am not quite sure what the situation underground looks like. Usually a backhoe would be brought into to search for the leak and an SVE (soil vapor extraction) unit could be installed to vacuum out soil contamination (these don’t work either. I have documented these failures and will share soon). Anyways, there is still oil on the topsoil.
Also, it’s difficult for the controls in place to limit air pollution when there is a giant hole in the top of a tank. As you can see here, there is a constant stream of pollution as a result. This is another reason we need to stop issuing permits, but at the very least operators should have to pay the full cost to clean up all of their sites. Otherwise, you see disasters like this in what was once the largest continuous prairie grassland.