From staff reports A new report by the environmental group WildEarth Guardians claims the number of oil and gas spills that occurred in the third quarter of this year in New Mexico quadrupled – and an Oklahoma company was identified one of the most frequent offenders.
The group said four of the f ive largest spills happened at produced- water “recycling” facilities, exposing the risks of reusing toxic fracking waste. WildEarth Guardians stated in its f indings that Oklahoma City’s Devon Energy, along with ExxonMobil’s XTO Energy, were among the top offenders.
The third-quarter 2025 Waste Watch report documents 350 fluid spills between July 1 and Sept. 30, including more than two million gallons of toxic waste “lost” to the environment, largely in the Permian Basin of southwest New Mexico. The findings confirm a dramatic escalation from both the Q1 and Q2 reports, which already showed steady increases in waste and wellsite mismanagement across state and federal lands.
“Toxic spills exploded nearly 400% this quarter – mostly on public lands,” said Melissa Troutman, climate and health advocate and lead author of the report. “Produced-water ‘recycling’ sites are becoming major polluters. Large contaminant ponds used for storage and treatment of produced water lead to much bigger spills.”
The report found that four of the five largest spills this quarter occurred at so-called produced-water “recycling” or reuse sites, where toxic wastewater is stored and treated for reuse in new drilling operations. The largest, on July 15, 2025, involved OXY USA’s Mesa Verde East site on federal public land, where equipment failure caused a spill of 1.6 million gallons of produced water and 126,000 gallons of crude oil, nearly all of which were lost to the environment.
“These ‘recycling’ facilities are ground zero for contamination,” said Troutman. “They prove what we’ve been warning regulators: you can’t safely reuse or discharge toxic oil and gas waste without putting water, land, and communities at risk.”
More than 60% of all s pills occurred on federal lands, confirming that the Bureau of Land Management and the Environmental Protection Agency continue to fail in enforcement, WildEarth Guardians charged.
• Devon Energy and ExxonMobil’s XTO Energy topped the Worst Actors list for the third consecutive quarter.
• Eddy and Lea counties (Permian Basin) accounted for 89% of all reported incidents.
The surge in spills comes as the New Mexico Water Quality Control Commission (WQCC) considers a controversial new rule that would allow the discharge of treated produced water into the environment — the very waste responsible for this quarter’s biggest contamination events.
WildEarth Guardians and coalition partners previously won a strong discharge prohibition rule in May, which is now under appeal by industry. The current WQCC proceeding — backed by the Oil and Gas Association and “recycling” operators — seeks to roll back those protections.
“This data is Exhibit A in w hy the WQCC must reject the proposed produced water discharge rule sponsored by industry,” said Rebecca Sobel, climate and health director at WildEarth Guardians. “If companies can’t safely contain produced water at their own r ecycling facilities inside the oil f ield, there’s no justif ication for allowing them to transport this waste offsite to dump into rivers or spread onto fields.”
Across all three quarters of 2025, more than 7.6 million gallons of oil and gas wastes and other contaminants have been spilled in New Mexico – equivalent to more than 1,200 tanker trucks of toxic material. Yet no major f ines or penalties have been issued to repeat violators. Trade-secret loopholes continue to hide chemical identities, making cleanup, worker protection, and medical response far more difficult and dangerous.
“The state’s produced-water ‘recycling’ experiment has turned public lands into toxic waste zones,” Sobel said. “Regulators have the authority – and obligation – to stop the next spill disaster before it happens.”
WildEarth Guardians has been tracking and exposing the industry’s mounting pollution crisis throughout 2025.