"Dave Fosdeck crested a dirt berm on the Hogback, a ridge of hills west of Farmington, New Mexico, when the scent hit him. "Whoa! It stinks!" he yelped. It was June, and he was there with two others to look at the cleanup operations around a battery of massive oil tanks that sat abandoned for years in this rolling, high-desert corner of New Mexico."
"The two holes, the stink and a few massive piles of dirt were about all that remained of a facility - known as a tank battery - that treated oil from 30 nearby wells for decades. In addition to the separator and sludge pit, the site was home to seven cylindrical green tanks the size of small grain silos, a decades-old tanker truck with flat tires, several plastic barrels and dozens of ruptured, unlabeled, cube-shaped tanks leaking mystery chemicals."
Dave Fosdeck encountered a strong petroleum odor while inspecting cleanup operations at an abandoned tank battery on the Hogback west of Farmington, New Mexico. A semi-buried tank collected and leaked waste sludge, and a larger excavation revealed orange-stained contaminated soil and an intensified petroleum smell. A separator that separated oil from wastewater leaked toxic compounds for years, allowing contaminants to soak into the ground and foul the air. Remaining equipment included multiple cylindrical tanks, a derelict tanker truck, plastic barrels and dozens of ruptured cube-shaped tanks that left white and yellow chemical staining. Chuza Oil owned the site before going bust in 2018, leaving wells and equipment exposed.
Read at High Country News
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