Introduction to New Mexico Schools and Oil, Gas Pollution
By ED WILLIAMS of Searchlight New Mexico and SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN of The Associated Press
COUNSELOR, N.M. (AP) — On a Tuesday in March, Billton Werito drove his son Amari toward his house in Counselor, New Mexico, driving past natural gas pipelines, wellheads and water tanks. Amari should have been in school, but a bout of nausea and a dull headache kept him from class.
“It happens a lot,” Amari explained from the backseat. The symptoms usually show up when the sixth grader smells an odor of “rotten egg with propane” that rises from nearby gas wells and wafts over Lybrook Elementary School, where he and some 70 other Navajo students attend class. His little brother often misses school for the same reason.
“They just keep getting sick,” Amari’s father, Billton, said. “Especially the younger one, he’s been throwing up and won’t eat.” The symptoms are putting the kids at risk of falling further behind in school.
The Impact of Oil and Gas on New Mexico’s Environment
Lybrook sits in the heart of New Mexico’s San Juan Basin, a major oil and gas deposit that, along with the Permian Basin in the state’s southeast, is supplying natural gas that meets much of the nation’s electricity demand.
The New Mexican gas has reaped huge benefits. Natural gas has become a go-to fuel for power plants, sometimes replacing dirtier coal-fired plants and improving air quality. Oil and gas companies employ thousands of workers, often in areas with few other opportunities, and their revenue boosts the state’s budget.
But those benefits may come at a cost for thousands of students in New Mexico whose schools sit near pipelines, wellheads and flare stacks. An Associated Press analysis found 694 oil and gas wells with new or active permits within a mile of a school in the state. This means around 29,500 students in 74 schools and preschools potentially face exposure to noxious emissions that can be released during extraction.
Student Achievement and Air Pollution
At Lybrook, Amari’s school, fewer than 6% of students are proficient at math, and only a fifth meet state standards for science and reading proficiency.
Other factors could help explain poor achievement. AP’s analysis found two-thirds of the schools within a mile of an oil or gas well are low-income.
But research has found student learning is directly harmed by air pollution from fossil fuels — even when socioeconomic factors are taken into account.
The risks go far beyond New Mexico. An AP analysis of data from the Global Oil and Gas Extraction Tracker found over 1,000 public schools across 13 states within five miles of a major oil or gas field.
Air Quality Studies in New Mexico
Independent researchers have extensively studied the air quality near schools in at least two locations in the state, however. One is Lybrook, which sits within a mile of 17 active oil and gas wells.
In 2024, a study at the school found levels of pollutants — including benzene, a cancer-causing byproduct of natural gas production that is particularly harmful to children — were spiking during school hours, to nearly double the levels known to cause chronic or acute health effects.
That research followed a 2021 health impact assessment that found more than 90% of area residents surveyed suffered from sinus problems. Nosebleeds, shortness of breath and nausea were widespread. The report attributed the symptoms to the high levels of pollutants — including, near Lybrook, hydrogen sulfide, a compound that gives off the sulfur smell that Amari associates with his headaches.
Those studies helped confirm what many community members already knew, said Daniel Tso, a community leader who helped oversee the 2021 health impact assessment.
