Voluntary evacuations were advised after a strong gas order was reported across Valencia County last weekend.
Longtime residents told KOB 4 that a Mesa Oil, a nearby oil processing facility, might be the source, though as of Jan. 15 the Valencia County Fire Department had yet to identify the source of the odor.
“They’re the only oil refinery within five miles, and it smells all the time,” Elizabeth Caldwell, a Valencia County resident, said.
Residents used social media to claim Mesa Oil’s facility south of Rio Communities was the source of the leak, the KOB 4 report said. The facility, according to its website, recycles used oil via a unique internal processing technology.
Valencia County Fire Chief Matt Propp said crews visited Mesa Oil’s facility four times throughout the night and reported no evidence that it was the source of the odor, although the department has not ruled out the facility.
New Mexico Gas Company, PNM and BNSF Railway were all ruled out as potential sources of the odor.
Residents in nearby Rio Communities described the odor as intense and concerning.
“It just reeked bad, bad, bad, bad,” Abril Serrano told KOB 4. “My husband’s like, I don’t even want to light a cigarette or anything outside because you don’t know the intensity of it, or what can happen.”
Serrano added that she suffered a serious headache, burning eyes and throat, and nausea during the incident.
“Once it has to do with my health, I’m just, that’s where you draw the line, and you demand them to do something about it,” she said.
Several Rio residents said they’ve smelled a natural-gas-like odor in the air almost daily since October.
“It was every day where I was starting to smell it in the morning,” Serrano said. “It wasn’t a strong, strong smell, but it was there, and you could smell it.”
Caldwell noted that she lived near oil refineries in San Juan County for nearly 40 years, and she is confident the odor is a byproduct of Mesa Oil’s facility.
“I’m used to smelling a little bit of it,” she said. “It’s really frightening to have that much gas odor in the air.”