Air Quality Bureau

The New Mexico Environment Department has developed several permitting path specifically for the oil and gas industry.  Assuming a permit is required under 20.2.72.200 NMAC, oil and gas facilities have three basic Part 72 permitting options:

The first is to obtain a "regular permit" under 20.2.72.200 NMAC.  To do so, use the Universal Application (above).  This permitting path requires full public notice, ambient air quality modeling, and up to a 120 day timeline to permit issuance from receipt of a complete application.

The second is to register under an existing "general construction permit", either a GCP-1 or a GCP-4 permit, under 20.2.72.220 NMAC.  The registration application for these permits can be found below.  It is important to realize that this process is registering under an existing permit, rather than being issued a new permit.  Thus, the permit cannot be customized in any way.  If a facility cannot meet ALL the requirements of the existing permit, then it cannot be registered under this type of permit.   This permitting path requires newspaper and posting public notice only, does not require ambient air quality modeling, and up to a 30 day timeline to permit issuance from receipt of a complete application.

The third is to obtain a "streamline" permit under 20.2.72.300 NMAC.  To do so, use the Universal Application (above).  This permitting path has the benefit of requiring filling out of only a subset of the Universal Application.  This permitting path requires newspaper and posting public notice only, does not require ambient air quality modeling, and up to a 60 day timeline to permit issuance from receipt of a complete application.