Southeast New Mexico residents complain of deadly oilfield truck traffic

The massive increase in oil and gas drilling activity in the Permian Basin in Southeast New Mexico is not only producing more revenue for the state, but for the locals, it’s a deadly situation on the highways.

Those living around Lovington and Artesia complain of the large number of heavy trucks that fill highway U.S. 82, a two-lane stretch between the two cities.

The Albuquerque Journal reports there were 17 roadway fatalities in Eddy County in 2017 and again in 2018 and seven in 2016. Lea County had 24 traffic fatalities in 2018, 12 in 2017 and 10 in 2016, according to New Mexico State Police.

“There have been, I think, eight deaths on that highway (N.M. 128) between Jal and Carlsbad,” said Jim Harris, 76, director of the Lea County Museum in Lovington. “And the road south of Jal (N.M. 18) is all tore up. You cannot believe the kinds of holes that are in it now. It’s those oil trucks. I know they bring in the money, but they do the damage.”

New Mexico’s current oil boom, which, according to Robert McEntyre, spokesman for the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, can be traced to the last part of 2016 and the first part of 2017, is pumping big money into the state’s coffers. And the state is looking at putting as much as $300 million to $400 million of that money into road projects statewide.

 

 Folks who live in Eddy and Lea counties, where most of the oil and gas is produced, feel the bulk of that money should be spent to repair roads pummeled by the big rigs serving the industry and also to increase the capacity of roads jammed to a standstill by overflow traffic generated by the boom.

“There are as many as 100 trucks backed up at stoplights in Jal,” said state Sen. Gregg Fulfer, R-Jal, who is himself the owner of an oil and cattle company. “When (trucks owned by private contractors) are charging oil companies $130 an hour, that’s costing the industry millions of dollars.”

Jeri Strong, public information officer and oil and gas liaison for Eddy County, points to U.S. 285, which runs north and south through the heart of the county and is a two-lane road from Loving, 10 miles southeast of Carlsbad, all the way to the Texas state line 22 miles farther on.

“You can’t pass,” Strong said of that stretch of 285. “It needs super twos (a broader two-lane highway with occasional passing lanes) and widening of the shoulders. It’s dangerous.”

Read more from the Albuquerque Journal by clicking here.