NM Environment Department offers free water testing in Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak burn scar

The New Mexico Environment Department is offering free private well testing within 1 mile of the Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak burn scar after an independent geological study found heavy metals in some private wells in Mora County.

The tests are available to well owners in parts of Mora, San Miguel and Taos counties, and over 300 well owners have signed up so far, according to NMED spokesman Drew Goretzka. The agency has capacity to sample up to 430 wells. NMED is partnering with Eastern Research Group to provide the tests.

“While the Federal Emergency Management Agency considers reimbursing homeowners and the state for the cleanup of contaminated drinking water, the Environment Department will not hesitate to step in and offer services to this community,” New Mexico Environment Secretary James Kenney said in a statement. “This private well water testing effort aims to not only inform residents of what’s in their water but chart the path towards full remediation.”

An increase in metal concentrations is a known effect of wildfires that has been attributed to sources like burned human structures, mining operations or fires disrupting naturally occurring metals. But a 2024 peer-reviewed study that found high concentrations of heavy metals in some long-term fire retardants raised questions about whether the heavy metal contamination in Mora is connected to suppressants used to control the destructive Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak Fire in 2022.

Four of the heavy metals detected in the burn scar area — antimony, arsenic, cadmium and uranium — exceeded the Environmental Protection Agency’s safe drinking water limits, according to NMED. The geologic study also found elevated levels of manganese over the EPA’s guidance on lifetime daily exposure of manganese. Six other metals — barium, chromium, copper, lead, thallium and vanadium — were found at elevated levels but within EPA guidelines.

That finding triggered an advisory from the New Mexico Department of Health in November, recommending Mora County residents get private wells tested, and private well users in the area use bottled water for drinking and cooking if possible until their water is tested.

Mora officials helped organize water donations for the community, until the New Mexico Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management was able to provide alternative drinking water in the form of a self-serve water tank, which is available at the Mora County Courthouse.

The metal levels detected are not an immediate health emergency, but could increase health risks over time, according to an NMED news release. Long-term exposure to heavy metals can damage the kidneys, skin, cardiovascular system and nervous system. Infants, young children and pregnant individuals are most sensitive, particularly to arsenic and manganese.

Antimony can cause changes in liver function or blood chemistry, arsenic can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and certain cancers, cadmium exposure can affect kidneys, manganese can affect the brain and nervous system and uranium exposure can increase the risk of kidney damage, according to the NMED release.

Is the water contamination connected to fire suppression?

Zeigler Geologic Consulting was initially hired by Mora County to check water quality in 2023 after the Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak Fire, then supported by an anonymous private donor to continue testing water quality in private wells. Earlier this year, the company noted an abrupt increase in heavy metal contamination. Increases in antimony and manganese were unexpected for the area’s geology, according to an October memo from the geologic company.

“The sudden appearance of high levels of antimony and manganese in these wells and surface water sites in 2025 suggests a connection to the use of fire suppressant materials on the (Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak) fire,” the memo said.

Staff of the geologic company based that potential connection on a 2024 peer-reviewed study from University of Southern California researchers published in "Environmental Science and Technology Letters."

“I think it's very, very plausible that it's connected,” said Daniel McCurry, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Southern California and one of the study’s authors. “I think it would be very difficult to prove that connection, because these metals do exist in nature as well, and the connection between wildfires and heavy metals extends to way before our research.”

For at least a decade, geologists have documented increased heavy metal movement in the environment after wildfires, McCurry said.

“Until last year, everybody assumed it was either naturally present metals in the soil that were getting — to put it in a very non technical way — stirred up by the fire, or potentially could be coming from ash,” McCurry said. “Especially in wildland urban interface fires, if you have structures burning down, that structure ash could contain metals as well.”

The active ingredient in aerial fire suppressants used by the U.S. Forest Service is typically fertilizer, but up to 20% of a fire suppression products’ formulation can be considered proprietary and not disclosed publicly, according to the study. Researchers suspected metals might be added to fire retardant products to control corrosion, the study reads.

So, they tested 14 different fire suppression products to find out what they’re made of and found the retardants contained 4 to 2,880 times greater concentrations of toxic metals than drinking water regulatory limits. At least eight of the 10 metals researchers examined — vanadium, chromium, manganese, copper, arsenic, cadmium, antimony, barium, thallium and lead — were present in all of the fire suppression products, according to the study.

One product, PhosChek LC-95W, had much higher concentrations of metals.

That particular product was not used on the Calf Canyon or Hermits Peak fires and is not something the U.S. Forest Service uses as an aerial retardant, according to the company that produces it, Perimeter Solutions, and U.S. Department of Agriculture spokesman John Winn. 

Winn was not able to provide the exact suppressants used in the 2022 fire by the Journal’s deadline Friday. The products Perimeter Solutions uses in New Mexico are Phos-Chek Mvp-Fx and Phos-Chek 259 Fx, which are in a different product category from the retardant tested in the study, according to Jeff Emery, president of global fire safety at Perimeter Solutions.

“The Forest Service understands how important water quality is for communities affected by the Hermit’s Peak and Calf Canyon fires,"  Winn said in a statement. "… We will continue to be transparent and are committed to working with partners and the local community to identify potential sources of any elevated levels of heavy metals in the area."

The Forest Service does not add heavy metals as anti-corrosive agents in long-term fire retardants, he said.

According to McCurry, heavy metals could also come from contaminated phosphate ore, the material used to make fertilizer in many aerial fire suppressants.

“If there's a wildfire near you and you get your water from a private well, it's probably a good idea to get it tested once in a while,” McCurry said. 

“Regardless of what we found about the fire suppressants, and regardless of what the Forest Service is using these days, it still remains true that all these geologists have been making this association between wildfire and heavy metal release for years now.”

Cathy Cook covers the federal government for the Albuquerque Journal. Reach her via email at ccook@abqjournal.com