BURTON FLATS COMPRESSOR STATION

Burton Flats Compressor Station sits approximately eight miles northeast of Carlsbad in Eddy County, New Mexico. DCP Operating Company, LP has operated this natural gas compression asset under NAICS 211130 (Natural Gas Extraction). EPA ECHO data as of May 4, 2026 records seven violation quarters over a trailing 24-month window, a derived penalty total of $12,641,946.40, and zero active permits as of the May 9, 2024 latest-permit date [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip]. Third-party compliance aggregation assigns the facility a Grade F score of 37/100, citing six violation quarters under the Clean Air Act, one formal action, and cumulative five-year penalties of $31,604,866 [source: https://pollutionscan.com/facility/110007020981/burton-flats-compressor-station-carlsbad-nm].

The enforcement record traces back to a 2020 New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) action against DCP Operating Company, LP. That action covered Burton Flats and affiliated assets and documented releases of 63,437 pounds of volatile organic compounds and hydrogen sulfide at Burton Flats alone [source: https://eu.currentargus.com/story/news/local/2020/07/07/new-mexico-fines-oil-and-gas-dcp-midstream/5392957002/]. The matter closed through a Settlement Agreement and Stipulated Final Compliance Order executed September 10, 2021, under AQB Case Nos. 20-46 (CO) and 20-64 (CO) [source: https://www.env.nm.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/2021-09-10-EPD-AQB-DCP-SASFCO-Final.pdf]. Burton Flats is privately held at the asset level with no SEC reporting obligation (CIK: N/A). No 10-K risk-factor or 10-Q environmental disclosure is therefore available for cross-reference. Peer benchmarking within NAICS 211120/211130 places the facility mid-pack on 24-month penalty magnitude but near the top of its cohort on violation-quarter density [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip].

EPA ECHO classifies Burton Flats (Facility Registry ID 110007020981) as a Clean Air Act major source with an active CAA program status. ECHO's exporter file records seven violation quarters within the trailing 24 months and a derived 24-month penalty total of $12.64 million, calculated as a pro-rated share of a five-year penalty aggregate of roughly $31.6 million [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip] [source: https://pollutionscan.com/facility/110007020981/burton-flats-compressor-station-carlsbad-nm]. That five-year aggregate flows directly from the 2020–2021 NMED settlement, which bundled multiple DCP Operating Company facilities across the Permian Basin into a single stipulated compliance order [source: https://www.env.nm.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/2021-09-10-EPD-AQB-DCP-SASFCO-Final.pdf].

The 24-month compliance narrative begins with residual obligations flowing from the September 10, 2021 Settlement Agreement and Stipulated Final Compliance Order between NMED's Environmental Protection Division and DCP Operating Company, LP. That order resolved alleged statutory and regulatory violations at Burton Flats and affiliated compressor stations [source: https://www.env.nm.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/2021-09-10-EPD-AQB-DCP-SASFCO-Final.pdf]. The underlying NMED enforcement cited 63,437 pounds of VOCs and hydrogen sulfide released at Burton Flats, alongside 822,823 pounds at the separately named Fitz Compressor Station [source: https://eu.currentargus.com/story/news/local/2020/07/07/new-mexico-fines-oil-and-gas-dcp-midstream/5392957002/]. Subsequent quarters show the facility continuing to accumulate non-compliance quarters under the CAA program. Third-party aggregation records six of the trailing twelve quarters flagged as violation or significant non-compliance [source: https://pollutionscan.com/facility/110007020981/burton-flats-compressor-station-carlsbad-nm].

The latest permit-related action on record is dated May 9, 2024, after which ECHO shows zero active permits attributed to the facility [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip]. Days since last evaluation stood at 661 as of the PollutionScan extract — an inspection cadence well below annual for a facility carrying this enforcement history [source: https://pollutionscan.com/facility/110007020981/burton-flats-compressor-station-carlsbad-nm]. No federal consent decree specific to Burton Flats appears in available court records. The Cenex Consent Decree in EPA's document repository is unrelated; it pertains to CHS Inc. operations in Montana [source: https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/documents/cenex-cd_0.pdf]. Press coverage in the past 30 days surfaces no direct reporting on Burton Flats operations, and newswire hits keying on the term 'Burton' correspond to unrelated sports, transit, and travel stories.

Formal Action #1 — NMED AQB Case No. 20-46 (CO) and companion AQB 20-64 (CO), Settlement Agreement and Stipulated Final Compliance Order, executed September 10, 2021. Respondent: DCP Operating Company, LP and relevant affiliates. Program: Clean Air Act / New Mexico Air Quality Control Act. The order consolidated two separate administrative complaints into a single stipulated resolution covering Burton Flats Compressor Station and affiliated Permian facilities [source: https://www.env.nm.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/2021-09-10-EPD-AQB-DCP-SASFCO-Final.pdf]. Contemporary reporting attributes a $5.3 million fine to the multi-facility settlement and assigns to Burton Flats releases totaling 63,437 pounds of VOCs and hydrogen sulfide [source: https://eu.currentargus.com/story/news/local/2020/07/07/new-mexico-fines-oil-and-gas-dcp-midstream/5392957002/].

Compliance Quarters — ECHO's derivation methodology (viol_24mo = min(qtrs_with_nc, 8)) produces a count of seven non-compliance quarters across the trailing 24-month window for Burton Flats [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip]. PollutionScan's three-year CAA compliance strip corroborates six flagged quarters within the more recent 12-quarter window [source: https://pollutionscan.com/facility/110007020981/burton-flats-compressor-station-carlsbad-nm]. The two methodologies differ slightly in window length but converge on the same pattern of persistent quarterly non-compliance.

Penalty Aggregation — the five-year penalty aggregate attributed to Facility Registry ID 110007020981 is $31,604,866; ECHO's pro-rated 24-month figure is $12,641,946.40 [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip] [source: https://pollutionscan.com/facility/110007020981/burton-flats-compressor-station-carlsbad-nm]. No federal CWA or RCRA formal actions appear in the surfaced record. Enforcement activity is concentrated under CAA authority delegated to NMED.

Permitting — the latest permit action is dated May 9, 2024, with no active permits currently attributed to the facility in ECHO's exporter [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip]. This status warrants independent confirmation against NMED Air Quality Bureau records, which remain the operative permitting authority for this asset.

Burton Flats Compressor Station (Eddy County, NM; FRS 110007020981) is the sole facility in scope. ECHO data records seven violation quarters over 24 months and $12.64 million in pro-rated penalties [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip]. The facility sits approximately eight miles northeast of Carlsbad in the Delaware Basin and carries a third-party Grade F (37/100) compliance score [source: https://pollutionscan.com/facility/110007020981/burton-flats-compressor-station-carlsbad-nm].

Fitz Compressor Station (contextual peer within the 2020 NMED matter) — named alongside Burton Flats in the Current-Argus reporting, with releases of 822,823 pounds of VOCs and H2S, materially larger than Burton Flats' 63,437-pound figure [source: https://eu.currentargus.com/story/news/local/2020/07/07/new-mexico-fines-oil-and-gas-dcp-midstream/5392957002/]. Fitz falls outside the Burton Flats ECHO scope but was bundled into the same stipulated order [source: https://www.env.nm.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/2021-09-10-EPD-AQB-DCP-SASFCO-Final.pdf]. That pairing matters for context: the two stations together account for more than 886,000 pounds of documented releases under the single 2021 settlement.

Magnum Compressor Station (Carlsbad, NM) — PollutionScan's nearby-facilities panel flags Magnum with a $31,604,866 penalty aggregate identical in order of magnitude to Burton Flats, indicating a cluster of high-penalty compressor assets concentrated in Eddy County [source: https://pollutionscan.com/facility/110007020981/burton-flats-compressor-station-carlsbad-nm].

Red Hills Gas Processing Plant (NAICS 211130 peer) — ECHO records two facilities under this legal name, eight violation quarters in 24 months, and $19.13 million in pro-rated penalties, exceeding Burton Flats on both counts [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip].

Azalea Battery (NAICS 211120 peer) — one facility, eight violation quarters, $16.13 million pro-rated 24-month penalties. Taken together, Red Hills and Azalea illustrate that Burton Flats' enforcement profile is representative of — not an outlier within — upstream and midstream Permian compression and battery operations [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip].

ECHO's top_pollutants array for Burton Flats is empty in the current exporter extract [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip]. The underlying NMED record fills that gap. It identifies two pollutant categories as the basis for the 2020–2021 enforcement: volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and hydrogen sulfide (H2S), with 63,437 pounds released from Burton Flats alone [source: https://eu.currentargus.com/story/news/local/2020/07/07/new-mexico-fines-oil-and-gas-dcp-midstream/5392957002/].

VOCs — a precursor to ground-level ozone formation. Emissions from natural gas compression typically include methane co-emitted with non-methane VOCs such as ethane, propane, benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes (BTEX). Exposure pathways are primarily inhalation within a downwind fenceline radius. Benzene specifically is classified as a known human carcinogen. The Burton Flats release figure is drawn from the NMED stipulated order scope [source: https://www.env.nm.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/2021-09-10-EPD-AQB-DCP-SASFCO-Final.pdf].

Hydrogen Sulfide — a reduced sulfur gas associated with sour gas handling. Acute inhalation exposure at elevated concentrations presents respiratory and neurological hazards. Chronic low-level exposure is associated with eye and respiratory irritation. Detectable by odor at sub-ppm concentrations, H2S is among the more operationally consequential gases at compression facilities handling Permian Basin sour streams. The commingled VOC and H2S figures reported for Burton Flats (63,437 lb) and Fitz (822,823 lb) formed the basis for the NMED penalty calculation [source: https://eu.currentargus.com/story/news/local/2020/07/07/new-mexico-fines-oil-and-gas-dcp-midstream/5392957002/].

Methane — not separately itemized in the NMED action but implicit in the compression-operations emissions profile. ECHO's ej_index_avg for this facility is reported as 0.0, which reflects the rural siting in Eddy County rather than a zero environmental-justice burden; EJScreen indices in sparsely populated census blocks can default low even where proximal residential exposure exists [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip].

Within the NAICS 211120/211130 peer set, Burton Flats ranks fourth on 24-month penalty aggregate ($12.64M) behind Greka Bell ($26.16M), Red Hills ($19.13M), and Azalea Battery ($16.13M). Its seven violation quarters, however, place it near the top of the cohort on non-compliance frequency — tied near the ECHO-capped maximum of eight held by Red Hills and Azalea, and materially above Greka Bell's zero quarters [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip]. The cohort uniformly reports ej_index_avg of 0.0, consistent with rural Permian and Gulf Coast siting. Greka Bell's combination of zero violation quarters with the cohort's highest penalty total points to a single large historical settlement rather than ongoing non-compliance. Burton Flats, Red Hills, and Azalea, by contrast, show persistent quarter-over-quarter non-compliance signatures that distinguish them from a one-time resolution pattern [source: https://pollutionscan.com/facility/110007020981/burton-flats-compressor-station-carlsbad-nm].

Burton Flats Compressor Station has no SEC reporting obligation (CIK: N/A, Ticker: private), so no Item 1A risk factor disclosure exists for this asset. Forward-looking environmental risk must be inferred from the 2021 NMED Stipulated Final Compliance Order, which binds DCP Operating Company, LP to ongoing compliance obligations at Burton Flats and affiliated Permian facilities [source: https://www.env.nm.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/2021-09-10-EPD-AQB-DCP-SASFCO-Final.pdf]. Three residual risk categories emerge from the public record. First, CAA non-compliance quarters have continued to accumulate post-settlement [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip]. Second, the 661-day gap since the last facility evaluation raises the possibility of escalated NMED oversight when the next inspection cycle closes [source: https://pollutionscan.com/facility/110007020981/burton-flats-compressor-station-carlsbad-nm]. Third, forthcoming federal methane-fee provisions applicable to natural gas compression assets could add a new financial exposure layer not yet reflected in the existing penalty record.