US ARMY GARRISON WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE

U.S. Army Garrison White Sands Missile Range (WSMR), the 3,200-square-mile Department of the Army installation in Doña Ana County, New Mexico, sits in the highest-severity tier of federal-facility environmental compliance records. EPA ECHO data for facility ID 110001209077 shows 8 quarters with noncompliance in the trailing 24 months and a derived penalty total of approximately $3.97 million over that window, against a five-year total of $9,930,097 [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip] [source: https://pollutionscan.com/facility/110001209077/us-army-garrison-white-sands-missile-range-white-sands-missile-range-nm]. That five-year figure is not an abstraction. The New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) issued a roughly $9 million administrative compliance order in March 2025 covering Air Quality Bureau cases USA-0141-2001, 2101, 2201, 2301, 2302, 2303, and 2401 — a multi-year consolidation of alleged Clean Air Act and recordkeeping violations spanning multiple permit years [source: https://service.web.env.nm.gov/urls/ebuqytao] [source: https://www.news-journal.com/nmed-issues-9m-fine-for-air-pollution-recordkeeping-violations-at-white-sands/article_9c5d32b2-9060-5e71-8635-2e67c69cfef4.html].

WSMR is a federal facility, not an SEC registrant. No 10-K, 10-Q, or Item 1A risk disclosures exist. Public-facing environmental representations come from the garrison's Directorate of Public Works (DPW) Environmental Division and from Army Environmental Command (AEC) program pages covering PFAS sampling and installation cleanup [source: https://home.army.mil/wsmr/about/garrison/directorate-public-works-dpw/environmental] [source: https://aec.army.mil/PFAS/NM/WSMR/] [source: https://aec.army.mil/Portals/115/IAPS/24IAP-NM-WSMR.pdf?ver=mfTpPYJy3TOjV3-N5uoO9Q==]. Those pages describe a mandate of full environmental compliance and proactive stewardship. The NMED administrative record tells a different story — and the distance between those two accounts is the central analytical feature of this briefing [source: https://home.army.mil/wsmr/about/garrison/directorate-public-works-dpw/environmental] [source: https://service.web.env.nm.gov/urls/ebuqytao].

WSMR is flagged in EPA ECHO as a Major facility under the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), and Safe Drinking Water Act programs. Third-party aggregation of the ECHO record assigns WSMR a composite score of 21/100, with 8 inspections, 20 violation quarters, three formal enforcement actions, and $9,930,097 in total penalties across the five-year window [source: https://pollutionscan.com/facility/110001209077/us-army-garrison-white-sands-missile-range-white-sands-missile-range-nm]. RCRA hazardous-waste status shows repeated violation and unresolved quarters within the last three years. Clean Air Act quarters, by contrast, trend toward resolution status across the same period [source: https://pollutionscan.com/facility/110001209077/us-army-garrison-white-sands-missile-range-white-sands-missile-range-nm].

The 24-month chronology is dominated by state-led action. NMED's Air Quality Bureau consolidated seven case numbers — USA-0141-2001, 2101, 2201, 2301, 2302, 2303, and 2401 — into a single Administrative Compliance Order issued under Section 74-2-12 of the New Mexico Air Quality Control Act. The order names the Department of the Army as Respondent and alleges a recurring pattern of air-permit and recordkeeping noncompliance extending back multiple permit years [source: https://service.web.env.nm.gov/urls/ebuqytao]. Regional press coverage in March 2025 reported the associated civil penalty assessment at approximately $9 million [source: https://www.news-journal.com/nmed-issues-9m-fine-for-air-pollution-recordkeeping-violations-at-white-sands/article_9c5d32b2-9060-5e71-8635-2e67c69cfef4.html]. Seven consolidated case numbers across multiple permit years is not the profile of a one-time administrative slip. The ECHO-derived 24-month penalty figure of $3,972,038.80 reflects a straight-line apportionment of the five-year total and therefore does not yet capture the full NMED order, which was issued near the boundary of the reporting window [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip].

Outside the air-program track, WSMR is an active site in the Army Cleanup Program. The June 2024 Installation Action Plan documents ongoing Installation Restoration Program and Military Munitions Response Program work across multiple sites on the range, with phase-transition tracking for contamination characterization and remedy selection [source: https://aec.army.mil/Portals/115/IAPS/24IAP-NM-WSMR.pdf?ver=mfTpPYJy3TOjV3-N5uoO9Q==]. Separately, AEC lists WSMR — including the Green River Test Site component in Green River, Utah — within the Army's PFAS drinking-water and off-post sampling program [source: https://aec.army.mil/PFAS/NM/WSMR/] [source: https://aec.army.mil/PFAS/NM/grts]. ECHO records no currently active NPDES or Title V permits indexed under the facility header as of the May 4, 2026 data pull, with the latest permit date recorded as February 9, 2026 [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip]. EJScreen exposure indices return 0.0 for the facility centroid — an artifact of the installation's 3,200-square-mile low-population footprint, not an indicator of zero off-post exposure for communities downrange [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip].

NMED Administrative Compliance Order — AQB Cases USA-0141-2001, 2101, 2201, 2301, 2302, 2303, 2401 (issued early 2025). Issued under Section 74-2-12 of the New Mexico Air Quality Control Act, NMSA §§ 74-2-1 through -17. Respondent: Department of the Army. Subject matter: alleged air-permit exceedances and recordkeeping failures at WSMR spanning multiple permit years. The associated civil penalty is reported at approximately $9 million [source: https://service.web.env.nm.gov/urls/ebuqytao] [source: https://www.news-journal.com/nmed-issues-9m-fine-for-air-pollution-recordkeeping-violations-at-white-sands/article_9c5d32b2-9060-5e71-8635-2e67c69cfef4.html].

RCRA Subtitle C hazardous-waste track — Facility 110001209077. Quarterly compliance status strings published by EPA show repeated violation and unresolved ("u", "v") quarters within the most recent three-year rolling window, against an 8-inspection count and three formal actions over five years [source: https://pollutionscan.com/facility/110001209077/us-army-garrison-white-sands-missile-range-white-sands-missile-range-nm] [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip]. Those unresolved quarters have accumulated across multiple inspection cycles, meaning the RCRA record has not cleared even as the air-program track moves toward resolution.

Clean Air Act track — Facility 110001209077. Quarterly status strings trend toward "s" (in-compliance/resolved) across the three-year view, consistent with the resolution pathway implied by the NMED Administrative Compliance Order process [source: https://pollutionscan.com/facility/110001209077/us-army-garrison-white-sands-missile-range-white-sands-missile-range-nm]. Final resolution of the seven consolidated AQB cases will determine whether that trend holds.

Per-program penalty allocation is not individually disaggregated in the public ECHO exporter at the sub-case level. The $9,930,097 five-year total and the $3,972,038.80 derived 24-month figure are composite values across CAA, RCRA, CWA, and SDWA programs [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip].

White Sands Missile Range main installation (100 Headquarters Ave, White Sands Missile Range, NM 88002; Doña Ana County; EPA ID 110001209077). This is the only facility associated with the garrison in the ECHO pull. It carries Major designations under CAA, CWA, RCRA, and SDWA; 8 inspections and 20 violation quarters over five years; three formal actions; and $9,930,097 in total penalties — a cumulative figure driven primarily by the 2025 NMED air-program order [source: https://pollutionscan.com/facility/110001209077/us-army-garrison-white-sands-missile-range-white-sands-missile-range-nm] [source: https://service.web.env.nm.gov/urls/ebuqytao].

WSMR — Green River Test Site (Green River, Utah). A detached WSMR test component listed independently on the Army PFAS portal for drinking-water and off-post investigation reporting. The site is referenced within WSMR's installation envelope for PFAS sampling obligations [source: https://aec.army.mil/PFAS/NM/grts]. Its geographic separation from the New Mexico main installation does not remove it from the Army's PFAS policy obligations, and sampling results feed back into the broader WSMR program record.

No additional ECHO-indexed facilities are returned under the WSMR garrison CIK-equivalent; the remaining four "top 5" slots are unpopulated in the research bundle. EJScreen indices for the main facility return 0.0, reflecting the extremely low on-range residential population rather than a characterization of communities downrange or downwind in Las Cruces, Alamogordo, or Tularosa Basin tribal lands [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip].

ECHO's exporter did not return a ranked top-pollutants list for facility 110001209077 in this pull, so pollutant context is reconstructed from the underlying program designations and the NMED order [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip]. Criteria air pollutants and hazardous air pollutants governed by New Mexico Air Quality Control Act permits sit at the center of the NMED case bundle. The order references recordkeeping and permit-limit matters characteristic of combustion sources, open-burn/open-detonation activities, and fuel and propellant test operations typical of a missile range [source: https://service.web.env.nm.gov/urls/ebuqytao]. EPA's general AP-42 framework for munitions testing and open burning identifies nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, particulate matter, and residual metals as the principal exposure pathways for populations downwind of test events. For WSMR, prevailing winds place Alamogordo, the Mescalero Apache Reservation, and the broader Tularosa Basin within downwind reach of those emission sources.

RCRA hazardous waste is the second pollutant category of record. WSMR's three-year RCRA string contains multiple violation and unresolved quarters [source: https://pollutionscan.com/facility/110001209077/us-army-garrison-white-sands-missile-range-white-sands-missile-range-nm]. Military-munitions-response waste streams — including propellant residues, spent energetics, and contaminated soils — are tracked through the Installation Action Plan's Military Munitions Response Program sites [source: https://aec.army.mil/Portals/115/IAPS/24IAP-NM-WSMR.pdf?ver=mfTpPYJy3TOjV3-N5uoO9Q==]. Those waste streams are not incidental byproducts; they are the direct output of the range's core test mission, which makes ongoing RCRA compliance structurally demanding.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) constitute the third category. WSMR and its Green River Test Site component are both listed in the Army PFAS program for drinking-water sampling under current Army Policy, with PFOS and PFOA as the principal analytes [source: https://aec.army.mil/PFAS/NM/WSMR/] [source: https://aec.army.mil/PFAS/NM/grts]. PFAS exposure pathways at firefighting-foam-impacted installations typically run through groundwater to on-post and off-post drinking-water systems, and the full extent of that pathway at WSMR has not been publicly closed out.

NAICS 928110 (National Security) peer benchmarking returned no comparable federal-installation peers in the research bundle. As a structural matter, large DoD test ranges — WSMR, Edwards AFB, Nevada Test and Training Range, Dugway Proving Ground — are each sui generis under ECHO's program designations, and cross-installation penalty comparisons are distorted by differences in state enforcement posture. Against its own five-year baseline, WSMR's $9,930,097 total penalty figure and 20 violation quarters place the installation in the lowest-rated tier of the ECHO-indexed federal facility universe per third-party aggregation [source: https://pollutionscan.com/facility/110001209077/us-army-garrison-white-sands-missile-range-white-sands-missile-range-nm] [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip].

WSMR is a federal installation and files no SEC disclosures; Item 1A and Item 7 analysis is not applicable and no 10-K URL is available in the research bundle. Forward-looking environmental risk factors surfaced in public documents include: (i) resolution pathway and final penalty quantum for the consolidated NMED Air Quality Bureau cases USA-0141-2001 through -2401, where the reported $9 million figure may shift as the administrative process concludes [source: https://service.web.env.nm.gov/urls/ebuqytao]; (ii) progression of Installation Restoration Program and Military Munitions Response Program sites through the phase-transition table in the June 2024 Installation Action Plan, with multiple sites still in active characterization [source: https://aec.army.mil/Portals/115/IAPS/24IAP-NM-WSMR.pdf?ver=mfTpPYJy3TOjV3-N5uoO9Q==]; and (iii) PFAS sampling results and any subsequent response actions at both the main installation and the Green River Test Site under Army PFAS policy, where PFOS and PFOA remain the principal analytes under active monitoring [source: https://aec.army.mil/PFAS/NM/WSMR/] [source: https://aec.army.mil/PFAS/NM/grts].