In 2005, Southwest Salt Company started working with the Red Bluff Reservoir, the Pecos River Compact Commission, and the states of Texas and New Mexico to develop a plan to eliminate the salt coming into the Pecos River at Malaga, NM.

By 2012, all permits and water rights were finally in place and we began construction on our first pond. We have now constructed five 20-acre ponds that can produce 90,000 tons per year of salt. The ultimate goal is to produce 200,000 tons per year, thus removing all of the salt entering the Pecos at Malaga.

This is an exciting partnership between various governmental agencies and Southwest Salt. The partnership will result in a cleaner Pecos River and a viable business enterprise.

As early as the 1950’s, it was discovered that 250 tons of salt per day were entering the Pecos River near Malaga, New Mexico from what can only be described as an underground sea of fully saturated salt water. The salt water is now being pushed up into the bottom of the Pecos River through a fissure (crack) in the rock under the river that had been keeping the salt water trapped. The salt water then travels down the Pecos River to the Red Bluff Reservoir where it is turning the reservoir into a gigantic salt lake. Ultimately, the water flows downstream through west Texas into the Rio Grande River, causing additional problems.