Biohazard and Pathogen Disinfection in Socorro, NM

Socorro is an incorporated city and the county seat of Socorro County, New Mexico, in the Rio Grande valley about 74 miles south of Albuquerque.

The 2020 census counted 8,707 residents in Socorro, down from 9,051 residents in the 2010 census.

The 2020 census counted 3,497 households and 4,060 housing units in the city.

Socorro covers about 14.46 square miles, with a 2020 population density of about 602 people per square mile.

In June 1598, Juan de Oñate's expedition emerged from the Jornada del Muerto at the Piro pueblo of Teypana, whose people gave the travelers food and water; the grateful Spaniards renamed it Socorro, Spanish for 'help' or 'aid.'

The first mission, Nuestra Señora de Perpetuo Socorro, was probably established at Socorro around 1626, when mines were also opened in the nearby Socorro Mountains.

Socorro was abandoned during the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 and lay in ruins by 1692; it was not resettled until about 1815, when the San Miguel de Socorro mission church was built on the old mission's ruins.

The railroad reached Socorro in July 1880, and from 1876 to 1890 the surrounding district was one of the richest lead-and-zinc mining areas in the United States.

The New Mexico School of Mines was founded in Socorro in 1889; today it is the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, known as New Mexico Tech, one of the city's major employers, with roughly 1,500 undergraduate and 500 graduate students.

Other major employers in Socorro include the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, the Bureau of Land Management, Socorro General Hospital, and local government and schools.