BY DALE DOREMUS
CHAPTER WATER COMMITTEE
and
TANNIS FOX
WESTERN ENVIRONMENTAL LAW CENTER
Since 2022, New Mexico Environment Department staff have worked to develop a science-based rule for reuse of treated and untreated produced water outside oil and gas operations. Produced water is a highly toxic waste generated by oil and gas production.
This May, the New Mexico Water Quality Control Commission approved a rule proposed by the department prohibiting discharge of produced water to NM surface and ground water. Based on a two-week hearing and thousands of pages of evidence, the commission concluded that produced water could not be treated for safe discharge. The Sierra Club and Amigos Bravos were represented by the Western Environmental Law Center in the rulemaking.
The commission initially approved allowing discharge of up to 84,000 gallons per day of treated produced water to groundwater for “pilot projects.” The law center requested the commission to reconsider and it voted unanimously to prohibit all discharge of produced water. The rule, which sunsets in five years, allows non-discharging pilot projects to study treatment technologies.
But before the ink had dried on the rule, an industry group petitioned for a new rulemaking to overturn the prohibition. As Sierra Club, and other organizations, rallied the troops to oppose the petition, their law center filed objections.
But at its July meeting, the commission, including the environmental department’s secretary, voted to hear the petition. This came even though it would reverse years of work by departmental scientists and those scientists would not be participating in the hearing to assess whether the discharges proposed are safe.
During the commission’s August meeting, the law center objected to the petition moving forward without the department’s participation as a party. In the commission’s 58-year history, the environmental department has never failed to take part in a rulemaking on a rule it would implement.
Sierra Club, and other groups, rallied the troops again and overwhelmed the commission with opposition. But five cabinet secretaries showed up to the meeting, all voting to move the petition forward.
Industry frames its reuse rules as a solution to the profound drought we face. It is pure hypocrisy for industry to extract fossil fuels at an unfettered rate, driving the climate crisis and accompanying drought, only to turn around and offer its waste product as a solution to water scarcity.
The Sierra Club will continue to advocate for science-based rules that protect our environment and public health. The hearing will be next year. We will be up against Big Oil and Gas without the scientific expertise of environmental department staff. We urge you to write to the governor (https://www.governor.state.
(Featured image by pixnio.com/media)
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