The first legislative session of Gov. Michelle Luján Grisham’s term began eight years of progress on addressing the climate crisis.

In 2019, the governor addressed a group of 400 attending the Climate Summit we planned with a host of other groups to launch the first legislative session of her term. She laid out a vision of reducing emissions from the oil and gas industry, the electric sector, transportation and buildings. She joined other mayors and governors in meeting the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement that President Trump had abandoned.

The next day, the governor signed this vision into reality with the third executive order of her administration, surrounded by the kid members of our after-school climate action program, the Global Warming Express. By the end of that session we had passed the Energy Transition Act, which would lead the state’s utilities and coops to dramatically increase their use of renewables to generate electricity while softening the blow of the San Juan coal-fired power plant closing PNM had announced a few years earlier.

The Administration later passed clean cars and trucks rules and updated our building codes twice to drive energy efficiency. In 2021, Senate Leader Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, led the passage of a little noticed but absolutely pivotal bill that allowed the state to adopt clean air standards more stringent than federal requirements. This meant that over the next several years, the administration could adopt oil and gas, methane and smog-pollution safeguards that led the nation. Our state rules helped push the federal government to make even stronger methane rules than it otherwise might have.

The trouble was the Permian oil boom. While lagging momentarily in oil extraction at the beginning of the pandemic, the basin in southeastern NM bounced back, becoming the second most abundant extractor in the country only after Texas (with 25% fewer workers because of automation). With the sheer number of wells, even with reduced leaking, venting and flaring of methane gas throughout the oil and gas fields, we are ever further from meeting our state climate commitments.

In response to this challenge the New Mexico Environment Department, in collaboration with a host of other agencies and stakeholders, has now published a Climate Action Plan that will help the state take the action necessary to urgently meet our goals. To ensure those plans and possibilities survive a change of administration in 2027, we urgently need to put the governor’s greenhouse-gas reduction goals into law and provide the Environment Department with the firm authority it needs to regulate climate pollutants.

This leads us to 2026 and its 30-day legislative session, the last for Governor Luján Grisham. This administration, legislature and grassroots supporters have achieved so much, from decriminalizing abortion to establishing free pre-K, all while stabilizing impacts from the boom-and-bust fossil fuel economy and protecting us from global collapse. That was done by investing royalty income in interest-earning accounts to supply the state with revenue for years to come without actually having to continue extraction. Though we haven’t agreed on everything with this administration, we’ve made real progress on protecting the climate together. Now is the time to ensure the durability of this climate action legacy. Here’s what to expect in the upcoming session.

Climate and energy

State Sen. Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque, and House Rep. Kristina Ortez, D-Taos, will introduce legislation to put the state’s climate goals into law, allow the Environment Department to do greenhouse gas rulemaking and require enforcement of these rules. Last session, we passed legislation providing over $200 million in climate solutions and just economic transition funds to be spent over three years for things like grid modernization, home weatherization and efficiency, and renewable energy and storage build-out. We’ll advocate for the appropriation of further funds for these purposes.

Water

High on the priority list is ensuring all of New Mexico’s water agencies are appropriately resourced. Without this, we can’t meet the challenges ahead. Priorities for one-time funding include the River Stewardship program, critical to restoring the state’s rivers and habitats; $15 million for the Strategic Water Reserve, which completes water rights transactions to keep more water in New Mexico’s rivers and streams; $3.5 million for the state-led surface water quality permitting program authorized by SB 21 in 2025; and $5 million for regional water planning, which provides a mechanism for communities who know their waters best to be involved in statewide water planning.

Lands

We’ll support improving the way the $350 million Legacy Permanent Fund is invested, increasing distributions to Legacy Fund programs from $12.5 million to $20 million annually, more than four years ahead of schedule.

Photo: Climate activist at March 6 Climate Crisis Day rally. Photo by David McGahey

After more than two hours of impassioned public comment, the Water Control Commission  reversed its earlier decision to begin rulemaking aimed at nullifying a ban on the discharge of toxic oil and gas wastewater into New Mexico surface and ground water. The 7-4 vote on Nov. 13 resets a process that was launched by the oil and gas industry after the discharge of waste liquids outside of the industry was prohibited by rule for five years.

“New Mexicans put their trust in the commission to base its decisions, without interference, on technical expertise and independent science.” — Dale Doremus, The Sierra Club / Rio Grande Chapter

The commission in May voted to close a loophole that allowed “pilot projects” to release 84,000 a day of treated produced water to groundwater. The result of the commission’s action was a complete ban on produced water discharge to ground and surface waters until the rule sunsets in five years. Produced water is a waste byproduct of oil and gas operations and contains known and unknown chemicals, many of which are toxic to human health and the environment. Then came the industry’s proposed rule to reverse the ban. The governor and her cabinet had worked behind the scenes to concoct a vote on July 8 in favor of the industry’s proposal, including having cabinet members be present and vote in favor of it. That now has been quashed.

“The commission did the right thing here today by wiping the slate clean and avoiding any appearance of impropriety,” said Tannis Fox, senior attorney at the Western Environmental Law Center after the Nov. 13 vote. “The public takes the issue of clean water, and how dangerous oil and gas wastewater discharge is to our rivers, streams and lands, seriously.”

“New Mexicans put their trust in the commission to base its decisions, without interference, on the technical expertise and independent science from state agencies,” said Dale Doremus of the Rio Grande Chapter of the Sierra Club.

“This is a critical issue that should only be considered under 100% irreproachable circumstances. Safeguarding our precious and scarce ground and surface waters from toxic contaminants that can endanger human health and the environment is too important for anything less.”

In late August, the state engineer issued a decision denying Tulla Resources’ application to transfer water rights needed to reopen the Copper Flat Mine near Hillsboro in southern New Mexico.

NM State Engineer Elizabeth Anderson also noted the effects of climate change on New Mexico’s water resources. Quoting a 2006 Office of the State Engineer report, she stated, “New Mexico’s water future will be determined by water demand and availability of our water resources, (and) climate change will likely have a significant impact on both.”

The state engineer’s decision to deny the water rights application was based upon the hearing examiner’s findings of fact and conclusions of law that the application will impair existing surface and groundwater rights; that the applicant did not meet its burden of proof that it would be able to put the water rights to beneficial use within the 10-year permit term; and that the application is detrimental to the public welfare of the state as it adversely affects New Mexico’s Compact obligations with Texas.

The Copper Flat Mine operated briefly for about three months in 1982 before shutting down and leaving behind a legacy of contaminated groundwater and a toxic pit lake. The mine has not operated since.

The Australian company Tulla Resources Group applied to transfer 2,400 acre-feet per year of groundwater rights on behalf of New Mexico Copper Corporation in order for it to build, operate and reclaim the open-pit copper mine. Tulla Resources Group is the primary lender to New Mexico Copper Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Canadian corporation Themac Resources Group, which is itself owned by Tulla Resources Group.

The protestants also provided testimony that the water rights transfer would damage local waterways, such as the Rio Grande, Las Animas Creek, Percha Creek and Caballo Reservoir, essential to people, wildlife and native vegetation, harming riparian habitats that sustain unique Arizona sycamores and the endangered Southwestern Willow Flycatcher.

Charles de Saillan, attorney representing the Hillsboro Pitchfork Ranch, LLC, the Percha-Animas Watershed Association, the Gila Resources Information Project and the Rio Grande Chapter of the Sierra Club wrote:

“This proposed mining operation would have used a tremendous amount of water – 6,100 acre-feet (almost 2 billion gallons) of water per year for approximately 12 to 14 years.  Yet Hillsboro is an arid region.  And close by we have a residential community and local businesses; two working ranches; and a truly unique, biologically rich ecosystem along Las Animas Creek. They all depend on water. And a few miles downstream we have the Lower Rio Grande, which is subject to a water compact with Texas.  The state engineer absolutely made the right decision in finding that this proposed water transfer would be detrimental to the public welfare of New Mexico.”

Read more here –

]]> 20311 https://www.riograndesierraclub.org/backroom-deal-ignores-public-safety/ Thu, 16 Oct 2025 22:17:47 +0000 https://www.riograndesierraclub.org/?p=20230 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.nm.us/contact-the-governor/), contact legislators and join the fight to stop a rule that would reverse protections just put into place.

(Featured image by pixnio.com/media)

Water Rights Transfer for Copper Flat Mine Reopening Denied by State Engineer

Santa Fe, NM— The State Engineer issued her decision last week denying Tulla Resources’ application to transfer water rights needed to reopen the Copper Flat Mine near Hillsboro in southern New Mexico.

The State Engineer also noted the effects of climate change on New Mexico’s water resources.  Quoting a 2006 Office of the State Engineer report, she stated, “New Mexico’s water future will be determined by water demand and availability of our water resources, [and] climate change will likely have a significant impact on both.”

The State Engineer’s decision to deny the water rights application was based upon the hearing examiner’s findings of fact and conclusions of law that the application will impair existing surface and groundwater rights; that the applicant did not meet its burden of proof that it would be able to put the water rights to beneficial use within the 10-year permit term; and that the application is detrimental to the public welfare of the state as it adversely affects New Mexico’s Compact obligations with Texas.

The Copper Flat Mine operated briefly for about three months in 1982, before shutting down and leaving behind a legacy of contaminated groundwater and a toxic pit lake. The mine has not operated since.

The Australian company Tulla Resources Group applied to transfer 2,400 acre-feet per year of groundwater rights on behalf of New Mexico Copper Corporation in order for it to build, operate, and reclaim the open-pit copper mine. Tulla Resources Group is the primary lender to New Mexico Copper Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Canadian corporation Themac Resources Group, which is itself owned by Tulla Resources Group.

Protestants Percha-Animas Watershed Association, Hillsboro Pitchfork Ranch LLC, Gila Resources Information Project, Ladder Ranch of the Turner Ranch Properties, and the Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter argued that transferring these water rights would harm the water supplies that local communities depend on for household use, crop irrigation, businesses, livestock, and hunting operations.

The protestants also provided testimony that the water rights transfer would damage local waterways, such as the Rio Grande, Las Animas Creek, Percha Creek, and Caballo Reservoir, essential to people, wildlife, and native vegetation, harming riparian habitats that sustain unique Arizona sycamores and the endangered Southwestern Willow Flycatcher.

Charles de Saillan, attorney representing the Hillsboro Pitchfork Ranch, LLC, the Percha-Animas Watershed Association, the Gila Resources Information Project, and the Rio Grande Chapter of the Sierra Club: “This proposed mining operation would have used a tremendous amount of water – 6,100 acre-feet (almost two billion gallons) of water per year for approximately 12 to 14 years.  Yet Hillsboro is an arid region.  And close by we have a residential community and local businesses; two working ranches; and a truly unique, biologically rich ecosystem along Las Animas Creek.  They all depend on water.  And a few miles downstream we have the Lower Rio Grande, which is subject to a water compact with Texas.  The State Engineer absolutely made the right decision in finding that this proposed water transfer would be detrimental to the public welfare of New Mexico.”

“We particularly appreciate that the Hearing Examiner and the State Engineer recognized the significance of climate change in the decision.  Climate change will mean higher temperatures, greater evaporation, less precipitation, and less snowpack to feed our streams and recharge our aquifers.  It will mean less water available to New Mexicans.”

Max Yeh, President of the Percha-Animas Watershed Association (PAWA): “This is the second, and more important, of PAWA’s litigation attempts to protect the waters of our area. The members are jubilant over this win. I started getting calls and emails immediately after I sent out the news. In the first litigation, we successfully reduced the mining company’s claimed water rights from over 7,000 AFY to a little over 1,000 AFY. Now, with this denial of the transfer of water rights, the State has agreed that mining low-grade copper at Copper Flat Mine is a misuse of water that threatens the water supply that sustains our lives, our economic well-being, the flora and fauna of the unique natural world in which we live. However, PAWA has been working to protect water long enough to know that the task is not over with this win. The Hearing Officer’s Report is fabulously detailed and considered, but it is also very narrow and fails to address many problems of water use in the interests of public and private welfare which this case gave opportunities to resolve.”

Allyson Siwik, Executive Director, Gila Resources Information Project: “We applaud the State Engineer’s decision to deny the Tulla Resources water rights transfer application since it will impair existing surface and groundwater rights,” said Allyson Siwik, Executive Director of Gila Resources Information Project. “This decision is a tremendous win for water rights owners downstream of the Copper Flat Mine and the riparian ecosystems of Las Animas Creek, Percha Creek and the Rio Grande that would be irreparably harmed by water depletions caused by mine operations and reclamation.”

Dan Lorimier, Rio Grande Chapter of the Sierra Club: “Water is key to the future in New Mexico.  The denial by the Office of the State Engineer of this huge water rights transfer helps New Mexicans prepare for more certain water availability in the time ahead.  The Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter has worked to protect New Mexicans from water insecurity and celebrates this ruling as a strong victory for New Mexicans and for the physical environment we live in and love.”

State Engineer’s Decision here

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What was once a concrete dumpsite in the drought-stricken southwest became a four-acre oasis, known as La Mancha Wetlands, along the Rio Grande near Las Cruces.

The La Mancha Restoration Project, a vision of Kevin Bixby who then lead Southwest Environmental Center, took years of planning, permitting, fundraising and hard work to come to fruition in 2010. It provides habitat for numerous species of waterfowl, beavers, foxes, rabbits and quail as well as snakes, dragonflies and birds. The trail around it welcomes many visitors who enjoy the serene beauty of nature at its finest.

We began volunteering there in 2020 and were soon joined by Jim Mulhauser, a true craftsman who built and installed numerous birdhouses. His kestrel house was such a success that a study group from New Mexico State University came to monitor the project, which is now in its third year of successful fledging.

During our tenure there, Southwest Environmental Center decided to close its doors and in 2022 it donated the property to Nuestra Tierra Conservation Project, led by Ángel Peña. Years of severe drought began taking a toll on the water level, cattails invaded and soon the pond only held water a few months during the summer — when the Rio Grande was running.

Under the project’s new stewardship, the wetlands experienced a remarkable renewal. In 2023 the organization kicked off its first Earth Day Clean Up (pictured above). It marked the beginning of sustained community engagement and celebrated the first year of new management.

Just this year, the project launched its first-ever designated giving campaign specifically for La Mancha Wetlands restoration efforts, raising nearly $1,000. These funds will help protect La Mancha’s ecosystem, restore trails, enhance public access to the wetlands and provide community programs focused on conservation education.

In May, 12 members from the growing La Mancha volunteer group joined their first official monthly gathering to continue ongoing restoration efforts. The restoration has also attracted academic interest. Professor Buenemann and students from New Mexico State are initiating research for a GIS project at La Mancha, using drone technology to study the wetland’s recovery.

Through our five years volunteering, we’ve witnessed La Mancha Wetlands thrive as essential habitat, proving dedicated community efforts can successfully revive and protect precious natural resources in our desert.

For more information on Nuestra Tierra’s La Mancha Wetlands Restoration Project, visit nuestra-tierra.org

About Nuestra Tierra Conservation Project: Based in Las Cruces, NTCP works to ensure historically and deliberately excluded communities have access to the outdoors and that our history, values, and people are authentically reflected in public land and water management decisions.

FEATURED IMAGE BY GREG LEWIS

Over the course of the last year and a half, the Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter and Amigos Bravos, represented by the Western Environmental Law Center’s Tannis Fox, took part in a critical rulemaking for New Mexico’s clean water supply. A Water Quality Control Commission proceeding addressed whether to prohibit the discharge of “produced water” – a toxic byproduct of oil and gas drilling – from being discharged into New Mexico’s ground and surface waters.

The New Mexico Environment Department initiated the rulemaking to ban discharges of this toxic soup. The risks of discharging fracking wastewater to our waterways are many. It contains chemicals harmful to humans and the environment. There is no known treatment to remove those chemicals at scale. The oil and gas industry is not required to disclose what chemicals are in it; and there are no water quality standards for many of these toxic chemicals to protect human health and the environment.

“Produced water” is the water and chemicals that go down the well when drilling and the water and chemicals that come with the oil or gas that is extracted. Produced water contains many known and unknown pollutants. Many are known hazards. For example, produced water commonly contains arsenic, barium, bromide, mercury, benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes.

At the hearing, Sierra Club and Amigos Bravos put on compelling expert testimony in favor of a discharge prohibition, supporting the position of Environmental Department experts. The New Mexico Oil and Gas Association argued treated produced water could be discharged safely into our precious waterways, but their experts’ testimony was vague and unconvincing.

The hearing nearly veered off course when, in the second-to-last meeting, the Commission voted to allow “pilot projects” to discharge up to 84,000 gallons of this toxic wastewater per day into New Mexico’s groundwater. Our team shot into action and filed a motion to reconsider challenging the evidentiary basis of the commission’s decision.

At the next meeting, after considering our request to reconsider, the commission adopted a final rule banning the discharge of toxic oil and gas wastewater to surface and ground waters. The rule will sunset in five years to assess whether viable treatment technologies have been developed.

This nation-leading rule sets a strong, defensible position that keeps New Mexicans and our environment safe from this fracking waste, and we will vigilantly advocate for the strongest defensible protections again when the state revisits the rule.

Water Quality Control Commission adopts rule banning discharge of oil, gas wastewater to ground, surface waters

The New Mexico Water Quality Control Commission (WQCC) today adopted a rule that prohibits the discharge of “produced water” to New Mexico’s ground and surface waters. Produced water is a waste byproduct of oil and gas operations and contains hundreds of known and unknown chemicals, many of which are toxic to human health and the environment. After Amigos Bravos and the Sierra Club, represented by the Western Environmental Law Center, requested the WQCC to reconsider, it decided to close a loophole introduced in the last meeting that would have allowed “pilot projects” to discharge up to 84,000 gallons per day of treated produced water to groundwater, which was based on an incorrect representation of the record. The result of the WQCC reversal is a complete ban on produced water discharge to ground and surface waters until the rule sunsets in five years.

The New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) petitioned the Commission in December 2023 to adopt a rule to prohibit all discharges of produced water to ground and surface waters. NMED based its petition on the best available science, which shows that produced water can contain hundreds of known and unknown chemicals, that many of the chemicals are potentially harmful to human health and the environment, and that technologies to effectively treat produced water so it is safe are not available at scale. NMED supported its petition with the expert testimony from five of its scientists with expertise in protecting the state’s ground and surface water.

Amigos Bravos and Sierra Club, represented by Western Environmental Law Center, supported the prohibition with expert testimony, demonstrating based on peer-reviewed literature that we don’t know all the chemicals in produced water, a mixture of fracking fluids and underground water for which there is no effective treatment. Moreover, the state of New Mexico does not have surface water quality standards for at least 180 potentially toxic chemicals in produced water.

While the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, New Mexico’s most powerful industry lobbying behemoth, opposed the ban on discharge, one of its primary experts testified that discharge of treated produced water at scale is premature.

“We are proud, pleased, and relieved that the Water Quality Control Commission removed the exemption to allow discharge, as we requested, and adopted a rule that will protect clean water, the New Mexicans who depend on it, and the ecosystems that would be harmed by introducing this fracking waste,” said Tannis Fox, senior attorney at the Western Environmental Law Center. “Once an aquifer is polluted, it is difficult, costly and sometimes impossible to clean up. The oil and gas industry will have to find another place to dump its toxic waste.”

“We are pleased that the Commission adopted a ban on the discharge of oil and gas wastewater to New Mexico’s ground and surface waters,” said Rachel Conn, deputy director of Amigos Bravos. “Our groups and the New Mexico Environment Department prepared an extensive record on the harms and toxicity of this wastewater and we thank the Commission for protecting our clean water, of which we have so little. This decision could not be more prudent.”

On behalf of the Sierra Club , Dale Doremus, a former state hydrogeologist, said: “For more than 50 years, the Commission has based its decisions on science to ensure we protect our ground and surface waters from contaminants that can harm humans as well as animal and plant life. At this time, a ban on the discharge of treated and untreated produced water is what the science supports. We applaud the Commission for making the right call with today’s rule.”

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An idea pushed for decades to better ensure New Mexico’s waters are protected awaits the Governor’s signature. SB 21, sponsored by state Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, Sen. Roberto Gonzales, D-Ranchos De Taos, and Rep. Kristina Ortez, D-Taos, includes three mechanisms to better ensure our most precious resource is protected against pollution and degradation.

First, the bill provides authority for the state Environment Department to take over the issuing of permits for those federally protected waters under the Clean Water Act. Known as “primacy,” New Mexico is one of only three states in the nation to leave this to the Environmental Protection Agency and taking it over has been a discussion for years.

Pushing this idea further was the rollback of federal protections in the US Supreme Court decision, Sackett v. EPA. This decision redefined what is covered by the Clean Water Act and left over 95% of New Mexico’s waterways open to pollution and degradation. American Rivers named all of New Mexico’s rivers the most endangered in the nation in 2024 because of this decision.

Although New Mexico has water quality standards in place, meaning the Environment Department is able to react to a pollution event after it occurs, the state’s waters remain vulnerable without the ability to permit water uses to proactively prevent these events from occurring. As water quantity declines, with a 25% reduction in overall supply expected over the next 50 years, it becomes harder to deal with these pollution events and underscores the need to prevent them before they occur. SB 21 puts in place a state-led permitting program to protect the vast majority of New Mexico’s waters with no federal protection under the Clean Water Act.

The bill also adds needed authorities and creates a fund to clean contaminated groundwater sites. Many of these have been neglected and abandoned for decades with no clear responsible party, and they also don’t qualify for federal cleanup funds.

The bill had a long path through the legislature, with three committees on the Senate side, which included a long list of amendments to better align the state program to the Clean Water Act and sufficiently define liability around contaminated groundwater sites. There also were floor amendments on the Senate side addressing industry concerns, and two further committees on the House side. All this vetting has created a strong bill that balances the needs of industry with sufficiently protecting New Mexico’s water quality.

This effort has been strongly supported by the Rio Grande Chapter and a broad coalition of environmental, community health, and Tribal community groups. To date, the bill passed the Senate with a 25-16 vote and the House with a 43-25 vote, and awaits the Governor’s signature, who highlighted this effort in her 50-year water action plan.

Photo: Red River, 2019, photo by Billy Hathorn via Wikimedia