The New Mexico No False Solutions Coalition and members of the Defend NM Water Campaign held a rally to share their concerns about the proposed oil and gas wastewater reuse rule on May 6, 2024 outside the Roundhouse in Santa Fe. (Photo by Austin Fisher / Source NM)
On Thursday, 27 Democratic New Mexico lawmakers wrote to the 14-member board that governs state water policy, urging members to reconsider in an upcoming meeting its recent decisions regarding oil and gas wastewater.
Last month, the Water Quality Control Commission continued deliberations on a proposed rule to expand the uses of oil and gas water outside the oilfields. Deliberations have been ongoing since December 2023, when the New Mexico Environment Department petitioned to expand legal uses beyond oilfields.
With New Mexico water sources expected to become increasingly strained by more demand and shrinking supplies from a hotter, drier climate, the relationship between oil and gas and its wastewater has sparked a major policy debate in the past few legislative sessions and in the WQCC’s rulemaking.
The state’s oil and gas production generates billions of gallons of wastewater, which is extremely salty and can include radioactive materials and heavy metals from underground; chemicals used in the fracking process; or cancer-causing or toxic compounds mixed in from the oil and gas, such as benzene.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has floated using treated oil and gas wastewater in manufacturing and other industries in her Strategic Water Supply proposals, but lawmakers stripped produced water from the final bill. Water and conservation groups that opposed the idea said that treatments for the water remain unproven and the waste poses threats to human and environmental health.
The WQCC rule-making deliberations included several weeks-long hearings in 2024 with hours of testimony from scientists, water experts, environmental officials and industry representatives. In April, recent edits to the rules culminated in the board adopting positions to allow for some pilot projects to discharge treated produced water into the groundwater, and allowed for so-called “closed-loop” projects to bypass the permitting process.
Lawmakers weigh in
The letter, signed by Democrats in both chambers, called the board’s limitations for these pilot projects “insufficient,” and said they contradict existing law and potentially risk human and environmental health.
“The decision to allow ANY discharge of treated oil and gas waste to ground or surface water prior to the development of treatment and quality standards is both irresponsible and dangerous in the extreme,” the letter said.
The letter cited testimony from New Mexico State University researchers, experts from the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association and even NMED, which requested the rule change, that produced water contains toxic chemicals and treatment options have not been proven safe nor effective.
“Until credible, scientifically based standards for treatment and water quality are adopted, we believe it is premature to issue permits for any pilot treatments outside the oilfield,” the letter said, and suggested research can be done in the labs or in the field under existing laws.
Lawmakers also said if the WQCC does allow pilot projects, then those projects must not discharge waste to surface or groundwater and must follow a permitting process, to allow for public notification and the right to protest.
“The Commission’s decision on the issue is contrary to the legislature’s intent and the letter of the law,” the letter stated.
The letter cited motions filed by environmental groups and suggested that any law adopt more stringent permitting standards. The letter also recommended that the WQCC include tests of 600 substances in the treated water.
WQCC Chair Bruce Thomson, an environmental engineer, said lawmakers raised “some good points,” in the letter but that he disagrees with the characterization of oil and gas wastewater.
“My biggest concern with the letter is that they claim that treatment technologies do not exist. I will agree that treatment technologies are in an early stage of development,” Thomson told Source, saying the board heard testimony of 15 to 20 studies about potential technologies “to treat it to a very high level of quality.
Thomson said the objections to the lack of permits would likely be discussed in the next deliberation.
Melissa Troutman, a climate and health advocate at WildEarth Guardians, told Source NM her group also argued to the WQCC that the leftovers from any produced water treatment process would meet the qualifications for hazardous waste.
“Our argument at Guardians is that it would be creating a new hazardous waste, but the rule isn’t applying hazardous waste laws, and that’s illegal,” she said, saying it would no longer have the exemption under oil and gas exploration.
Troutman said there’s still time to reshape the outcome.
“The door is still open for deliberation, and hopefully we can bring these points forward,” Troutman said. “Hopefully, when they do issue a final rule, it’s much, much closer to what we actually need.”
The WQCC is next scheduled to meet Tuesday, May 13 to continue deliberations.
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This post was originally authored and published by Danielle Prokop from via RSS Feed. to get your news feed on Nationwide Report®.
