Emails show Governor Conspired to Control WQCC Vote on Fracking Waste Discharge. Secretary Kenney lied about it on camera.

New Mexico now has its own WATRgate. Newly disclosed emails reveal what advocates have long suspected: the Governor’s Office is actively directing the supposedly “independent” Commissioners who were appointed to the Water Quality Control Commission (WQCC) on how to handle the unscientific produced water reuse and discharge petition proposed by the "Water Access Treatment & Reuse Alliance" (WATR), a front group composed of oil and gas and waste treatment companies.

This year, after an exhaustive 18-month process, the WQCC ruled that there is “insufficient scientific support for the proposition that any discharges of treated or untreated produced water would be protective of ground or surface water.” The Commission relied on testimony from five NMED scientists, independent experts, and extensive public comment. Yet, despite this definitive ruling, the industry-backed WATR Alliance is now attempting to relitigate the issue—without providing a shred of new science that proves that produced water can be safely reused or discharged.

New Energy Economy and other advocates suspected corrupt political maneuvering when five cabinet secretaries sat on the Commission -- New Mexico Environment Department Secretary James Kenney, Secretary of Agriculture Jeff Witte, State Engineer Elizabeth Anderson, New Mexico Department of Health Gina DeBlassie, and New Mexico Game and Fish Department Director Michael Sloane -- on August 12, 2025 to consider motions to dismiss  the WATR Alliance Petition. These cabinet secretaries are all designated as WQCC members, but they routinely send designees to sit in their place on the WQCC. We have filed multiple motions to require science and evidence before reconsidering the rule, but all were rejected. (One is still pending.)

As reported today in the Santa Fe New Mexican, on July 7, 2025, the day before a July 8^th meeting, Secretary Kenney started an email chain with the other four cabinet secretaries; Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department Secretary Melanie Kenderdine, who supervises two WQCC designees; and top officials in the Governor’s Office, including her Chief of Staff, General Counsel, and Deputy Chief Operating Officer, confirming a “huddle” that had occurred among them discussing WATR’s petition. The huddle appears to have been a closed-door strategy session in which approval of WATR’s petition was discussed.

The first email from NMED Secretary Kenney lays out the action plan. He instructs agency heads to replace their designees on the Commission and support the WATR Alliance petition:

As if there were any doubt that the cabinet secretaries were under marching orders from the Governor’s office, in response to Kenney’s email, the Governor’s Deputy Chief Operating Office, Caroline Buerkle, replied:

The emails reference a “huddle” of top officials — a closed-door strategy session where, according to the Governor’s own staff, assignments were given to agency heads and commissioners before the public hearing even began. In sports, a huddle is where the players plan their next move in secrecy so that the other team can’t anticipate it. In government, such behavior undermines due process and public trust in the WQCC, especially when it predetermines the outcome of a supposedly neutral, science-based regulatory process, the goal of which is protect public health and the environment, not to further the oil and gas industry’s economic interests.

Regulatory proceedings are supposed to be fair and impartial, transparent, with decisions made on the scientific merits and according to agency rules, not backroom deals where the executive branch conspires with agency heads to rig agency decision-making for campaign contributors.

NMED SECRETARY KENNEY WAS ASKED DIRECTLY IF THE GOVERNOR ASKED HER CABINET SECRETARIES TO COME TO THE WQCC MEETING AND VOTE FOR THE WATR PETITION HE BLATANTLY LIED IN RESPONSE (at minute 2:00)

In this August 23rd, 2025 interview Secretary Kenney blatantly lies in response to a direct question from journalist Jerry Redfern (at minute 2:00), denying that the Governor directly asked five Agency Directors to attend this particular meeting, or that she directed how they must vote.

Imagine a referee colluding with one team before the game starts! That’s what we’re seeing here. The people of New Mexico deserve a fair hearing on whether toxic, radioactive oil and gas waste should be reused on our lands and in our waters — not a rigged process designed to rubber-stamp industry demands.

High-level administration officials — including heads of Environment, Agriculture, Health, Game and Fish, Energy, and the Governor’s policy staff — were told in the “huddle” meeting to line up and vote for the oil-and-gas-backed WATR petition. The public, and even some state legislators, were left in the dark while the Governor’s team planned the outcome.

Oil and gas has a serious waste disposal problem, which is why they have been knocking on the Governor’s door to call in political favors (according to the WATR Alliance Petition, the oil and gas industry generated seven million barrels of produced water per day in New Mexico in 2024!). The oil and gas industry is running out of cheap disposal methods, because their current method via salt water injection wells is causing earthquakes and blowouts across the Permian. Recent reports indicate that injection wells are now impacting production volumes as well.

Industry does not want to spend the money required to figure out safe disposal methods and transport their giant volumes of toxic, radioactive waste. Instead they want permission to dump that waste on our lands and in our waters. The Governor's collusion with the oil and gas industry to allow the pollution of our water and risk irreversible harm to public health should offend all New Mexicans. We will be filling a Motion to Disqualify and a Motion to Dismiss WATR's Produced Water Reuse & Discharge Petition until scientific evidence demonstrates conclusivley that reuse and discharge of produced water are safe for public health and the environment.