Today New Mexico marked SAFE from discharge of fracking waste to our ground and surface waters!

Yesterday we showed up at the Water Quality Control Commission to defend New Mexico water from fracking waste. Our sincere thanks to the many who wrote to the Commissioners, who made public comment, and especially those who joined us at the meeting yesterday, holding up "No Discharge of Fracking Waste" signs. New Mexicans came from all over the state, including Taos, Albuquerque, Farmington, Espanola, Las Vegas and Santa Fe to protect our water! We are grateful in particular to the community groups in Defend NM Water who keep showing up, who joined with us in our legal and public organizing efforts, and who are not afraid to stand up for principles, to ask for what we need from our Government, and to persevere with creativity and courage until we achieve justice.

BECAUSE OF ALL OF YOU, TODAY NEW MEXICANS WON!

The Water Quality Control Commission voted to adopt a final Wastewater Reuse Rule, WQCC 23-84, that prohibits all discharge of toxic oil and gas liquid waste, aka produced water, whether treated or untreated, and requires that a stringent pilot project permit be obtained from the New Mexico Environment Department for any off-oilfield treatment and reuse projects planned. They also voted to include language requiring pilot projects to characterize and properly dispose of residual waste from the treatment process.

These decisions were made after New Energy Economy, WildEarth Guardians and Indigenous community members filed a Joint Motion to Prevent Plain Error on April 25th objecting to the Commission’s vote in April to include an allowance for discharge of 2000 barrels of treated produced water from pilot projects per day, and to institute an illegal and flimsy Notice of Intent procedure for closed-loop pilot projects. The Commission announced its intention to include these decisions in final language and vote on adoption of the rule at their May 13th meeting, but their decisions today and yesterday, after reading our objections and hearing from other parties, the public and more than two dozen legislators, reversed those mistakes.

Our Joint Motion argued that there is no credible scientific evidence in the record to support the idea that discharges of "treated" produced water to land or groundwater are safe. No peer-reviewed studies that prove treatment efficacy at scale. No rigorous, independent evaluations. No clear assessments of risk to human health, aquatic life, soil quality, or the food supply. There are no conclusive toxicity profiles, no understanding of cumulative or synergistic effects, and no evidence that the environment or human populations can absorb these discharges without irreparable harm. A decision to allow such discharge without protective quality standards would violate the Water Quality Act’s requirement that decisions of the Commission must rely on credible scientific evidence.

Yesterday the Commissioners present voted unanimously to reverse their April decision and prohibit discharge of treated produced water, and today that language was formally adopted.

Our Joint Motion also argued that Produced water is not water in any conventional or regulatory sense. It is an industrial waste product—a complex, highly toxic chemical stew resulting from oil and gas extraction. It includes hydrocarbons, heavy metals, fracking chemicals, biocides, surfactants, PFAS, radioactive isotopes, and unknown proprietary substances shielded by trade secrets. This substance is incompatible with healthy soils, drinkable aquifers, or any ecosystem function, and puts the public and environment at grave risk. The Legislature understood this risk, which is why it required a permit before any use or discharge of produced water off the oilfield when it passed the Produced Water Act. The Produced Water Act (70-13-4 D NMSA) reads:

“For uses regulated by the water quality control commission pursuant to the Water Quality Act, a person shall obtain a permit from the Department of Environment before using the produced water, the recycled or treated water or treated product or any byproduct of the produced water.” (Emphasis added).

That permit requirement is not a formality—it is the procedural mechanism that guarantees due process, including public notice and the affirmative right of stakeholders to raise claims and defenses. The public’s right to a clean environment is enshrined in law, and the permit process exists to protect it.

Today the Commission agreed with that position, reversed their April vote to institute a Notice of Intent procedure and instead adopted a stringent pilot project permit procedure that complies with the law.

The Commission also voted to require pilot projects to characterize, properly dispose and submit reports on hazardous residual waste generated during the treatment process, an issue that WildEarth Guardians raised in a separate Motion.

We commend the Water Quality Control Commission for upholding their mission to protect our water, our health and our environment. And we Congratulate the many hundreds of New Mexicans who stood with us to demand that our Government serve the people, not the polluters.

Today science and truth prevailed. Without knowing what needs to be removed from produced water, it is impossible to develop treatment standards or assure the public that discharges will be safe. You can’t regulate or remove what you can’t identify. The notion that we could proceed to permit discharges under these circumstances is not only scientifically unsound—it is reckless. We are grateful to all the water protectors who joined us in opposing the oil and gas industry’s push to dump their waste on New Mexico.

Today we won.