Western Environmental Law Center

Last week, Gov. Lujan Grisham issued a legislative message for House Bill (HB 207), sponsored by five Republican legislators and one Democrat, calling for the discharge of produced water to our state’s rivers, streams, and ground water. Produced water is a highly toxic wastewater byproduct of oil and gas operations. The governor’s message allows the bill to be considered by the legislature, even though it had been ruled non-germane to this 30-day budgetary session.

The bill would mandate the Water Quality Control Commission (WQCC) allow the discharge of oil and gas industry wastewater, as well as its use for irrigation of crops, on rangeland, and for manufacturing and other industrial uses, such as data centers. The bill also requires use of treated produced water for dust control on roads, and for hydrogen production. According to the proposal, the WQCC would be mandated to allow these various uses and discharge by the end of 2026.

The bill is yet another attempt by Big Oil at an end-run around sound science and protecting public health and the environment. In May 2025, after an 18-month science- and evidence-based legal proceeding, the WQCC promulgated a rule – proposed by the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) – that would prohibit discharge of treated and untreated produced water into our streams, rivers, and groundwater for five years. After hundreds of pages of testimony and thousands of pages of evidence from NMED scientists, industry witnesses, and experts from environmental non-profits, the WQCC ruled that there is insufficient evidence that the toxin-laden and potentially radioactive wastewater can be treated to standards that are safe for public health and the environment. The WQCC’s rule does, however, allow non-discharging “pilot projects” to research and evaluate the toxicity of produced water and the efficacy of treatment technologies and to allow the science to move forward.

“Data is lacking from sufficiently scaled pilot studies operated for required durations to determine the capabilities and limitations of treatment technologies to treat produced water,” said Dan Mueller, PE, and member of the New Mexico Produced Water Consortium. “In short, there is currently insufficient information on the efficacy, reliability, and economics to assess the feasibility of beneficial reuse of treated produced water. Progress is being made to narrow the critical knowledge gaps and pilot studies are being conducted, but there is still work to be accomplished. Water is a big deal but it is important to get this right – not to rush a potential solution to one problem only to create others.”

“Big Oil’s relentless drive to discharge treated produced water risks New Mexico’s most precious resource,” said Tannis Fox, senior attorney at the Western Environmental Law Center. “Protection of human health and the environment must be based on sound science, not profit-driven industry spin. The best science tells us the technology to effectively treat oil and gas wastewater at scale does not exist. Discharging treated produced water is a false solution to our state’s water scarcity challenge. However, the rule currently in place allows scientific research to move forward. Treated produced water should not be introduced to New Mexico’s surface and ground water resources unless and until the scientific evidence demonstrates it’s safe.”

Big Oil now wants to overturn a science-based decision, and won’t settle for anything less than being given license to discharge its waste to New Mexico’s water resources. Big Oil already tried to push the WQCC to undo its recent rule, but its efforts failed after an exposé in the Santa Fe New Mexican revealed the governor’s office pressured her cabinet to get a new, industry-sponsored rule “across the finish[ed] line.”

“Don’t be fooled by the allies of industry that say that treated produced water is a solution to the state’s water scarcity problems,” said Haley Jones, Citizens Caring for the Future. “New Mexicans are not fooled by this attempt by industry to profit off their own waste while putting our rivers, streams, and groundwater at significant risk. ”

“Industry still uses far too much water from our aquifers for fracking,” said Sarah Knopp, Policy Specialist with Amigos Bravos. “Oil and gas should focus first on recycling its own wastewater. Further, the energy costs and carbon footprint from the treatment processes the industry is proposing are exceedingly high. Industrial scale treatment of produced water will accelerate our sprint toward catastrophic climate change.”

A partner memorial to HB 207, Senate Memorial 11, introduced by Sen. Bobby Gonzales from Taos County, echoes recent messaging from the oil and gas industry heard around the state. The memorial presents produced water as necessary to support data centers and AI, and includes unsubstantiated representations about the efficacy and safety of produced water treatment.

The memorial asks the Senate to “affirm the scientific evidence enabling the beneficial reuse of treated produced water and the importance of produced water as an asset for economic development, reducing poverty in rural communities and protecting freshwater resources in Taos county and throughout the state.” That would be hard for the Senate to do, given that NMED scientists have evaluated the treatment technologies for the toxins in produced water and determined there is insufficient evidence to support its safe discharge to surface and ground water.

At issue in the WQCC rulemaking was, first, whether all toxins and contaminants in produced water had even been identified. The WQCC determined they had not. The next issue was whether existing treatment technologies could effectively remove all contaminants to a level where discharge to New Mexico water resources would be safe. The WQCC determined they could not. None of the peer-reviewed literature published since the hearing record closed changes these conclusions. Finally, the WQCC considered whether standards, or levels of safe exposure, had been put in place for the 1,000+ potential contaminants in produced water. Such standards had not been put into place and are not in place now for all potential contaminants. The state of New Mexico does not currently have surface water quality standards for at least 180 potentially toxic chemicals found in oil and gas wastewater.

Contacts:

Tannis Fox, Western Environmental Law Center, 505-660-7642, fox@westernlaw.org

Sarah Knopp, Amigos Bravos, 505-795-2106, sknopp@amigosbravos.org

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