New Energy Economy Asks Water Board to Require Group to Disclose New Science Behind Produced Water Rule Proposal
Public Health Protections Against Toxic Oil & Gas Waste Must Stand
Organization Press Release From New Energy Economy
Santa Fe, NM — Today, New Energy Economy filed a motion requesting that the Water Quality Control Commission (WQCC) require the “Water Access Treatment & Reuse Alliance” (WATR) to disclose the scientific basis upon which they relied to develop their proposed rule to would allow oil and gas companies to dump fracking waste, referred to as “produced water” into land and waters in thirteen counties in New Mexico.
Last 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 has now been given the green light to re-litigate the issue without providing the Commission any new science proving that produced water can be safely reused and discharged.
WATR has alleged that there is “new evidence” that justifies its proposed rule but has thus far failed to specify what it is and has communicated only that they are putting it together for the hearing. That is not how the WQCC is supposed to operate.
The law requires that any rule being considered must be based on sound scientific evidence, and that the rule itself must be based on such evidence. In this case the proposed rule was written in anticipation of some new research that may soon come to light.
The necessity for our motion is driven not just by WATR’s failure to disclose the science it claims to have, but also by the shocking refusal of the Governor’s administration to allow Environment Department scientists who testified in the last hearing about the dangers of discharging produced water to testify before the WQCC in the WATR petition proceeding.
Their earlier testimony established that there is no current scientific evidence that it is possible to treat and discharge produced water without poisoning New Mexico’s environment and endangering human health.
Refusing to allow them to testify reflects the Governor’s desire to give the industry what it wants, despite the foreseeable harm to New Mexicans’ health and our environment.
“Governor Lujan Grisham and her Environment Department know what the science says—that dumping or reusing oil and gas wastewater is a toxic gamble that would contaminate our waters and poison our people,” said Mariel Nanasi, Executive Director of New Energy Economy.
“That’s why they’re silencing their own scientists. They don’t want the truth to get in the way of industry profits. But the law is crystal clear: no science, no rule. Political favors for oil and gas cannot replace science and evidence and cannot justify poisoning New Mexico.”
The motion stresses that WATR’s proposal is fatally deficient: it only references 300 chemicals (without any numerical toxicity values) even though scientific analysis shows at least 1,198 known constituents in Permian Basin produced water, not to mention countless undisclosed or unidentified compounds.
Most of the chemical constituents have no toxicological benchmarks, making it legally and scientifically impossible to set protective standards.
“Approving this sham petition would be arbitrary, capricious, and unlawful,” Nanasi added.“New Mexicans’ health and water must come before oil and gas’s toxic waste problem.”