A contentious bill to dramatically reduce New Mexico’s greenhouse gas emissions remains in play at this year’s legislative session after two hearings. Meanwhile, a controversial bill to pave the way for treated oilfield wastewater to be used outside the drilling operations was shot down after nearly five hours of debate on Saturday. And another bill that would have sharply restricted the use of drones around “critical infrastructure,” including oil and gas operations and pipelines, was quashed before it could limit a powerful tool for documenting spills.
In its initial form, the Water Quality Commission Produced Water Rules bill would have kicked the state Water Quality Control Commission into gear to create rules to allow treated wastewater water to be used for all sorts of things: cement, hydrogen production, geothermal energy and even watering “industrial” crops and discharge into waterways — the last two being particularly controversial.
Oilfield wastewater — also known as produced water — is highly saline and can contain radioactive elements, toxic organic compounds and other contaminants from the well drilling process. Its toxic nature has kept it highly regulated. But record-breaking oil and gas production in the Permian Basin has also created record-breaking amounts of produced water, leading to problems with its disposal.
