Citing hard evidence of the Lujan Grisham administration inappropriately pressuring the Water Quality Control Commission (WQCC) to fast-track a new rule proposed and written by Big Oil to allow discharge of treated fracking waste to New Mexico’s rivers and streams, water advocates today filed a motion to disqualify 7 of 14 commissioners and vacate their July 7 vote to hear the petition. In the motion, Amigos Bravos, the Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter, and the Western Environmental Law Center raise the alarm of the impossibility of an impartial rulemaking given this outside political pressure.
“The governor’s office tainted the Water Quality Control Commission in a drive to pressure members to get Big Oil’s petition ‘over the finish line’ to allow the discharge of produced water—a toxic waste—to New Mexico’s precious and scarce clean water,” said Tannis Fox, senior attorney at the Western Environmental Law Center. “In my 25 years working in this arena, I’ve never seen this level of political interference with the decision making of an administrative body charged with protecting human health and the environment. The WQCC is supposed to act impartially and base its decisions on the evidence before it, not on outside political directives. This rulemaking can not proceed fairly. Today, we asked the commission to recognize that fact. We hope the commissioners police themselves and vacate their tainted vote that allowed the rulemaking to go forward.”
The WQCC, an independent state body charged with adopting water quality standards to protect public health and the environment for both ground and surface waters, is required to hear and consider scientific evidence and public comment before making decisions that could adversely affect New Mexico’s water resources.
Emails from New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) Sec. Kenney, five other cabinet secretaries, and the governor’s office reveal commissioners were effectively told to vote to advance a petition by the Water Access Treatment & Reuse Alliance (WATR Alliance), an oil and gas industry-backed group, before the WQCC heard the merits of the petition. The WQCC is supposed to be an impartial rulemaking body that is required to base its decisions on the scientific record before it, not on political mandates outside the record. While the governor’s office can direct general executive policy, it cannot direct specific votes in specific cases before the commission without regard to evidence in the record.
“At a time when we are seeing institutional norms and government integrity disintegrate before our eyes at the federal level, it is devastating to see a similar lack of integrity at the state level,” said Rachel Conn, deputy director of Amigos Bravos. “We depend on the Water Quality Control Commission to impartially make decisions based on the evidence before them. That hasn’t happened here and as a result, the commission has placed our waters and communities at risk.”
In May, the commission adopted a complete prohibition against all discharge of treated fracking wastewater based on a proposal from NMED supported by expert testimony from NMED staff scientists. Only weeks later, on June 23, an oil and gas industry group, WATR Alliance, filed a petition proposing a rule that would reverse the rule adopted by the commission. WATR Alliance’s proposed rule would allow discharge of treated fracking wastewater to both surface and ground water, in some cases without any monitoring requirements.
In addition, NMED management is not authorizing its scientists to participate in the new rulemaking. These same experts presented technical evidence in support of the May treated fracking wastewater discharge ban. In the commission’s 58-year history, there has never been a rulemaking on a rule that NMED will implement in which NMED staff did not participate as a party. NMED scientists should be allowed to participate in the hearing and evaluate whether the WATR Alliance’s proposal protects New Mexico water resources, public health, and the environment.
“New Mexicans put their trust in the commission to base its decisions, without interference, on the technical expertise and independent science from state agencies,” said Dale Doremus of the Rio Grande Chapter of the Sierra Club. “It is hugely disappointing to see a majority of commissioners abandon that charge and allow politically driven decision making in such a critical rulemaking that should prioritize safeguarding our precious and scarce ground and surface waters from toxic contaminants that can endanger human health and the environment.”
Contacts:
Tannis Fox, Western Environmental Law Center, 505-629-0732, fox@westernlaw.org
Rachel Conn, Amigos Bravos, 575-770-8327, rconn@amigosbravos.org
Dale Doremus, Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter, 505-795-5987, doremuswater@gmail.com
English 
Español de México