In a shameless display of grifting, former bureaucrats, and oil lobbyists revealed their strategy for the upcoming legislative session to use the governor’s 50 year Water Plan to provide taxpayers the “opportunity” to pay (half a billion dollars) for the massive environmental cleanup caused by oil/gas production in the southeast corner of the state. Terms such as “data” and “science” were bandied about, obfuscating meanings of brackish waters and produced waters while failing to admit that the petroleum waste is brine produced by oil/gas drilling (1 barrel of oil for 5 to 10 barrels of Brine). Lea and Eddy counties produce almost two million barrels of oil per day (10 to 20 million barrels of brine per day). According to the oil and gas drilling glossary in IADCLexicon.org., “Brine means all saline geological formation water resulting, obtained, or produced in connection with the exploration, drilling, or production of oil or gas.” Fracking brought about the inclusion of poisonous toxic chemicals through pressured injection back into the Earth to extract more oil and gas. Over decades, the massive fracking and brine reinjection has saturated the land and the poisonous liquid is seeping to the surface creating 20-acre toxic brine pools, sink holes and even earthquakes in the Permian Basin. The governor’s plan calls for spending $500 million dollars on “advanced market commitments for desalination and wastewater treatment/reuse” (50 YR Water Plan, Section, B, p. 12).

Chevron, Exxon-Mobil, Phillips 66 and other big oil drillers lavish their shareholders with billions of dollars yearly, while failing to take into account the massive environmental contamination caused by their operations which they plan to continue into the foreseeable future. Now big oil wants New Mexico taxpayers to pay to get into the business of cleaning up their mess and has hired a slew of minions composed of lobbyists, former bureaucrats and funded academics to flood the Legislature with misinformation. Former New Mexico agency officials now work for big oil and/or have formed desalinization and water treatment companies. They want taxpayers to build them a revolving golden parachute tied to big oil. These civil servants, who we paid to protect our water supply (State Engineer), ensure clean extraction methods (Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources) and environmental protection (NM Environment Dept.) looked the other way at best, or were part of the graft for decades allowing this environmental disaster to occur. They now claim to have the solution to produce water from brine but provide no guarantee on the usability of the water given the fact that companies will not disclose their fracking formulas under proprietary protections. Assertions of producing water are suspect when the constituents being cleaned-up are unknown, the brine without oil is still contaminated and toxic to any living thing.

The Legislature is being asked to allocate half a billion tax dollars to pay for starting an environmental clean-up of oil and gas brine under the guise of producing water, albeit unusable. Once hooked, this will lead to a continuous drain to feed the white elephant. Let the oil/gas companies and drillers clean up their own mess which they have made and are making billions off of. Call or write your legislator to nix Section B of the Governor’s 50 year Water Plan.

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