WQCC commissioner will abstain from final produced water rule vote • Source New Mexico

A New Mexico water board member with ties to the oil and gas industry announced Monday she will abstain from a final vote on statewide rules developing additional uses of oil and gas wastewater.

The Water Quality Control Commission (WQCC), an oft-overlooked body of 13 members tasked with shaping and enforcing state water policy, is reviewing proposed rules to expand uses for oil and gas wastewater.

Currently, there are 12 members, with one vacant seat.

Rulemaking on the issue has been a monthslong process. The commission resumed hearing testimony and cross examination of witnesses supporting or challenging proposed rules on Monday, after a week of testimony in May.

In the opening minutes of the meeting Monday, Commissioner Krista McWilliams stopped short of recusing herself, saying there is no basis for allegations of personal or corporate gain from her position on the WQCC. She said she would listen to hearings and offer her opinions, but she’ll abstain from voting.

“If the commission would allow, I intend to remain a participant in the hearing and remain committed to serve New Mexico,” she said. “However, I do not want to stand in the way of due process. In order to allow science to have its day in court, I will abstain from the final vote.”

How did we get here?

McWilliams’ statement follows months of questions about unclear disclosure rules for commission members, and a motion for McWilliams to recuse herself filed by an environmental group opposing the rules’ adoption.

In June, Navajo Nation citizens Daniel Tso and Samuel Sage and New Energy Economy, a nonprofit organization opposing the rules, filed a motion requesting McWilliams recuse herself, alleging conflicts of interest with oil and gas interests.

The issue escalated as additional motions were filed in July.

McWilliams called the allegations “baseless” on Monday, further saying that neither she, her husband, nor their Farmington-based oil and gas company LOGOS Energy receive any gain from her sitting on the rulemaking body.

She said she would not receive a financial benefit from the rulemaking, and said that LOGOS Energy or her husband Jay Paul McWilliams had not participated with the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association since 2022.

“Despite my industry background, I remain committed to the Water Quality Act objective of protecting public health and enhancing water quality,” she said. “My obligation is to serve the public interests, not personal or corporate gain.”

She further said a six-year-old video “aimed to inform the public about fracking,” a process of injecting liquid at high pressures for oil and gas instruction, was done on a voluntary basis and had no relation to the rule-making process.

In the video, which is no longer on the website, McWilliams said she supports the controversial drilling practice, saying at one point: “Fracking, it’s a sensitive subject. I get it. But I feel good about fracking.”

Missi Currier, the president and CEO of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, which lobbies on behalf of the industry, filed testimony saying that McWilliams did not know the video was still on the nonprofit’s website.

Mariel Nanasi, the executive director for New Energy Economy, told Source NM that McWilliam’s abstention doesn’t go far enough.

“She’s only abstaining from the vote, she’s not abstaining from the deliberation,” Nanasi said, adding that she feels that could taint the commission’s ultimate decision, and could be brought up in an appeal.

Tso echoed those concerns in a call after the hearing, saying he’s concerned her participation will still “slant the final rules.”

No statements from party members or the public were allowed in the hearing, according to the Hearing Officer Felicia Orth, who’s acting as the judge in the matter.

Orth said in the hearing, that she was deferring any ruling on the recusal issue to the commission, and said the issue may be explored by other state agencies. But it appears the issue is closed before the WQCC.

A mirror complaint that New Energy Economy submitted to the State Ethics Commission is part of a separate proceeding, which is not open to the public at this time.

In a copy of McWilliams’ response to the ethics complaint obtained by Source NM, she requested that a hearing be postponed until after the Aug. 5 WQCC proceedings.

What is produced water?

Oil and gas wastewater, often called produced water, is at the center of the rulemaking.

As New Mexico water sources are expected to become increasingly strained by more demand and shrinking supplies from a hotter, drier climate – the relationship between oil and gas and its wastewater is drawing more public attention to the deliberations.

The state generates billions of gallons of toxic wastewater from oil and gas production. The wastewater is often extremely salty and includes hazardous chemicals used in fracking such as PFAs, arsenic, benzene and more.

Much of the water is currently disposed of by injecting it underground, which has been linked to earthquakes. Some of the wastewater is recycled for further oil drilling.

Currently, there is no approved use for produced water off of the oilfields.

Inside Climate detailed the week’s worth of debate from the hearings in May. Across hours of testimony, New Mexico Environment Department experts proposed using produced water in industrial processes, such as power plant cooling, manufacturing or hydrogen production and developing smaller demonstration projects to study treatments.

Oil and gas industry representatives argued too-restrictive rules, including the proposed rules, will drive companies from New Mexico to other states and environmental groups oppose using the wastewater for industry, citing health and safety concerns.