The New Mexico Water Quality Control Commission kicked off a hearing about reuse of produced water and other types of wastewater on Monday. The hearing is expected to last more than a week.
Produced water is a byproduct of oil and gas production. The vast majority of produced water is either recycled for use in the oil and gas fields or injected into the subsurface using saltwater disposal wells. These injection wells have been linked to increased seismic activity in areas like the Permian Basin, which stretches into southeastern New Mexico.
The New Mexico Environment Department petitioned the Water Quality Control Commission in December to adopt a rule for produced water reuse. NMED says these regulations are needed to protect water resources.
Jason Herman with NMED said that the proposed regulations will close a regulatory loophole that allows anyone to apply for a groundwater discharge permit and “place the department in the position of being required to develop a draft permit under existing regulations regardless of if the source water is treated produced water.”
He said the proposed regulations contain explicit prohibitions on discharging produced water, even if it has undergone treatment.
Furthermore, Herman said the proposal provides a “very narrow path for research to be conducted and for industrial projects to move forward in a manner that is safe.”
The proposed rule would establish requirements for the use of produced water in industrial processes and demonstration projects. There are already demonstration projects in New Mexico that use produced water or treat produced water and some of the witnesses who spoke on Monday testified about these projects as well as proposals that have been submitted to the NMED.
Witnesses on Monday also spoke about the challenges of knowing what chemicals and components are in produced water, some of which are typically not public knowledge because of corporate trade secrets.
