After months of deliberation, the New Mexico Water Quality Control Commission on May 14 voted to prohibit any discharge of treated “produced water” from oil and gas extraction to ground and surface waters. Produced water flows back to the surface during fracking and conventional oil and gas drilling and contains chemicals used in the extraction process as well as numerous other hazardous compounds, including arsenic and benzene, both human carcinogens. New Mexico creates around two billion barrels—84 billion gallons—of this toxic wastewater each year. Cleaning through multi-stage filtration, desalination and other processes could allow for the reuse of produced water for irrigation and other commercial applications, saving precious water resources. But environmental advocates, scientists and the New Mexico Environmental Department (NMED) have urged that proper regulations are not yet in place to make such reuse safe. 

Other New Mexico water news:

• Source New Mexico (Santa Fe): Haaland: Trump cuts threaten New Mexico progress on climate 
• Water Finance & Management: University of New Mexico gets $7 million grant from EPA (to train small water and wastewater systems)
• Valencia County News Bulletin (Belen, N.M.): New Mexico Water hopes proposed increased fees will help expansion