On Wednesday night Defend NM Water lit up the Roundhouse with a plea to our legislators: Don't Gamble with our Water! Roberto Roibal read a moving statement, concluding "We have seen the greed of industry and the oil and gas puppets in government before. Corporations given free rein over the land will pollute the water—poison our water beyond repair—no amount of money can bring it back. We refuse to let our rivers, farms, drinking water, and children be sacrificed for the ambitions of the corrupt. Because in the end, water is life, and no campaign check is worth the price of a dying world."
These are trying times, when the struggle for justice feels insurmountable, but this morning, after what feels like years of working together with you to call out the dangers of fracking waste reuse schemes, we won a victory. The latest committee sub for HB 137, the Strategic Water Supply Act, removes all funding for produced water projects and redefines brackish water to include shallower aquifers that can be more easily characterized and accessed. We still have major concerns with potential dangers, energy costs and residual waste related to brackish water reuse, but the biggest threat to our water in HB 137 has been neutralized. Thank you to everyone who stood up to defend our water!
This doesn't mean that industry has given up, however. They have just changed tactics. On the same day we learned about this victory, every Democrat except one on the House Agriculture committee (Thank you Rep. Angelica Rubio!) voted to pass HB 311, the Reclaimed Water Act, which, if passed, will rebrand treated fracking waste as "reclaimed water" to circumvent any restrictions on fracking waste reuse for nonpotable purposes, which means local Reclaimed Water Authorities governed primarily by industry insiders could authorize reuse for aquifer recharge, environmental restoration, fire suppression, or any other dangerous scheme they can think up. HB 311 will be heard next in House Judiciary.
And HB 20, the Technology and Innovation Division Act, will provide the public funding. HB 20, sponsored by Rep. Nathan Small, Rep. Dixon, Rep. Garratt, Rep. Parajon and Rep. Gallegos will provide $100 million per year in public funds for grants to private industries in target sectors including "aerospace and space, biosciences, clean energy and water, advanced computing, which includes artificial intelligence, quantum computing and cybersecurity, and other sectors that are strategic and important for statewide economic development."
What's missing? A definition for "clean" and any consideration of public health, environmental impact or resource conservation in criteria for these grants. Without those safeguards, this bill again opens the door for public funding of anything this board deems to be clean - "renewable" natural gas, carbon capture, fracking waste reuse or nuclear energy. HB 20 will be heard next in House Appropriations.
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