The PFAS hearing at the Oil Conservation Commission just wrapped up, and we want to share our heartfelt thanks for the over 100 members of the public who took time to come in person or online to ask the Oil Conservation Commission to protect our water and our health. Despite putting out a last minute email to NMOGA's entire mailing list asking for pro-PFAS speakers to defend their position, just one person showed up to argue that the industry should be trusted.
Instead cancer survivors, parents, farmers, Pastors, indigenous water protectors and several elected officials showed up every day, morning and afternoon, to demand a prohibition on PFAS and full transparency about what industry is injecting into New Mexico. We include three of those comments here, including that of Jose Anguamea Lorenzo Villegas from Valle De La Cieneguilla Land Grant Association and the Texas Band of Yaqui Indians, who held up his PFAS blood test results to the commission and told them to see how he had been poisoned. He ended by calling out: "¡Ya basta!" Enough is enough:
Parties to the case presented their testimony and cross-examined expert witnesses to argue for their preferred resolution of two primary issues:
1. NMOGA's witness, a toxicologist who has testified extensively for oil and gas companies and for Dupont, recommends a PFAS definition that essentially narrows a prohibition to the six PFAS that have been extensively studied and regulated by the EPA. OCD has put forward a definition that captures several dozen PFAS that can be positively identified by specific analytical testing methods, and could expand to include others if/when further analytical testing becomes available. They argue that without the capacity to positively identify a substance, enforcement is impossible.
We argue that the most expansive and protective definition of PFAS must be adopted. The same definition adopted by 23 other states - “PFAS chemicals” means a perfluoroalkyl or polyfluoroalkyl substance with at least one fully fluorinated carbon atom. This definition ensures that any existing or newly developed PFAS is not injected into New Mexico land and water by the oil and gas industry as they continue rapidly expanding their operations, spilling contaminated waste across our land and injecting massive volumes of fracking fluids and waste at high pressure underground, causing earthquakes and blowouts that risk infecting our wells and aquifers. We argue that until a substance has been proven safe, it should not be injected into the earth.
2. NMOGA argues against any limitations on its proprietary, trade secret legal protections while OCD has put forward a version that requires oil and gas operators to disclose trade secret chemicals to regulators only after a loss of containment event has been reported. As one Commissioner put it, this approach results only in detection, not prevention. Not only is this approach dependent on industry to report when such a containment event occurs, it fails to require any disclosure in the event of well blowouts after plugging has occurred, or clarity about what is in the multiple daily spills of fracking waste already reported across our lands.
NMOGA demonstrates total contempt for the public, claiming that disclosure and even public notice of potential contamination incidents should only be made to regulators because we, the people, cannot be trusted to understand the information disclosed. NMOGA's witness even testified that the fears of Flint, Michigan residents represents an example of something the chemical industry calls "chemophobia" that comes from disclosing chemical contamination to the public!
As Alejandria Lyons, the No False Solutions Coalition Coordinator put it in her public comment - "Information leads to power. Dishonesty and misinformation leads to abuse."
Once the transcript has been released parties to the case will submit final briefs and the Hearing Officer will make a recommendation to the Oil Conservation Commission for their consideration. We will continue to keep you informed as the case progresses.
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