By MARGARET O’HARA
The Santa Fe New Mexican

Making water policy in the West is a recipe for anxiety. 

Rep. Kristina Ortez, D-Taos, was feeling that stress Tuesday as the House Agriculture, Acequias and Water Resources Committee mulled the proposed Strategic Water Supply for New Mexico, an initiative backed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to treat brackish water and hydraulic fracturing byproducts for industrial uses. 

“I have a lot of agita about this bill,” Ortez said. 

Despite the nerves — and pushback from both environmental advocates and oil and gas industry representatives — a committee substitute for House Bill 137, which would establish the Strategic Water Supply, narrowly survived its first committee hearing Tuesday. 

In a 5-4 vote, the committee, which Ortez chairs, advanced a committee substitute for the proposal, which would cost a total of nearly $108 million. 

Even among lawmakers who voted for the bill, it was hardly popular. Three of the five lawmakers who cast “yes” votes noted they may not support a similar proposal on the House floor. 

One of the few staunch supporters of the proposal, Lujan Grisham said in a statement the Strategic Water Supply “will support clean energy and advanced manufacturing initiatives without putting our freshwater supplies at risk.”

She added, “I look forward to continued work with the Legislature to advance the bill and secure the needed funding for the program.”

If passed, House Bill 137, sponsored by Rep. Susan Herrera, D-Embudo, would authorize the state’s natural resources-related agencies to award $75 million in grants and contracts for projects to “expand water reuse opportunities” — like recycling treated water in manufacturing settings.

The bill would also offer nearly $29 million to the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology to research and monitor underground aquifers. 

The Strategic Water Supply deals with two different substances: “deep brackish water,” defined in the bill as water containing dissolved solids sourced from aquifers at least 2,500 feet below ground, and what’s known as “produced water” in the fracking industry, or the fluid byproduct of oil and gas production.

The latest version of HB 137 would create a kind of market for fracking water, imposing a 3-cent fee on each barrel and using that money to help fund future Strategic Water Supply projects.  

The committee on Tuesday voted to move forward with a substitute measure for the bill that includes a few changes. It limits the bill’s $75 million in grant dollars to brackish water projects; lowers fees on fracking water from 5 cents to 3 cents per barrel; and postpones the implementation date on fracking water until after regulations are in place. 

During discussion of the bill last week, Herrera said she’s hopeful the Strategic Water Supply will be a starting point as New Mexico adjusts to its shrinking fresh water resources. 

“There’s no snow on the mountains. I really think we are working to preserve every kind of water we can get,” she told the committee Tuesday. 

Nonetheless, the bill faces considerable resistance — opposition that has made for strange bedfellows. Both environmental advocates and oil and gas bigwigs oppose the Strategic Water Supply, albeit for very different reasons. 

Jim Winchester, executive director of the Independent Petroleum Association of New Mexico, said the bill’s 3-cent fee on each barrel of fracking water would put the oil and gas industry’s small producers out of business, while Colin Cox, a staff attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, argued the reduction of the per-barrel fee represented a further subsidy for the oil and gas industry. 

Lawmakers shared those concerns. 

Rep. Randall Pettigrew, R-Lovington, argued the fees would impose another tax on the oil and gas industry, hindering its ability to contribute to New Mexico’s economy in other ways — like serving as primary sponsors for the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. 

“How much can you give when you continue to be taxed?” Pettigrew said. 

Meanwhile, Rep. Angelica Rubio, D-Las Cruces, objected to the bill’s produced water proposals and argued HB 137 is inconsistent with Democratic values of protecting air, water and communities most impacted by the climate crisis, despite being a Democrat-led bill. 

Though it gave her agita, Ortez said she hoped the bill will improve as it advances through the legislative process. 

“I don’t like it. I don’t like this bill. I like some components of this bill, and I’d like for it to get better,” she said.