Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham holds a news conference Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2024, at the Capitol to announce a 50-year water plan on how the state can prepare for and allay the impacts climate change will have on New Mexico’s waters above and below ground in the next half-century. Photo by Gabriela Campos/The New Mexican

By SCOTT WYLAND
The Santa Fe New Mexican

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced Tuesday the rollout of a 50-year water plan for how the state can allay the effects of climate change on New Mexico’s waters above and below ground in the next half-century.

The governor released the water plan as she is asking the Legislature to approve $500 million in severance tax bonds for a proposal to boost water supplies by tapping brackish water deep underground and reusing some of the massive wastewater produced by hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

Speaking on the fourth floor of the Roundhouse, the governor said it will be essential to find new water sources, prevent existing waters from being wasted by flawed infrastructure and clean up pollution as the state faces the loss of a projected 25% of its future supplies through climate change.

“It’s a really good map and blueprint for the future,” she said of the 50-year plan.

State Infrastructure Adviser Rebecca Roose, who helped develop the plan, described it as a “north star” to help New Mexico move toward its objectives of sustaining and enhancing water supply. 

The plan was several years in the making. 

The governor called for crafting a long-term water plan for the state to deal with its share of the global climate crisis, caused by massive greenhouse gases spewed into the atmosphere over the past two centuries. 

The plan offers three overarching strategies for protecting and enhancing New Mexico’s limited water supply — sustainability, stewardship and equity — as the state grapples with average temperatures rising as much as 7 degrees, river flows dropping and parched soils reducing runoff into waterways and aquifers in the coming decades.

Although the new plan is tied to the state’s so-called “Leap Ahead report,” which gives dire predictions for the upcoming 50 years, state officials have said the point is to take constructive action to avoid the worst water effects.

This can be achieved partly by using available tools and the knowledge of local communities that have survived in an arid climate for centuries, they said. 

The governor emphasized Tuesday that aside from drawing on the expertise of hydrologists, geologists, water managers and engineers, the state heard advice from Indigenous people and those in acequia and farming communities. 

Santa Clara Pueblo Gov. J. Michael Chavarria praised the water plan for offering sound guidance — some from the state’s tribes — and for underlining the need for tribes to work with each other and with the state to resolve water disputes. 

“We speak of Mother Earth. We of course have to pay respect to the water she provides all of us,” Chavarria said. “Those who came before us were wise and strong in how they survived. We must take that strength and wisdom forward.”

Lujan Grisham said science is vital in drafting any water management plan, especially one that’s so far-ranging.

Deploying the latest technology will be crucial to get a thorough grasp of water loss and to assess the health of rivers, lakes, reservoirs and mountain watersheds. 

New technology can help farmers and other irrigators reduce water use by 20%, the water plan says. And it can be used to pinpoint all the untapped water resources, especially underground. 

New Mexico is a long way from getting a thorough inventory of its available groundwater, which will be increasingly important in the future, Roose said. 

A team is creating an online dashboard to let the public know what the state has done so far with water projects and what it is aiming to do, she added.

“We’ve set ambitious but I believe achievable, realistic targets,” Roose said. 

The plan calls for launching an education campaign to reduce community water use by 10%, and better managing forests to protect water supplies and reduce the threat of wildfires.

It also mentions the need for a new program to regulate polluted discharges going into rivers, streams and lakes.

The state, which now must rely on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and its ever-changing guidelines, is asking the Legislature for $600,000 to pay for the next steps in establishing the program. 

The water plan, like the governor, says a key to heading off a future crisis is to tap billions of gallons of brackish water and fracking wastewater — commonly called “produced water” — for manufacturing. 

These types of treated waters can be supplied for industrial work, leaving freshwater for drinking and household uses, Lujan Grisham said.

That would include producing green hydrogen, which is formed by separating the hydrogen from water, a method that is considered cleaner than extracting it from natural gas but also deemed impractical in an arid state because it requires vast amounts of water. 

In Lujan Grisham’s view, using treated water in this way has a dual benefit: It spares freshwater while providing the means to generate what she believes is a clean energy. 

Many environmentalists disagree on both points. They contend buying produced water loaded with toxic chemicals is a giveaway to the fossil fuel industry, and that pursuing hydrogen is a fake climate solution when the focus should be transitioning to renewables like solar and wind. 

They also argue the only safe reuse for the fracking byproduct — which they say isn’t really water — is for fracking. 

Lujan Grisham said none of the fracking water will be turned into drinking water. The sole use will be for manufacturing, and the petroleum companies will have to ensure it’s safe, she said. 

When asked if the state aims to require oil companies to recycle all of their produced water and to ban the use of freshwater in fracking, Lujan Grisham said these are policy issues state officials are exploring.  

She said she doesn’t want the industry to use any freshwater.

There are legislative efforts to require all industries, including fossil fuel, to reduce water use and protect the water resources where they operate, she said. “We are debating many of those issues in the session.”