Askume JAL NEW MEXICO, Sept 11 – Flying in a four-seat helicopter over the desert landscape of southeastern New Mexico, Stephen Eldridge saw about a dozen man-made lagoons glittering among drill rigs and pumping machines, much of it filled with toxic waste.
Although the issue is primarily about hazardous waste generated by the region’s booming drilling industry, the mayor of Trapeze, a small town in the heart of American oil country near the Texas border, saw the widespread phenomenon as an opportunity: water for the largest oil-producing state, which is struggling with a severe drought .
“Our future will depend on the future of produced water,” he said.
Aldrich is one of a growing number of New Mexico politicians who want the state to create rules that would allow the use of millions of gallons of so-called produced water that flows daily from the Permian Basin’s abundant oil and gas.
In 2022, New Mexico’s oil and gas industry produced enough toxic fracking wastewater to cover 266,000 acres (107,650 hectares) to a depth of one foot (31 centimeters). While the state’s drilling companies reuse more than 85 percent of the produced water in new oil and gas operations, the rest is pumped underground.
However, as the injection wells filled up, New Mexico began restricting deep underground disposal, resulting in earthquakes. The state is currently expected to export more than 3 million barrels of water per day by the end of 2024, an odd dynamic for a water-scarce state.
About 10 wastewater treatment companies in New Mexico are taking on the challenge as part of a state-backed pilot program, which so far has planned to grow crops such as hemp and cotton and irrigate pastures.
Although completed pilots have shown the technology is effective, it is currently too expensive for widespread adoption.
The companies and their supporters also face an uphill political battle. The debate over how to use the water is one of the most divisive political issues facing New Mexico, with opponents mainly concerned about unintended consequences for human health and subsidizing oil industry waste.
New Mexico’s Democratic governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham, introduced a bill late last year that would create a strategic reservoir by treating produced water. The bill was defeated by state lawmakers but will be reintroduced during the next legislative session in January.
Neighboring Texas is also facing wastewater treatment problems, including rising underground pressure.This includes the prevalence of blowouts in isolated wells , raising concerns about potential action there. The Permian Basin, which spans Texas and New Mexico, is the largest oil region in the United States.
“We’re getting close to a tipping point,” said Rob Bruant of energy consultancy B3.
Other states, such as Colorado and California, already use small amounts of treated produced water for agriculture. But New Mexico’s situation is unique because there is so much water, and the water is unusually salty and requires extensive intensification — three times saltier than the Pacific Ocean.
crystal clear fish tank
Eldridge stood out in dusty New Mexico with his shoulder-length white hair and thick beard, often wearing bright West African garb.
His helicopter trip in late July was part of a site visit of the state’s wastewater treatment pilot program, run by a company called Aris Water Solutions (ARIS.N) .
At the Aeris Project’s mobile trailer field office, Eldridge admires a fish tank filled with crystal-clear water powered by Aeris treatment technology and observes about two dozen small fish.
However, the water before treatment is dangerous. Workers on site must wear fire-retardant clothing and have portable monitors to detect the deadly gas.
Untreated water is trucked in by local drillers, pumped into two large storage tanks, then flowed through pipes, passed through membrane filters to remove solids, and then distilled.
This process produces clean water and leaves behind highly toxic, rust-coloured sludge that is sent back to an underground registered brine treatment site.
The water contains no contaminants or radionuclides and is suitable for industrial and agricultural use, Aeris said. Starting next year, Aeris will begin growing non-food crops such as cotton as part of a $10 million grant the company received this year from the U.S. Department of Energy.
“We see the concept of desalinating produced water and creating new water resources for the Permian region as a promising one, similar to how the water industry has demonstrated that municipal wastewater can be safely treated and used for a number of purposes to make society comfortable.”
The main issue facing Aeris and other companies is cost. A barrel of Aeris-treated water costs more than $2 a barrel, several times the price typically paid by industrial or agricultural water users. Aeris says its goal is to reduce the cost to $1 — which would still be a hefty fee for users.
Massachusetts-based Zwitter, which recently completed a different water treatment pilot project in New Mexico, said treated water may never be cheap, but if it’s cheaper than treated water, it may be possible.
In its project’s final report, the company stated that “agricultural or other water users are unlikely to pay more than 2 cents per barrel. Therefore, the price of desalination will be driven by savings in disposal costs, and in the future it will be $2 to possibly $3 per BW (barrel of water).”
Disposal currently costs a few cents per barrel, but this cost is likely to rise as injection points fill up and waste has to be transported longer distances by truck or pipeline.
Aeris has partnered with Chevron (XOM.N) and ExxonMobil (COP.N) and ConocoPhillips (CVX.N) to develop and test technology to treat produced water for reuse.
ExxonMobil subsidiary XTO is also working with another water treatment company, Infinity Water Solutions, and is running a pilot program in the Permian.
“I can tell you that an H2O molecule has no value until it’s gone,” said Infinity CEO Michael Dyson.
Fear of making mistakes
Unknown safety risks are also a major concern, said Avner Vingosh, a professor of environmental quality at Duke University.
Under federal law, U.S. producers are not required to disclose all the chemicals they put into wells during drilling, raising concerns that water treatment and testing could miss some hazardous elements.
He said, “There are a lot of technologies that can treat water, but the question is, how do we evaluate all the potential contaminants in produced water? I’m not saying it’s impossible, but I am saying it needs to be done the right way.”
Infinity’s Dyson agrees that the industry needs to proceed with caution.
“We know we only have one real chance to get it right and I think most of us are scared of making mistakes,” he said.
The state Environment Department is updating the Produced Water Act in 2019 with the aim of strengthening water reuse regulations and expanding research and development for uses beyond the oil and gas fields.
The week-long hearing in early August was widely divided, with environmental groups and some scientists raising questions about the safety of the final product.
Daniel Tso, a former Navajo Nation council member, told Askume the Navajo community has run into trouble before in New Mexico, with decades of uranium mining on their land last century causing widespread radioactive contamination.
Regarding produced water, he said, “Now the industry is trying to make this a public issue and trying to get the public to really pay attention to the impacts.”
New Mexico Environment Secretary James Kenney told Askume that technological advances over the past five years have convinced him that treated water is safe, but he also acknowledged New Mexico’s poor record.
“We have to acknowledge our history of uranium mining, financial commitments and failure to protect health. So the community’s suspicion is justified,” he said.
However, the more Eldridge learns about wastewater treatment technology, the more he is willing to open up more water use to the state.
“Am I 100 per cent confident? No, but they are taking steps to reassure me and I have to take those steps with them,” he said.
He said his own rural town could be home to “industries of the future” such as power grids, data centers or green hydrogen projects, as well as businesses that require an adequate water supply.
Or it could dry up, like the drilling industry dried up when Permian oil and gas dried up.
“I don’t agree with the idea that small rural communities like Jaal will disappear.”
