Latest news with #SusanHerrera
Yahoo
13-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Strategic Water Supply slides over to Senate
Reverse osmosis membranes at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Desalination Plant as seen Sept. 26, 2022 in El Paso. The plant can treat up to 27 million gallons per day of brackish water for much of Eastern El Paso and Fort Bliss residents. (Danielle Prokop / Source New Mexico) A formerly controversial bill aimed at addressing a future in which New Mexico's limited water supplies become even more strained will soon have its first Senate committee hearing following House passage last week. That passage came with no debate, following a significant overhaul in the face of considerable environmental opposition to the so-called Strategic Water Supply. In a nutshell, the bill proposes a a $40 million program for removing the salt from less drinkable aquifers and $19 million to map how much water is available beneath the ground. Rep. Susan Herrera (D-Embudo), who sponsored House Bill 137, said on the House Floor Friday that the bill is crucial for New Mexico as climate change shrinks the rivers and puts pressure on freshwater aquifers. New Mexico, she said, needs to develop additional sources of water to preserve fresh supplies for drinking and agriculture. 'There is no snow on the mountains,' Herrera said. 'I continue to remind members of the House this is one of the greatest dangers confronting our state.' In a 57-4 vote, the House passed HB137, which now moves to the Senate Conservation and Finance committees before heading to the Senate floor. Senate Conservation scheduled the first hearing for Saturday. Lawmakers have overhauled the legislation since it was first introduced in the session's opening days. The Strategic Water Supply previously described a program to develop projects to treat not only brackish water, the salty water in deep aquifers belowground, but also oil and gas wastewater, often called produced water. A similar $500 million measure introduced in the 2024 session failed. A coalition of indigenous, water and environmental nonprofit groups opposed to the project said the bill failed to address logistics of treating oil and gas wastewater and ignored the potential health and environmental risks. Advocates shrunk down this session's proposal, initially seeking $75 million for developing treatment projects and technologies for oil and gas wastewater and a five-cent-tax per-barrel to generate revenue for the program. Legislators stripped all references to oil and gas wastewater in committees, along with a proposed per barrel fee for oil and gas companies to pay to generate program revenue. The bill now limits development to brackish water, including $40 million for a fund for grants to local communities or contracts to develop brackish water treatment facilities. The fast vote reflects the efforts to change the bill, according to Rebecca Roose, the infrastructure advisor for Gov. Michlle Lujan Grisham's office, who has championed the project. 'We are running a bill that people really want to get behind, and we feel really encouraged by that,' Roose told Source NM. Lingering objections to the bill remain. Mariel Nanasi, the executive director of Santa Fe-based New Energy Economy, said the bill should require plants to use 100% renewable energy, given desalination plants' high-energy use. 'Desalination plants funded by the state should not exacerbate climate change, they should help us address water scarcity without exacerbating that scarcity with polluting energy sources,' Nanasi said in a written statement. Nanasi said additional concerns with the current bill include the prospect for disposing of the concentrated brine from removing salt from the water. HB137 pulls resources away from other initiatives to address water issues, said Norm Gaume, a former water engineer and member of Water Advocates. 'My major objection is the House Budget shortchanged the Office of the State Engineer and Interstate Stream Commission,' Gaume said in a statement. 'For example, HB2 includes $40 million for these brackish water initiatives and nothing to prevent the pending compact violation due to Middle Rio Grande water overuse.' The bill also includes $4 million appropriation for New Mexico State University to develop additional treatment technology, and boosts the New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources' budget by $19 million to study and monitor aquifers, which have never been fully characterized by the state, meaning New Mexico's exact water supplies are unknown. 'In the past, [the Bureau's] recurring funding was $600,000 per year,' Herrera said on the floor Friday. 'This sets a new stage for understanding water resources in our state, which I think is imperative to our future.' All three appropriations made it into the state's budget in House Bill 2. On the floor, Rep. Jack Chatfield (R-Mosquero) introduced an amendment, which the House unanimously approved, to increase public input options during the process. Roose said with 12 days left in the session, this bill stands front and center for the administration. 'We hope that based on the amount of changes that we made to the bill in the House that we will not see a lot more changes or maybe not any changes in the Senate, but it's one step at a time,' Roose said. 'We're just needing to let the process play out and we're definitely keeping a sense of urgency to make sure that we use the time left effectively.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
08-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Strategic Water Supply Act halfway through Legislature
Mar. 7—SANTA FE — A push to incentivize market treatment and reuse of brackish water is now halfway through the Roundhouse. The executive-backed Strategic Water Supply Act, proposed in House Bill 137, passed on a 57-4 through the House on Friday. It would allow the state to enter into contracts with or award grants to projects that treat and reuse brackish water — 652-1,303 trillion gallons of which exist in New Mexico, according to the Environment Department. The bill when first introduced included the treatment and reuse of produced water, or wastewater, from oil and gas operations. But legislators removed that provision and are only focusing on the saline water component to help appease some policymakers and environmentalists. "We have tried to listen to legislators who have had deep concerns," said bill sponsor Rep. Susan Herrera, D-Embudo. Herrera also declined to block a Republican amendment to the bill to ensure people can and have time to protest against brackish water reuse projects. This year's $10.8 billion budget proposal sets aside $40 million for the strategic water supply program, should the legislation pass. It also appropriates $19 million for the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology to conduct aquifer mapping and $4 million for New Mexico State University to continue studying water reuse and treatment technology and projects. The appropriation is $35 million less than the bill initially sought. The Strategic Water Supply Act began as a $500 million bill last year, and legislators have since watered it down to accommodate concerns around the feasibility of the program. The state can get started with $40 million, said Rebecca Roose, infrastructure advisor to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. "We would like to see more of an investment in this area," she told the Journal after the bill's passage. "We think the need is there. We think the opportunity and potential is there." Roose added that although produced water isn't a part of the Strategic Water Act anymore, the state is committed to continuing to work this year and beyond "on getting the regulatory provisions in place and continuing to invest for treatment and reuse." The executive's office could come back for legislative market incentives in the future, she said, or the market could take off on its on once the regulations are in place. "We won't know for sure until we get there," Roose said. Lujan Grisham said in a statement Friday afternoon that the legislation is a "forward-thinking approach" to managing water. "By developing New Mexico's brackish water resources, we're charting a new course that balances economic opportunity with responsible stewardship of our freshwater supplies," she said. The four votes against the bill came from Democratic Reps. Marianna Anaya, Dayan Hochman-Vigil and Patricia Roybal Caballero, all of Albuquerque, and Angelica Rubio of Las Cruces.
Yahoo
23-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Scrapping produced water reuse to get Strategic Water Supply Act across finish line
Feb. 22—A major change to a bill that would commercialize the treatment and reuse of saltwater resources seems to have swayed more legislators into supporting the effort. The legislation passed its second of three House committees unanimously Saturday. House Bill 137, known as the Strategic Water Supply Act, would allow the state to dole out money and enter into contracts with entities that treat and reuse brackish water — saline water found in places like underground aquifers. Previously, the legislation would've allowed reuse projects for produced water, a toxic byproduct of oil and gas operations. But after the bill narrowly passed its first committee, with a Democrat voting against it because of its produced water components, bill sponsors decided to compromise on the legislation: They took out all of its produced water components. Bill sponsor Rep. Susan Herrera, D-Embudo, told the House Energy, Environment and Natural Resources Committee that New Mexico needs every drop of water it can get as it expects a decreasing water supply in future decades. In a statement Friday, she said the Strategic Water Supply Act is too important to let its produced water provisions cause its failure. The change swayed some legislators, such as Rep. Miguel Garcia, D-Albuquerque, who said he initially opposed the bill but was sold on it with its changes. However, Rep. Matthew McQueen, D-Galisteo, who's been wary of the effort, said he appreciates the work done on the bill, but it doesn't fix climate change. Brackish water isn't located "everywhere we need water to be," he said, and treatment will be expensive. Brackish water projects are estimated to cost between $3 million and $107 million, according to a November feasibility study from the New Mexico Environment Department and an environmental research organization. The costs are significantly less than those of produced water projects, which would range between $13 million and $667 million. The state wouldn't be fronting all those costs. It would have the ability to enter into contracts or award grants for treated brackish water projects, pulling from a $75 million strategic water supply program fund HB137 would create. "What the state receives in return is saving freshwater resources while providing a new or alternative water resource to projects that align with state goals," said Rebecca Roose, state infrastructure adviser, in response to McQueen. New Mexico's brackish water resources are largely undeveloped due to the high costs as well as a need to construct wells to access the water, according to the feasibility study. Three basins are particularly fruitful for alternative water supply options: the Española Basin in Santa Fe, the Mesilla Basin in southern New Mexico and the Albuquerque Basin. McQueen also said he's consistently heard the state isn't buying and selling water, but still has concerns with how the state would be supporting private entities rather than public entities. Projects could include reusing water for green hydrogen production, data centers and solar panel manufacturing, according to NMED. He questioned how the public can get involved in the project process, to which Roose said projects require tribal consultation and a community benefit plan. "I think the opportunities for public input are vague. ... There's not a clear public role in this process," McQueen said, still ultimately voting in support of the bill. The legislation also seeks $28.7 million to continue aquifer mapping. The feasibility study noted the state needs a better characterization of brackish water resources to "understand the treatment processes needed," so more data collection is necessary. A lack of sufficient information was the cause for many environmental advocacy organizations still opposing the bill. "While there is progress in the removal of produced water, the intent of this is purely based in economic development and a pathway to commodify brackish water without proper scientific understanding and appropriate legal framework," said Julia Bernal, executive director of Pueblo Action Alliance. Rep. Rod Montoya, R-Farmington, said this isn't new technology, using processes like reverse osmosis to treat water. About two-thirds of states in the U.S. have at least one desalination plant, according to the NMED feasibility study, with neighboring state Texas having 52 plants — the third-most in the nation. "If drought conditions persist, this is a good answer for folks who rely on acequias, who rely on ditches all across the state of New Mexico, and especially as I have no idea going forward how much we're going to be fighting with the state of Texas over water," Montoya said. Pursuing produced water reuse later Herrera said she hopes to revisit produced water legislation next year instead, and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham "remains committed to advancing research for produced water treatment," according to a Friday news release. HB137 also asks for $4 million so New Mexico State University, which has a produced water research consortium, can continue its research and technology development for water reuse projects, both on brackish and produced water. Since the bill is only focused on brackish water now, Roose said the intent is for the state-funded research to primarily focus on brackish water. McQueen said he's concerned that the bill doesn't have language specifying that. "We're essentially funding the existing (produced water) research, but we're sort of-kind of saying, 'Well, now you should focus on brackish water,'" he said. "My concern would be the ... (rationalization) to include produce water because potentially, going in the future, that could be included under this program."
