About 84 billion gallons of water was brought to the surface with the oil and gas extracted in New Mexico last year.
Known as “produced water” the byproduct of fossil fuel extraction comes from the same underground rock formations, or shale, where crude oil and gas natural gas is pumped from.
It’s high in toxic chemicals, heavy metals and brine and unfit for human consumption.
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Traditionally, the fluid is disposed of via injection wells, pumping it back into the shale it came from.
But to address water scarcity and limit strain on freshwater sources, oil companies recently began recycling and reusing produced water in subsequent drilling activities.
The State of New Mexico was also pursuing research on how the substance could be treated and reused outside of the oil and gas industry, in industries like agriculture or municipal operations.
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During a Tuesday meeting of the New Mexico Legislature’s Radioactive and Hazardous Materials Committee Dylan Fuge, director of the Oil Conservation Division told lawmakers the recent research generated better data as to how much produced water is generated and how it is used.
He said as oil and gas production continued to grow in New Mexico, there was likely to be even more produced water available to the state.
“We got better data on how much is generated each year,” Fuge said during the meeting at Southeast New Mexico College in Carlsbad. “Because produced water is a byproduct, it tracks pretty well with oil and gas that is produced.”
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He said in 2022, about 66 percent of water used by the oil and gas industry came from recycled produced water, and that a typical hydraulic fracturing operation used about 275,000 barrels – about 42 gallons each.
But disposal injections were still needed amid higher rates of fossil fuel production, Fuge said, and more water could strain disposal capacity and threaten higher seismicity particularly in the southeast Permian Basin region.
As oil and gas boomed and created a higher volume of water disposed, the region along with areas of West Texas also within the Permian saw a rapid increase in earthquakes believed tied to the injection wells.
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This led to the OCD enacting restrictions on injection volumes, potentially curbing injection volumes or shutting in disposal wells completely, based on their proximity to reported earthquakes and the magnitude of the events.
“While we’ve made significant progress in reducing the volumes of freshwater that goes to oil and gas, recent increases in production have presented challenges,” Fuge said.
He said the Oil Conservation Commission, the OCD’s governing body, was considering a pilot project for shallow disposal wells, which could avoid stimulating deep faults and basement rocks typically known to cause seismic events.
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“One of the challenges with managing produced water is where to put it, so shallow disposal wells is one of those avenues,” Fuge said.
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A package of bills could also be introduced during the upcoming Legislative Session starting in January 2024, Fuge said, to better regulate freshwater use, well placement and other rules relate to oil and gas and its impact on the environment.
But present work revolved around the Produced Water Act passed in 2019 that clarified the OCD’s authority to manage produced water within the oil and gas industry, and tasked the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) with regulating potential uses in other industries.
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John Rhoderick, director of NMED’s Water Protection Division said during the meeting that produced water could be used as an alternative to some of New Mexico’s freshwater sources throughout the arid state.
New Mexico continued to struggle with a multi-year drought, with the U.S. Drought Monitor reporting Oct. 5 about 99 percent of the state saw some drought conditions, while about 68 percent was in “extreme drought.”
Although produced water could increase water availability, it will not completely take the strain off of New Mexico’s surface water, Rhoderick said.
“Produced water is one of the sources we’re looking at as far as an alternate water supply,” he said. “It will reduce the need and use of surface water, but it will not replace it.”
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