Since the Strategic Water Supply initiative was announced, there has been ample confusion between the Supply and the already-existing Strategic Water Reserve. Given the similarity of the names, it is worth going over what each is and what it does – or, as in the case of the Supply, what it could do.
Strategic Water RESERVE vs Strategic Water SUPPLY
Strategic Water RESERVE
“The Strategic Water Reserve, which the Legislature created in 2005, allows water or water rights in New Mexico to be designated for use for public purposes as specified in the statute. The New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission is authorized to implement and administer the Reserve. The Commission can acquire water or water rights for the reserve by purchase, lease, or donation. Water or water rights in the Reserve can be used to assist the State of New Mexico in complying with interstate river agreements, or compacts, and to benefit threatened or endangered species.” [https://www.ose.state.nm.us/ISC/isc_SWR.php]
Water or water rights are leased or purchased (or donated) from willing sellers or lessors; purchase/lease from an acequia, ditch association or irrigation district requires special contractual arrangements. Groundwater rights may be used only for stopping groundwater pumping or for limited short-term stream flow augmentation. Water and water rights in the SWR have to stay within the river reach or groundwater basin of origin and cannot result in any net depletions to that basin. While the narrow purpose is to avoid lawsuits based on non-compliance with endangered species or compact delivery requirements, rivers benefit more generally through temporary increased flows. Current legislation – SB37: Strategic Water Reserve – would allow some additional flexibility in how acquired water could be used to augment stream flow and provide some supplemental benefits.
Strategic Water SUPPLY
The Strategic Water Supply would treat the oil and gas industry’s “produced (or “industrial”) water” and water from deep brackish aquifers. The treated water would be used to mitigate the excessive pumping of reservoirs and groundwater supplies that are critically low and not recharging at rates sufficient to ensure future water security. The SWS water has also been proposed for use in industrial processes that require a lot of water and, at times, for agricultural uses, although these appear to be off the table. The oil and gas industry already gets a substantial amount of the water it uses from its own treated produced water, but the sheer volume of produced water requires extensive infrastructure to move it around, treat and store it.
Both produced water and brackish water often contain similar constituents that require treatment: mineral salts, heavy metals, and radionuclides. Produced water also contains chemicals introduced to aid the fracking process, some of which, such as PFAS, can be difficult to treat (the oil and gas industry in New Mexico says it does not use PFAS). A major issue with treating these water sources is what to do with the brine that is a byproduct of the treatment process and contains the removed salts, metals, radionuclides, and additional constituents. This either has to be injected into deep aquifers (with a risk for earthquakes and contamination of intervening potable water aquifers) or put into large evaporation ponds with the vast quantity of dried toxic material transported to a certified hazardous waste disposal site (with risks from blowing dust from the dried ponds and 24/7 truck transport).