Warming to the subject

Keep a close eye on the use of fracking wastewater

NOT ONLY does fracking use too much of our precious fresh water, it becomes so contaminated that it can never be used again and usually must be stored underground.

Fracking poisons the freshwater twice — first when industry adds chemicals, many of them toxic, to make the fracking solution. Then again when this toxic water is shot down into the bowels of the earth and mixes with additional contaminants that have been deposited deep underground for eons, such as very salty water, radioactive materials and metals.

New Mexico is now considering recycling that contaminated water, called produced water or fracking wastewater. Recycling for use on the oilfield should be a win/win because it reduces the need for fresh water and reduces the amount of wastewater to be stored. Recycling that wastewater off the oilfields, for example onto crops, or to recharge aquifers, or to water animals, is a scarier prospect.

While our Environment Department assures us that it would reuse wastewater for human or animal use only if they knew that the water had been successfully treated, we are worried. The oil and gas industry has far too much influence in New Mexico and can trivialize a deadly cocktail, such as fracking wastewater. We need to keep a close eye on developments as the Environment Department considers using fracking wastewater anywhere besides the oilfield.

LINDA BURCHFIEL Santa Fe