New Mexico wants new rules perhaps putting more restrictions on ground water use by the oil and gas industry.
Its Environment Department recently announced a move to petition the Water Quality Control Commission to begin formal deliverations on the proposed rules, according to the Associated Press. The rules will focus on salty byproducts of oil and and natural gas drilling as the state sees a depletion of freshwater aquifers during drought.
“We need to protect our fresh groundwater supplies not only from degradation or contamination but from overuse,” said John Rhoderick, director of the water protection division at the Environment Department. “We need to do everything we can to maintain those supplies because they’re not being replenished.”
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