Source New Mexico published an excellent report today regarding the situation in the Permian Basin of southeastern New Mexico, where much of the state’s oil and natural gas production occurs.
Oil and gas producers generate millions of barrels of wastewater (known as ‘produced water’ in the industry) each day. The wastewater is contaminated with hydrocarbons, drilling chemicals and even radioactive isotopes, and requires proper disposal or cleanup for reuse in the energy industry.
As Source New Mexico reports, a series of earthquakes in the Permian Basin of New Mexico prompted the Oil and Conservation Division (“OCD”) of the New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department (“EMNRD”) to cancel 75 waste injection wells planned along the state’s southern border with Texas.
The OCD’s notification of these cancellations may be read or downloaded HERE.
In the last legislative session, New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham proposed a new program costing roughly $500 million to buy brackish water from deep natural aquifers or wastewater from oil and gas producers and sell it to companies that would clean it up and resell it to industries that use water for their operations, such as solar panel manufacturing and hydrogen production.
The proposal failed to pass during the legislative session; however, according to Governor Lujan Grisham’s Deputy Communications Director, Jodi McGinnis, the administration “remains committed to seeking investments in treating brackish and produced waters for clean energy and advanced manufacturing projects.” Current state rules allow oilfield wastewater to be used only in oilfield operations or reinjected in the ground, with any other use being illegal.
According to the former director of the New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission, Norm Gaume, after five years, pilot projects in the treatment of such wastewater “have produced no data that meets any standards of science,” citing the use of proprietary ‘trade secret’ chemicals during oil and natural gas extraction that are unidentified, and therefore, not being subjected to laboratory testing.
The Source New Mexico article may be read in full HERE.
My brothers and sisters, oil and natural gas have been a huge blessing to civilization, moving society to incredible levels of efficiency, comfort and productivity – including putting men on the moon in 1969!
There is a price to pay for this abundant resource, however, including the need to properly steward the resulting waste streams – such as the produced water from oil and gas development and drilling operations.
As always, mankind naturally, and to its detriment, tends to adhere to the faulty premise that ‘if a little bit is good, then a lot must be even better’ – which is rarely the case! For instance, taking a multi-vitamin each day can help establish solid health in our bodies, but taking 30 tablets to make us even more healthy will poison us.
The question quickly becomes, when is enough regulation ‘enough?’
Therein lies one of the greatest issues of modern-day politics!
It makes no sense to simply cut off the use of fossil fuels and return to the stone age. God gave us the blessing of energy sources as part of the earth, which we are to ‘subdue’ according to scripture:
Genesis 1:28 (NKJV)
“Then God blessed them [Adam and Eve], and God said to them, ‘[b]e fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it [emphasis mine]; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’”
The faulty premise (mentioned above) reveals itself as mankind moving from godly stewardship of the earth to an obsession that itself brings harm to mankind or leads to not-otherwise-occurring earthly events (e.g., earthquakes) and includes the temptation to regulate society to the point that mankind begins to worship the created instead of the Creator! This is idolism. The earth is the Lord’s, but it is not God.
Scripture tells us that all things in heaven and on earth were made by and for Jesus – not for mankind to worship the earth as if the creation was God:
Colossians 1:16 (New Life Version)
“Christ made everything in the heavens and on the earth. He made everything that is seen and things that are not seen. He made all the powers of heaven. Everything was made by Him and for Him [emphasis mine].
As believers, let’s seek the Lord in prayer, asking for wisdom in how and to what extent we are to make the effort of solid and godly stewardship over the many blessings provided to us in creation (e.g., oil and natural gas) and to take proper care of the earth for our future generations (if the Lord tarries) – without becoming self-absorbed and arrogantly ‘worshiping’ the idol of environmentalism. Jesus, the Answer to all of life’s troubles, desires for all to be saved, to worship Him (and Him alone), and to seek Him for wisdom in living our lives and being good stewards of the earth!
Scripture tells us that the Lord desires for all to be saved and to seek His wisdom, not the wisdom of the world:
1 Timothy 2:4-6 (NKJV)
God Desires All To Be Saved
“[God our Savior] desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all…”.
Proverbs 3:13 (ESV)
Blessed Is the One Who Finds Wisdom
“Blessed is the one who finds wisdom, and the one who gets understanding…”.
1 Corinthians 3:19 (NKJV)
“For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, ‘He catches the wise in their own craftiness…’”.
Philippians 4:6 (NKJV)
“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God…”.