They're Baaaack! Oil and Gas files new petition to discharge their toxic waste to our water.

A group of fracking waste reuse proponents—calling themselves, with no small irony, the Water Access Treatment and Reuse Alliance (“WATR”)—has filed a new petition to allow fracking waste to be reused and discharged into New Mexico’s lands and waters. Yesterday, despite detailed objections from multiple intervenors in the WQCC 23-84 rulemaking, the Water Quality Control Commission voted unanimously to give the petition a hearing—just days before the newly adopted rule banning discharges has even taken effect.

Commissioner Brancard, who left before the vote, summed it up perfectly: “Are you serious?!” Sadly, the rest of the Commission pressed ahead regardless of the absurdity.

This petition ignores the will of hundreds of New Mexicans who testified in defense of clean water, as well as the massive investment of time and resources from state agencies, regulators, experts, nonprofits, and grassroots groups in the 23-84 hearing. That process concluded with a clear ruling: discharges of both treated and untreated produced water must be prohibited, because science has not shown they can ever be safe. Yet the petitioners now claim to have a “robust collection of scientific data,” while failing to cite even a single new peer-reviewed study in their filings.

So who makes up this so-called alliance? They describe themselves vaguely as a “coalition of stakeholders, including municipalities, desalination companies, technology and internet service companies, mining and oil and gas operators, investors, technology providers, associations representing WATR users, and landowners.” In reality, the “alliance” website hides member details behind a login and lists only two public contacts: Jennifer Bradfute and Matthias Sayer, co-owners of Bradfute Sayer Consulting and Legal Services.

Bradfute has long championed oil and gas interests, touting her role in drafting and pushing through the 2019 New Mexico Produced Water Act, representing ExxonMobil and Marathon Oil, and sitting on the Governor’s Water Policy and Infrastructure Task Force. She was also a leading voice for fracking waste reuse during hearings on the Strategic Water Supply Act. Sayer previously served as Senior Vice President at NGL Energy Partners, a midstream oil and gas servicing firm.

While they frame their efforts as solutions to water scarcity, their advocacy simply repackages oil and gas talking points. They promote the reuse of fracking waste as a “solution,” when in truth it deepens our water and climate crises. Their true clients—still unnamed—are the companies desperate to avoid the costs of shipping their toxic, radioactive waste to Texas, as underground injection wells fill up.

And let’s be clear: these are the same polluters driving the climate chaos behind the devastating floods we are witnessing now—floods that just claimed over 100 lives in Texas, and three in Ruidoso last night. The fossil fuel industry would have us accept these disasters as unavoidable, all so they can continue to protect their profits at the expense of our future.