In arid New Mexico, rural towns eye treated oil wastewater as a solution to drought
By Valerie Volcovici
September 12, 2024 9:05 PM EDT

JAL, New Mexico, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Flying over the desert landscape of southeastern New Mexico in a four-seat helicopter, Stephen Aldridge could count around a dozen man-made lagoons brimming with toxic wastewater glistening between drill rigs and pumpjacks.

While it is a growing hazardous waste problem from the region’s booming drilling industry, the mayor of the tiny town of Jal - nestled near the border with Texas in the heart of U.S. oil country - viewed the sweeping scene as an opportunity: a source of water in the second-biggest oil producing state suffering from worsening drought.

"Our future is going to depend on the future of that produced water," he said.

Aldridge is among a growing group of New Mexico politicians who want the state to develop regulations allowing for the millions of gallons of so-called produced water gushing up daily alongside the Permian basin's prolific oil and gas to be treated and used, instead of discarded, and who are encouraging companies to figure out how to make it happen cheaply, safely and at scale.

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