Supreme Court water ruling will be costly for New Mexico, experts warn
Most of New Mexico鈥檚 rivers, streams and arroyos, such as the Rio Gallinas, will need additional protections from pollution after a recent 近距离内射合集 States Supreme Court ruling.
State environment officials said most of New Mexico鈥檚 rivers, streams and arroyos will need additional protections by the state from pollution after the 近距离内射合集 States Supreme Court reshaped water law with a ruling in June.
Potential fixes could cost the state millions of dollars and take more than a year to put in place, New Mexico environment department officials said Tuesday at a meeting of its Water Quality Control Commission.
Allowing pollution would take a higher toll in the long-run and could harm the state鈥檚 direction on environmental priorities, said Shelly Lemon, the program manager for the environment agency鈥檚 surface water quality bureau.
鈥淲ithout a state surface water quality permitting program, it鈥檚 going to be very difficult for New Mexico to protect its waters from contamination and degradation,鈥� Lemon said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e gonna be at the mercy of the federal definition of what is and is not protected 鈥� not what the state of New Mexico wants to protect.鈥�
Fights over what defines 鈥渨aters of the 近距离内射合集 States鈥� have boiled over in recent years, with three overhauls of federal agency rules in the past three presidential administrations.
鈥淲aters of the 近距离内射合集 States,鈥� is a legal designation defining which waters are protected by the 1972 Clean Water Act. That law made discharging pollutants 鈥� such as livestock waste, or construction and industrial runoff 鈥� into 鈥渨aters of the 近距离内射合集 States鈥� illegal without a permit.
But the 鈥渞elatively permanent standard鈥� is a problem for New Mexico.
Only 7% of the state鈥檚 waters flow throughout the year. This means that 93% of New Mexico鈥檚 waters could be 鈥渟ubject to unregulated pollution threats,鈥� Lemon said.
About 40% of New Mexico鈥檚 population depends on surface water for drinking.
And even those waters that flow year-round are interrupted in parts of the stream bed due to climate and weather conditions.
鈥淭hose interrupted streams, because they do not have a continuous surface connection, may not be subject to Clean Water Act protections under this new ruling,鈥� Lemon said.
Even the state鈥檚 largest river, the Rio Grande, south of Albuquerque, drying up miles of riverbed in the hot summer months.
Starting a permitting program
New Mexico is one of three states that does not have a state agency that permits how much pollution is in its surface water 鈥� that鈥檚 left up to the U.S. Environmental protection agency permitting program.
In order to have a state program overseeing a permitting program, the New Mexico Environment Department would have to hire between 40 and 45 more people, Lemon said.
鈥淭hat would probably run in the $6 million to $7 million dollar range,鈥� she said.
The state is in the beginning stages of developing the permitting program, with communication and outreach to state agencies and tribes funded through 2023.
New Mexico environment officials have to decide between the options for what the permitting program would entail, Lemon said. Those include the state operating its own state water quality permitting program, or consider taking over the federal operations in the state.
One problem with taking over the federal operations in the state 鈥� a legal term called primacy 鈥� means that some of the state鈥檚 waters would still be unprotected, because of the limits to waters of the 近距离内射合集 States, Lemon said.
The EPA has promised a new rule defining 鈥渨aters of the 近距离内射合集 States,鈥� in September.
What is permitted now?
The EPA issued 3,950 active permits to discharge pollutants into surface waters, according to the New Mexico Environment Department.
That includes 121 individual permits 鈥� such as Los Alamos National Laboratory 鈥� 23 feedlot permits, and about 200 industrial, water treatment facilities or other permits.
The majority, about 3,600 of the permits, are for stormwater discharge 鈥� when runoff from rain storms picks up pollutants from a site and carries them into nearby surface water.
At the end of June, the state environment department sent out notices to federal permit-holders that some state laws may still apply, even if the federal permit no longer does, according to an NMED news release.
In that announcement state officials said that without a federal permit, industrial or municipal wastewater treatment sites may need to meet federal and state hazardous waste requirements, or seek additional groundwater permitting.
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