Water commissioner disputes conflict of interest in fracking wastewater case
Jul. 6—A state water quality commissioner has dismissed claims her oil and gas industry ties amount to a conflict of interest in a pending fracking wastewater rule change case after criticism of her continued following the recent revelation of a video in which she said she supports the controversial drilling practice.
Environmental advocates are now pointing to a 2018 video on the website of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association — released Friday as part of a filing in an ethics complaint — in which Commissioner Krista McWilliams, acting as a spokeswoman for the association, speaks in support of fracking, a process that involves injecting liquid at high pressure into subterranean rock to open fissures to extract oil and gas.
"When people hear what I do, I get questions," she says in the 2018 video. "Fracking — it's a sensitive subject. I get it. But I feel good about fracking."
Prior to the reveal of the video last week, several environmental groups and activists had already in June called for McWilliams to be disqualified from a pending rulemaking proceeding before the Water Quality Control Commission that would implement new statewide regulations for the industrial reuse of fracking wastewater, or "produced water." They said the oil and gas executive, who is the present co-chief operating officer of drilling company Logos Energy, stands to benefit from the environmental rule change. A concurrent complaint to the state Ethics Commission requests an investigation of McWilliams for alleged violations of state law around governmental conduct and financial disclosure.
The rule change, proposed by the state Environment Department in December, would amend state administrative code to include provisions for allowing the reuse of "treated produced water," including for what are called "demonstration projects" and "industrial applications," by submitting a notice of intent to the department.
McWilliams has denied her ties to the industry render her conflicted on the issue and said Logos Energy has no plans for such reuse of fracking wastewater. In a response to the ethics commission filed Friday, she called the activists' argument she could stand to benefit financially a "speculative and borderline conspiratorial claim."
The groups that have called for McWilliams's recusal or disqualification include Santa Fe-based New Energy Economy, the Center for Biological Diversity, WildEarth Guardians and others, including two former Navajo Nation Council members.
The environmental advocates said in their complaints against McWilliams that until several years ago her husband, Jay Paul McWilliams — CEO of Logos Energy — was on the board of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, a major trade group for the industry that is a party to the rulemaking case.
McWilliams' response says Logos Energy "discontinued its membership in the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association years ago."
"That McWilliams has ties to the oil and gas industry is not, in itself, a cause for concern," the response argues. "Agencies rely on individuals with ties to the industry they regulate to lend expertise and experience to their decision-making. It would be absurd and ironic to disqualify a duly appointed public official based on the official's professional background, when that background is what uniquely qualified the official for the position."
The response also asked the Ethics Commission to hold off on making any decisions regarding the complaint until Aug. 5, when the Water Quality Control Commission is scheduled to vote on the motion to disqualify McWilliams from the proceeding.
The day McWilliams filed her response, a separate filing from New Energy Economy surfaced the 2018 video showing McWilliams acting as a spokeswoman for the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association.
The video shows McWilliams with a young girl at what appears to be Abiquiú Lake with a graphic that states "Paid for by NMOGA."
In the video — which was still live on the association's website as of Friday — McWilliams defends fracking as environmentally sound. She says more than 50 years of fracking for oil and natural gas around the state has yielded "not one case of groundwater contamination," a claim the environmental group dismisses as "patently false."
Former Navajo Nation Councilor Daniel Tso said in an interview Friday he believes the rule change will pave the way for more fracking wastewater contamination into groundwater. Tso said he has seen the effects of pollution in his community and he believes McWilliams presiding over the rule change "brings into question what is fair, proper, and above board.
"We certainly want folks that would be fair, honest and transparent in rulemaking," he said. "If McWilliams and other members are on the commission favoring this one side, the whole aspect of fairness is skewed."
