In New Mexico, a river runs through ‘the middle of a hellscape’

This story doesn't fit Retrofit Relay's focus on home energy upgrades, so there isn't a direct takeaway for homeowners planning efficiency projects. But here's the gist: southern New Mexico's Pecos and Black Rivers run through the Permian Basin, one of the country's busiest oil and gas regions, and the two are colliding in troubling ways.

Drilling produces huge amounts of toxic wastewater, called produced water, which is salty, can contain petroleum chemicals, and is sometimes radioactive. New Mexico bans using it outside oilfields, so trucks haul it to disposal sites, and investigators found signs of apparent spills along roads near the rivers. Meanwhile, state rules banned most gas flaring (burning off excess gas) in 2022, yet observers recorded multiple active flares near homes and waterways. At the same time, climate change is shrinking the mountain snowpack that feeds the Pecos, with one water official expecting river flows to drop 25 to 30 percent by 2070. New Mexico's state water plan floats treating oilfield wastewater for broader use, including possibly in the river itself, an idea environmental groups oppose over contamination concerns. Federal rule changes this year also weakened Endangered Species Act protections, affecting species living along the river near hundreds of nearby wells.

For homeowners, this is less about retrofits and more a reminder that water scarcity and fossil fuel infrastructure are increasingly intertwined in parts of the country already facing drought.