The silhouette of a drill head, backlit by a vibrant sunset, is visible from Route 550 just outside Farmington, N.M., on Oct. 26, 2021. A hub of energy production in rural northwestern New Mexico, Farmington has deep ties to the oil and gas industry that stretch back a century.
(Photo by Isabel Koyama / Howard Center for Investigative Journalism)
Environmental groups are asking the New Mexico Ethics Commission to determine if a board member must step aside from decision-making as the state attempts to create new uses for the extremely salty and often toxic wastewater from oil and gas operations.
An environmental nonprofit, New Energy Economy and Navajo Nation citizens Daniel Tso and Samuel Sage filed a motion Monday afternoon requesting the Water Quality Control Commission (WQCC) to recuse board member Krista McWilliams for alleged conflicts of interest.
The complaint and motion follows the week of May hearings over new rules for oil and gas wastewater, which have drawn unprecedented public attention for the usually nondescript rule-making body, and raised questions about financial disclosures.
Disclosure rules unclear for commissioners set to decide on O&G wastewater rules
McWilliams has said she has followed state laws on disclosures and that her employment with Farmington-based oil and gas company, LOGOS Energy, poses no conflicts of interest.
The 23-page motion (with 300 pages in attachments) said that McWilliams’ position at LOGOS Energy, where her husband is CEO, and her position on the board of Independent Petroleum Association of New Mexico (IPANM) poses a “real or potential,” conflict of interest.
The motion alleges McWilliams’ positions make her a “regulated and regulator with regard to her financial interests.”
“The outcome of this rulemaking, will substantially, favorably or unfavorably, directly impact her business and financial interests and that of her husband, and the organizations of which their business is a member, including the New Mexico Oil & Gas Association (“NMOGA”),” the motion states.
Jay Paul McWilliams was a former member of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, which is now a party in the hearings on the produced water reuse rule. He was listed on the board from 2017 through 2021 tax filings, but is no longer a member, according to the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association 2022 tax documents.
The New Mexico Oil and Gas Association does not publish information on its members publicly.
The motion also alleges that LOGOS Energy has recorded 16 spills of produced water since 2019, attaching a sheet from the New Mexico Oil Conservation Division.
In an interview Tuesday, Tso, a former Navajo Nation Council delegate, said he joined the motion to recuse McWilliams because LOGOS has spilled produced water, that connection should disqualify her from building the rules on oil and gas wastewater use.
“I really feel like the violators don’t need to be sitting on that commission,” Tso said.
In a statement to Source NM, McWilliams denied having any conflict of interest.
“I do not have any conflicts of interest directly or through LOGOS, as I do not expect that the current draft of the Reuse Rule will give any material benefit to me personally or to LOGOS,” she wrote in an email. “LOGOS has not used produced water for any purpose other than recycled-reuse use in oil and gas applications, and does not plan to do so in the future.”
She further said neither she, nor LOGOS is a member of any “participant group” including the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association.
McWilliams said she did not have a detailed comment when reached Tuesday, saying Source NM alerted her to the motion’s existence. She stated that from a “brief review” that there were inaccuracies in the motion, but did not further elaborate what those were in her statement.
“It is extremely unfortunate that New Energy Economy is attempting to discredit and disqualify a female, native New Mexican engineer with expertise to utilize relevant technical testimony to produce a science-driven vote that is best for all stakeholders in our state,” she said.
Mariel Nanasi, the executive director for New Energy Economy, called part of McWilliams’ statement “irrelevant” to the issue.
“The complaint is about her ethical and professional conflicts, and has nothing to do with whether she’s a woman engineer,” Nanasi said.
A copy of the ethics complaint obtained by Source NM showed that it was the same as the motion filed in the rulemaking process. Sixteen environmental groups signed onto an ethics complaint, according to a press release.
A spokesperson for the States Ethics Commission said that confidentiality provisions prevent any comment confirming whether a complaint was filed with the commission.
It’s unclear what the next steps are for the rule-making proceeding.
Bruce Thomson, the chair for the Water Quality Control Commission, said he does not know what the motion’s impact on the rulemaking hearings – which will continue in early August.
“I do not know the rules or laws regarding whether it is possible for the Chair or the Commission as a whole to take action in this matter,” he said.
Further, he said he trusted McWilliam’s previous statements that she has no conflicts.
“I believe Commissioner McWilliams is an honest and ethical Commissioner, and I accept and respect her statement made at the start of the hearings that she has no conflict of interest,” Thomson wrote in an email.
Attorneys for the Water Quality and Control Commission did not respond to questions asking about the next steps, and if there’s any history or procedure for disqualifying a commissioner.
Rulemaking hearings are scheduled to resume on Aug. 5 and will continue as necessary.
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