Drilling new water wells is strictly regulated in New Mexico, causing hardship for an oil industry that needs water for fracking.
In many parts of this region, without water for fracking, there is no access to oil.
So they are laying pipes across the state line, pumping groundwater in Texas to serve oil wells in New Mexico.
“Really, the situation happening in southeast New Mexico is out of control, in my opinion,” Dunn said.
Property owners there are selling groundwater to oil exploration companies, which have laid pipelines across the border to serve oil drilling in New Mexico.
The company announced it is building a new 11-mile water supply line capable of moving 150,000 barrels of water per day from Loving County, Texas, across the state line into Eddy County, New Mexico.
Loving County Commissioner Bill Wilkinson said he does not see a problem with all the groundwater exports from his county.
“I care about water in New Mexico.” New Mexico’s state engineer is responsible for managing water rights in the state and issuing permits for new groundwater wells.
As the state land commissioner, Dunn can only influence the groundwater drilling process by regulating access to some 13 million acres of state trust lands.
The groundwater piped into the state from Texas, he said, is subject to the tax because it’s getting pumped from the same aquifer for use in New Mexico.