On August 13–14, 2019, in what many view as bellwether cases, the New Mexico Environment Department’s (NMED) Water Quality Control Commission (WQCC) decided two administrative appeal challenges to the first-ever groundwater discharge permit (DP) issued by NMED to a proposed new copper…

The New Mexico Legislature passed by an overwhelming majority, and Governor Lujan Grisham signed, the Produced Water Act, a bipartisan effort to encourage and facilitate the recycling and reuse of produced water by oil and gas producers and the conservation of fresh…

The United States District Court for the District of New Mexico entered its final decree in State of New Mexico, ex rel. State Engineer v. Aamodt, a state stream adjudication filed in 1966 (Aamodt) to determine the rights of water users in…

The Presidential Executive Order on Restoring the Rule of Law, Federalism, and Economic Growth by Reviewing the “Waters of the Unites States” (WOTUS) Rule issued on February 28, 20171 articulated the Trump administration’s policy on navigable waters, and attempted to roll back…

As we previously reported in our Fall 2015 ERN,[1. See Joan Drake and Deana Bennett, The Clean Water Rule: Troubled Waters Ahead for the EPA and Corps, Energy Resources Notes, Fall 2015, at 2-6.] several industry and environmental groups have challenged the Environmental Protection Agency’s Final…

The U.S. Supreme Court has unanimously held that a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ (“Corps”) “approved jurisdictional determination” (“approved JD”) under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act (“CWA”) is a final agency action judicially reviewable under the Administrative Procedure Act[1. 5…