We all suspect corruption but it's not everyday that we catch political leaders red handed for selling out the people.

In a process that smelled fishy since last winter, the jig is up and its deplorable. The SECRETARY OF THE ENVIRONMENT was caught orchestrating a rigged vote on behalf of the Governor in order to move forward the WATR Alliance's (NMOGA in a wig) petition to dump fracking waste into New Mexico's ENVIRONMENT. 

The People of New Mexico are demanding that this breach of the law, the public trust, and the duties of the Environment Department is unacceptable. We will not accept industry sponsored corruption anymore and we DEFINITELY will not stand by and accept the poisoning of our land and water and bodies to bailout industry from its mounting waste crisis. 

They have billions of dollars of profit to spare to deal with the proper and safe disposal of their billions of gallons of the radioactive, toxic fracking waste they create every day. 

BACKGROUND:

Farmers, health professionals, youth, and and concerned residents from across the state took part in public hearings demanding strong protections for our rivers and aquifers. New Mexico Environment Department scientists and experts from half a dozen intervenors contributed to an evidentiary hearing that lasted two weeks. Their work produced a science-based rule that safeguards the water our families, farms, and wildlife depend on.

The WQCC ruled that there is “insufficient scientific support for the proposition that any discharges of treated or untreated produced water would be protective of ground or surface water.” The Commission relied on testimony from five NMED scientists, independent experts, and extensive public comment. 

The new rules, which went into effect in July, prohibited the reuse or discharge of the wastewater except in limited pilot projects and included a sunset clause of approximately five years.

THE NEW MEXICAN BROKE THE STORY OF THE CORRUPTION SURROUNDING THE INDUSTRY-BACKED REDO-PETITION. 

From the Article....

"In the weeks after the commission voted on the rule, and while the previous rulemaking case was on appeal in the state Supreme Court, a group called the Water Access Treatment and Reuse Alliance, or WATR Alliance — which has ties to the oil and gas industry — filed a new petition requesting another such rulemaking proceeding. The group has argued new scientific research has been released in recent years in support of its claim that the reuse and discharge of produced water can be protective of human health and the environment.

Groups opposed to loosening the regulations around fracking wastewater have compared the new rulemaking case as a “second bite at the apple” for the oil and gas industry.

Kenney — who has sat on the commission since May — sent emails in June and July to the heads of several state departments urging them to take part in the new hearing themselves as opposed to their appointees, writing in July, “Per the [governor’s office], the statutorily named person to the WQCC will need to participate vs your designee.”

He attached two fact sheets prepared by the WATR Alliance in an email to the agency heads, passing on the oil and gas-backed group’s arguments about produced water and the proposed regulations.

Even before Kenney voted the next day to accept the petition for a hearing, he expressed confidence in the July 7 email regarding how the commission would vote on the WATR Alliance petition.

Kenney wrote the “preferred location” for a hearing in the case is in Lea or Eddy County, echoing the WATR Alliance’s request to hold the hearing in Jal. A subsequent email sent by a commission staffer noted such a move would represent the first time a “complex, lengthy hearing” has been moved out of the state capital since at least since 1987, when she started at the department.

Following the emails, a handful of department heads attended the commission’s Aug. 12 meeting to cast votes as commissioners, including Department of Health Secretary Gina DeBlassie, Department of Agriculture Secretary Jeff Witte, Department of Game and Fish Director Mike Sloane and State Engineer Elizabeth Anderson. Each of the department heads replaced an appointee who had filled their department’s seat on the commission for some time and who voted on the first rulemaking proposal in May.

Both emails referred to prior, closed-door meetings between Kenney, Governor’s Office staff members and the other commissioners, during which they apparently discussed the produced water rulemaking case.

'As per our huddle discussion, we need everyone’s commitment to get this over the finished line,' Governor’s Office Deputy Chief of Operations Caroline Buerkle wrote to the group of commissioners in response to Kenney’s email July 7."

Such discussions violate commission rules requiring impartiality and fairness, prohibiting predisposition or prejudgment of a vote, and prohibiting outside conversations about cases, rather than evidence.

In this August 23rd, 2025 interview Secretary Kenney blatantly lies in response to a direct question from journalist Jerry Redfern (at minute 2:00), denying that the Governor directly asked five Agency Directors to attend this particular meeting, or that she directed how they must vote.

CAUGHT LYING ON CAMERA
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jvz1VkoxEKM 

The NM Environment Department's mission is to protect and restore our environment! Not to undermine science-based protections and democratic processes.

From the NMED Website:

Our mission is to protect and restore the environment and to foster a healthy and prosperous New Mexico for present and future generations.  The top tenet of the agency's mission is:

Science
Using the best available science to inform our decision-making in protecting public health and the environment.

James Kenney is unfit to serve. Caught red handed undermining his own agency's good work as well as the integrity of the Water Quality Control Commission and the Environment Department. We are calling for him to resign effective immediately.

And we believe that all the WQCC members who conspired with the Governor and Kenney should be disqualified and that the Petition to discharge fracking waste be dismissed.

No Produced WATR Reuse Rule! No Fracking Waste Discharge! 
No More Corruption!