SANTA FE, N.M. -- The New Mexico Senate has agreed to take up a bill that would increase penalties for produced water spills by the oil and gas industry.

"Produced water" is the flowback from fracking, known to contain dangerous chemicals and heavy metals toxic to humans.

Camilla Feibelman, director of the Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter, said spills from produced water occur as frequently as three times a week, and subsequently poison New Mexico's land, water and air.

"Currently this waste really is out of control," Feibelman contended. "We're seeing thousands of ponds and corroded steel tanks that store this waste."

If passed, the legislation also would ban oil and gas companies from using fresh water in most cases, and require them to disclose the chemical composition of produced water from spills and any proposed use outside the oil field.

Most of the state is experiencing severe drought conditions and Feibelman stressed groundwater and surface water supplies from rivers, streams and reservoirs need to be protected.

Introduced by state Sen. Antoinette Sedillo Lopez, D-Albuquerque, Senate Bill 86 is scheduled to be heard tomorrow by the Senate Conservation Committee.

Feibelman stated currently, oil and gas companies are not required to take enough preventive measures to protect New Mexicans.

"Right now spills aren't illegal, you just have to report them and clean them up," Feibelman explained. "But we think disincentivizing the spills will help improve the care they're taking with equipment and with training and potential human error."

Oil and gas leaders in New Mexico, where the industry accounts for nearly one-third of the state's general fund revenues, have already raised concerns over President Joe Biden's executive order last week, which put a 60-day pause on new oil and gas leases on federal land.

The next sale of leases in New Mexico is scheduled after the two-month moratorium.

ARLINGTON, Texas - Three Texas cities are taking part in a challenge this year to create Sustainable Development Goals that help eliminate poverty, advance equity and safeguard natural resources.

Dallas, Denton and San Antonio are participating in the United Nations' 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, with a second year of the "SDGs Cities Challenge."

Meghna Tare, chief sustainability officer for the University of Texas at Arlington and founder of the Regional Center of Expertise for Education on Sustainable Development, said cities host 55% of the world's population - but too often, local efforts to implement sustainability goals are siloed.

"How do you address the challenges of the next 20 years, with the increase in population and the shortage of resources that you have? There has to be a bigger framework," she said.

Tare said the project aims to support 1,000 cities to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, which could affect the lives of more than 1 billion people from developing, low- and middle-income countries. Sustainability efforts can range from conserving water, managing renewable fuel sources and reducing carbon emissions to ending poverty and hunger, and improving education and health care.

Tare said air quality is a big challenge in Texas, especially in Dallas, and creating an equitable food system is another top priority. She noted that sustainability goals must be broadened beyond climate action or responsible consumption.

"I think we are all at the point where we have moved beyond just energy efficiency or rate reduction, or recycling and transportation," she said.

In addition to UT Arlington, the UN/Habitat sustainability partnership is led by Local Governments for Sustainability USA, the Connected Cities Lab, the Brookings Institution and other international business leaders.

ALBANY, N.Y. - A ballot measure could give New York residents the constitutional right to a healthy environment, and on Tuesday a group of state environmental advocates and lawmakers kicked off a campaign for its passage this November.

Some 80% of New Yorkers support adding the "green amendment" to the state Constitution, according to a Siena College poll.

Peter Iwanowicz, executive director of the group Environmental Advocates NY, said the measure would change Article 1 of the state Constitution by giving each resident the right to clean air and water.

"We will argue that decisions now will have to be screened, of whether it violates a constitutional right to clean air and clean water," he said, "and we think it's going to lead towards more thorough and better front-end decision making that will reject a lot of the proposals that are out there now."

He pointed to the proposed Danskammer fracked-gas power plant and the longtime water crisis in Hoosick Falls as environmental-justice issues for Hudson Valley communities that need further attention. If approved by voters, the change to the state's "bill of rights" would take effect in January.

Jennifer Wilson, deputy director of the League of Women Voters of New York State, said the move would ensure that environmental health is at the forefront in writing legislative policies and plans for economic development.

"New Yorkers who can't afford to move away from these areas, they're suffering," she said. "These residents are hurting right now, and that's only going to continue to grow if we do not guarantee businesses and elected officials have a mandate to protect the well-being of all New Yorkers."

The "green amendment" also would prevent people from creating loopholes in existing laws. Eddie Bautista, executive director of the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance, said he thinks it's time to make clean air and water a constitutional right.

"We should have a right to clean air and clean water - except we don't," he said. "Even when we are strategic, sophisticated and politically powerful enough to get laws passed, they're only as good as their enforcement or even the legislative body in question's commitment to it."

The initial effort for a "green" constitutional amendment in New York began in 2016.

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A bill to tackle contamination from so-called "forever chemicals" known as Perfluorinated and Polyfluorinated Substances (PFAS) is moving through Congress.

PFAS is used in a range of consumer products and linked to a variety of health problems.

The chemical essentially does not degrade, and according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, most Americans have PFAS in their blood.

Sonya Lunder, senior toxics policy advisor for the Sierra Club, explained PFAS contamination has been on the radar of environmental advocates for decades, but federal regulators didn't start paying attention until the turn of the century, when evolving research uncovered the prevalence of chemicals.

"It's been maddening for environmental advocates, because PFAS chemicals are used so widely in things like microwave popcorn bags, or to make fabrics or rugs stain resistant," Lunder stressed. "However, the chemicals in the environment build up in our food. They're in the water we drink. They linger in our body for years."

A recent study detected PFAS at nearly 70 sites in Ohio. The bill would accelerate the response to PFAS contamination and direct the EPA to establish federal regulations.

Water system sampling conducted under Ohio's PFAS Action Plan in 2020 found PFAS levels above the state's action level in just two public water systems.

However, Lunder pointed out Ohio's threshold is much more lax than other states, and at least 31 systems exceed the most protective drinking-water standard. She added some states are going beyond testing and taking steps to prevent PFAS contamination.

"There are so many things that need to be done, and it is very cumbersome in these state-by-state approaches," Lunder contended. "They're paving the way, they're showing us what is possible, but what we really need to level the playing field to protect everybody and to do this more quickly is federal action."

Moving forward, Lunder emphasized more needs to be done to prevent the need for regulators to continuously play catch-up. She argued for too long, chemicals have been created and marketed without enough research on the long-term impacts.

"Until we have a much better integrated system using better judgments and a more precautionary view, we're going to continue to find that these pollutants are widespread in the environment, impacting everyone in costing us an incredible amount of money," Lunder remarked.

The PFAS Action Act of 2021 passed the House with bipartisan support. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Dayton, was the only Ohio Republican to vote in favor.