The New Mexico Environment Department is pushing ahead with a proposal to tap brackish water and hydraulic fracturing wastewater for industrial use amid opposition from Indigenous and environmental groups that call it a giveaway to the oil and gas industry. Environment Secretary James Kenney told lawmakers Monday the department “kicked off” the process last week by issuing a request for information that closes March 31. The department then plans to issue a request for proposals to ask for more industry-specific concept papers, he said. “By the end of the year at the earliest, we think we’d be in the position to make some selections, provided the appropriation came through,” he said, referring to a request from Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to the Legislature to appropriate $500 million in severance tax bonds to make her “strategic water supply” proposal a reality.