NMSU water researcher gives tour to Sen. Heinrich

During Sen. Martin Heinrich’s visit to New Mexico State University on Thursday, Sept. 25, the Democrat heard researchers talk about the potential future of produced water.
Heinrich visited with Professor Pei Xu, New Mexico State University professor of civil engineering and research director of New Mexico Produced Water Consortium, and her graduate students who are conducting research on produced water. Xu told Heinrich that NMSU’s engineering department is working on research such as desalinization and extracting iodine from other chemicals in the Permian Basin.
“There’s a huge market for iodine,” she said.
Xu said NMSU is leading the nation in produced water research.
David Jauregui, interim dean for NMSU School of Engineering, said Xu is in the top 2% of scientists worldwide.
“She was critical to our R1 designation,” he said.
NMSU gained R1 status earlier this year from the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education for its research.
Jauregui said having that status will help Las Cruces with economic development.
Jauregui said NMSU researchers are testing brackish water on the university’s crops as part of the research into potential future uses.
Xu said “all of this effort is to make sure the water is safe.”
Xu also talked about research around treating water contaminated by PFAS, which are “forever chemicals,” that have entered into the environment and can cause cancer.
Heinrich, who earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering, said he toured NMSU engineering department because NMSU is doing “state of the art science right now.” He said he wanted to think about the science because New Mexico is a state that has both contamination issues and issues of not enough water.
"This science is a really important foundation for the things we can do in application," he said.
Heinrich called NMSU “one of the global leaders in understanding water quality and understanding processes that we can use to do things like clean up PFAS for example and water that’s become contaminated.”
Heinrich said visiting NMSU to hear about water research is one of the best parts of his job.
“I get to live vicariously through people who are at the top of their R&D game at universities and national labs. I get to see some of the smartest people in the world working right here in New Mexico so that’s a lot of fun for me,” he said.