We are not just in a drought anymore — they have now started attaching scary prefixes like mega or unprecedented or once-in-1,200 years. To see the impacts of a changing climate, exhibit one is our current megadrought. However you want to describe it, it is dry and getting drier. Unfortunately, as much as we would like to believe otherwise, the weather is not going back to how it was when we were kids. This is the new normal.

Everyone who lives in New Mexico understands how important our water resource is to our environment. There are roughly 700 abandoned oil and gas wells scattered throughout the San Juan and Permian basins, many of them posing environmental hazards, leaking oil and other toxic chemicals that endanger our groundwater and clean water. In a climate where water is our most precious resource, we must treat it as such.

Oil and gas companies are required to plug their wells when they run dry and repair the surrounding lands. But what happens if they go out of business before doing so? Well, in that case, it is the government’s responsibility to plug them, but they have pennies on the dollar to get the job done. We need to reform the policies, including financial assurance sufficient to pay for plugging wells in case of bankruptcy, that let this happen in the first place. But in the meantime, these rundown wells just sit there leaking oil and known carcinogens, emitting methane, a potent greenhouse gas and polluting our groundwater. In the middle of a megadrought, we are letting these orphan wells pollute the little water we have left.

These hazardous wells are not just threatening our water and air — they endanger the land itself. Leaving them unplugged risks creating sinkholes that destabilize the surrounding land. They also depress home and property values and damage agricultural lands.

Plugging orphan wells should not be the responsibility of landowners. Yet, landowners are left with choosing between paying to plug the wells out of their own pocket or let them sit, leaking a trail of toxic chemicals that endanger the water on their land and infringe on their property rights. This is unacceptable. The combined threats of droughts and these old, leaky wells endanger the future of the ranching heritage in New Mexico.

It is time for action. Thankfully, Sen. Ben Ray Luján and Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández are leading efforts to plug orphan wells and repair the impacted land. Luján’s REGROW Act and Leger Fernández’s House legislation will invest billions of dollars to start plugging these wells. These efforts will help protect our water and air here in New Mexico but also put tens of thousands of out-of-work oil and gas workers back on the job plugging these wells. This plan is so common sense that it is attracting support from Republicans, Democrats, oil and gas companies, conservationists, ranchers and others.

Ranchers are on the front line of climate change. Some might fight that fact, but anyone who spends time working the land knows it in their bones. It is a hard truth, but it is the truth nonetheless, and the longer we fight it, the less time we will have to minimize the impacts. I am glad to see New Mexico leading on this important issue.