Without clean water, we can't survive.

This is true everywhere, but it has added meaning in an arid state like New Mexico, where generations of people from Native Americans to Hispanic settlers learned to scratch out a sustainable existence and built a unique culture around the concept of conserving and protecting our most sacred resource.

Our heritage and our future are so tied to clean water that misusing, wasting or polluting it is unthinkable. Some old-timers I have known call it a sin. Sadly, that's what we are facing in a few days when Gov. Susana Martinez's Oil Conservation Commission considers sweeping changes that would severely weaken the pit rule -- a regulation that is critical for safeguarding New Mexico's groundwater from oil and gas pollution.

For those of you who don't know, the pit rule ensures that oil and gas waste pits are properly lined so the toxic chemicals used in drilling don't seep into the groundwater. In a state with limited clean water resources and a strong oil and gas industry, basic protections to prevent this type of toxic seepage would seem like a no-brainer.

Well, think again.

Once the pit rule went into effect in 2008, the oil companies howled, claiming it would shut down the industry. They found an ally in Martinez, who vowed to remove the rule and put our water back at risk. According to the nonpartisan Follow the Money (www.followthemoney.org), the industry supported her to the tune of more than
$1 million in contributions to her campaign for governor.

But far from the pit rule shutting down oil and gas in New Mexico, the industry is as strong as ever. In fact, the Baker Hughes rig count has shown a steady increase in New Mexico's drilling activity since 2009. Baker Hughes is an industry group that tracks drilling activity.

So, despite what the industry claims, the sky isn't falling. The oil and gas industry remains healthy and is still a critical part of our economy.

In fact, the only thing truly at risk when Gov. Martinez's Oil Conservation Commission meets this month will be our clean water.

We have a choice. We can protect our water and prevent it from being polluted by toxic waste. Or, we can roll back basic and sensible protections for what is the most important natural resource in New Mexico -- our water.

Without clean water, people can't live here. We can't create jobs, raise our families, grow food or enjoy our extraordinary landscape.

So I hope Gov. Martinez and her Oil Conservation Commission will think long and hard about what is truly at stake when they take up the fate of the pit rule.

Surely the governor is feeling pressure from her political benefactors to roll back the pit rule. But this time, with an issue so central to all our lives, surely she can put political payback on the back burner. This is about protecting our state's water so future generations of New Mexicans can thrive as our ancestors did.

Ernest Atencio lives and writes in Taos. He serves on the advisory board of the Latino Sustainability Institute and works on land-conservation issues in Northern New Mexico.