Water usage questions are surrounding a project calling for the construction of a proposed $42 million ethanol production facility in Portales.
Last summer the New Mexico Economic Development Department announced that it was awarding an $800,000 grant to the company Navitas Global to build what was described as a “dairy waste to ethanol” project.
That project has been slated to go up on the site of the former Abengoa Bioenergy plant at 1827 S. Industrial Park in Portales, which was built in 1984 and closed by the company in 2012.
At the time of the Economic Development announcement, Mike Miller, the Mayor of Portales, remarked in a statement that “it will be great to have the property occupied once again, not to mention the jobs and payroll that will be created.”
But members of the Portales City Council have recently pondered reconsidering an industrial and commercial water application submitted by Navitas, primarily due to questions about water use figures.
Navitas has thus far needed water for the initial testing of the building itself, just to see if the plumbing worked. Meanwhile, council member Mike Rackler said he was concerned about the number of gallons needed to fill the plant’s tanks, water which would come out of the city’s reserves.
Ultimately, the council has decided to continue its backing of the project, with the proviso that the matter be revisited six months from now to get a better insight on the water usage figures.
Navitas Global specializes in transforming whey derivatives, a dairy processing byproduct, into advanced biofuels.
If all goes as planned, the new Portales ethanol production facility should be up and running by the last quarter of 2026.
December 15, 2025
By Garry Boulard
Graphic courtesy of Pixabay
