Santa Fe New Mexican discusses water and the fossil fuel industry in New Mexico. To get an idea of how important water is out here, you only need glance at the ground. Alongside the dusty ranch roads carving up the desert plain outside this small town, networks of thick, black pipelines crisscross every which way and extend for miles — seemingly in all directions. These pipelines haul freshwater pumped from deep underground to nearby oil and gas operations. Soon, they could carry much more, and a battle is heating up to determine whether they will.